Conformity/Obedience Flashcards
What is conformity?
Change in behaviour or attitude as a result of real or imagined social influence
What is obedience?
An act of compliance to someone or a group or institution with power over us
What are the three types of conformity?
1) Acceptance
- publicly conform
- privately agree
2) Compliance
- publicly conform
- privately disagree
3) Obedience
- conform to command
What was Muzafer Sherif’s conformity experiment?
He used the auto-kinetic effect, where a small spot of light was projected onto a screen in a dark room and appeared to move even though it was still.
Sherif found that over numerous trials, the group converged to a common estimate about the light’s movement
What is informational conformity?
Using others’ information or estimate to guide our own thoughts/decisions
What is normative social influence?
Accepting the majority view to avoid being rejected
What was Stanley Milgram’s obedience study?
He studied whether participants were willing to deliver an electric shock to another participant (actually an actor) and how far they would be willing to go if they knew that someone else would take responsibility. A high number of participants delivered what they believed to be the maximum shock.
Who said “Often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act”?
Stanley Milgram
What is social influence?
Use of social power to change the behaviour or attitudes of others in a particular direction
