Lecture 2 - social influence MC

Question 1

what is social infleunce?

Answer 1

process whereby atttudes and behaviour are influenced by real or implied presense of people

Question 2

what is norms?

Answer 2

• norms: attitudinal and behavioural uniformity that define group membership
• i.e. helps differentiate in-groups to out-groups

Question 3

what is the difference between reference and memebrship groups?

Answer 3

• reference: psychologically significant for our behaviour and attitudes
• membership: indvisiauls belong to the group due to some objective external criterion
• depending on the indivisual the group they are in may be a reference group or membership group
• Example; one person might think of being a university student as a reference group
  
  • university is so important to the person -> how they describe themselves
  • very heavily involved in university politics
• Example: one person might think of being a university student as membership group
  
  • university is not the be all end all
  • attend lectures/tutorials but not whole heartdly invested in university
  • believs other things (extra cirricular/work) is important as well

Question 4

what are the three types of social influence? Which one is the most influential?

Answer 4

1. compliance
2. obedience
3. conformity
   - out of the three types of social influence, conformity is seen to be the most influential

Question 5

what is compliance?

Answer 5

• superficial/public change in behaviour + expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group influence
• i.e. when someone asks you to do something - you comply with their requests
• not a deep level of change within indiv. behaviour

Question 6

what is the basis of compliance? i.e. what forms compliance?

Answer 6

basis of compliance is power - capacity to influence others while resisting attempts to influence

Question 7

Does power = influence? Explain this in terms of Moscovici’s theory/hypothesis

Answer 7

• Moscovici stated that if indivisual has power over someone -> no influencial tatics are needed due to power inbalance between the two ppl
• reverse is true too -> if indivisual has influential power -> no need to use power status for someone to comply

Question 8

According to Raven, what are the different sources of power people access to persuade someone/i.e to comply?

Answer 8

1. Referent power - the type of power that is infleuntial by individual identifying with groups
   
   • Similar to conformity
2. Expert power - when target believes the influencer has expertise and knowledge
3. Legitimate power - targets belief that the influences is authorised by a recognised power structure to command and make decisions
4. Informational power - targets belief that the influencer has more information than ones self
5. Coercive power - the ability to give or threaten punishment for non-compliance
6. Reward power - the ability to promise rewards for compliance

Question 9

what are the three different strategies used to get someone to comply?

Answer 9

1. ingratitation:
   * presenting your way in a positive way to people you want to persuade
   
   • complimenting them, recognising +ive charac., overlooking someones weakness, emphasising their strengths
     * also involves persuading the person you are likeable - prosocial behaviour from body language, eye contact, smiling
2. recipricity
   * bases on the norm “treat others as we would like to be treated”
   * if we do others a favour -> they feel obligated to recriprocate
   * greater compliance from people who recieved favour compared to others who didnt
   * guilt arousal tactic: making the indivisual feel guilty -> indivisual more likely to comply
   
   • example: when your in traffic and someone cleans your windows without asking -> you feel obligated to pay and feel guilty if you dont
3. multiple requests
   * two-step producdure: 1st request is set up to make the real second request sound better/softer
   * 3 tactics used in multiple requests;

Question 10

what are the three tactics used within mutiple requests in the attempts to get an indivisual to comply?

Answer 10

1. foot-in-the-door technique: based on the notion that if indivisual complies with small request -> likely to comply withlarger request later on
   * example: telephone sales people do this alot -> ask you first to answer few Q’s for survey (small request) then will ask you to join the larger survey that many in your area are taking (larger request)
   * does not always work -> if 1st request too small and 2nd request is too large
   
   • link bet. multiple requests breaks down -> T.F not effective
     * refinement of FIDT -> two-feet-in-door-technique: presenting series of GRADED requests than just 1 small and 1 large request
   • 2 preliminary requests (increasing difficulty) before presenting the 3rd ACTUAL REAL request
   • two-feet-in-door-technique > FIDT in effectiveness
   • example: propose a date but the other person only agreed to study in library with you (1st preliminary req.) -> then propose a meeting (2nd preliminiary req.) -> then propose a date (3rd actual request)
     
     • the person will comply with going on a date with you
2. Door-in-the-face tactic
   * opposite of FIDT -> indivisual asked large request then asked smaller request (real request)
   * indivisuals believe more reasonable to comply with actual request when compared to larger one
   * analogy: lukewarm water feels cool when youve had your hand in hot water
3. low ball technique
   * influencer changes rules midway and gets away with it
   * effective when the indivisual is persuaded to agree with request before revealing hidden requests
   * based on the fact that once poeple are commited to something -> more likely to accept slight increase in the cost of that action
   * Example: You go to car dealership -> dealer agrees to reduce marketed price for your dream car -> you sign papers -> dealer informs you that boss will not reduce car price -> cusomter agrees and buys the car at marketed price.

Question 11

What is the famous study that tested obidience? what was the theoretical basis of it?

Answer 11

• Milgrims obidience study
• theoretical basis - Response to Asch’s conformity study (line est. study) and world war 2 behaviour
• method: males recruited from advirtisements -> one group became teachers -> told learner to continue shocks even if learner was in pain

Question 12

what are some ethical issues in milgrims study?

Answer 12

• participants in study have the right to leave the experiement at any time they wish to
• traumatising to think you are hurting someone -> T.F debriefing is defintley needed
  
  • debriefing needs to be sufficient enough -> might be ok straight after but participants might go home later and be affected by it
• deception used -> T.F debrief them about it after experiment

Question 13

what factors influence obidience?

Answer 13

• gender: does not influence
  
  • females = males in degree of influence
• cultrural: some differences
  
  • places like spain, netherlands obeyed more
  • AUS obeyed less
• commitment to course of action: agreed tocome to study -> T.F must obey with whatever they tell me to do
  
  • foot-in-door: gave them slight shock at start -> more likely to give shock again
• immediacy of victim: more closer you are with person -> less likely to obey authority figure
• immediacy of authority: physcially closer authority figure (standing over you) -> more likely to obey
• group pressure: if someone else disobeys -> obidience of indiv. decreases sig.
  
  • vise versa -> someone else obeys -> indiv. sig increases
• legitmacy of authority figure: whether the authority is from pristegious workplace/normal workplace doesnt have so much effect

Question 14

what is conformity?

Answer 14

• deep-seated, private + eduring change in behaviour + attitudes due to group pressure
• less direct than compliance and obediance
• emphasis that compliance is NOT surface lvl -> i.e. enduring change

Question 15

what was one of the first experiments on conformity? what was the theoretical basis of this exp?

Answer 15

• Sherif’s kinetic experiment (1936)
• Aim: people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous situation (i.e unclear)
• Method: Sherif used an auto kinetic effect - this is where a small spot of light that is projected onto a screen appears to move even though it is still - this is a visual illusion
• Results: answers of participants when alone varied significantly (20cm to 80cm)
  
  • When put into groups of three (sherif purposely put two ppl who answered similar when alone and another individual who answered differently into a group) their answers were seen to be similar
  • After numerous trials groups converged to a similar answer
  • People tend to conform in groups - rather than making individual judgements they come to a group agreement
• Conclusion: when indiviauls are put into an ambiguous situation, they look to other (i.e. group) for guidance (i.e. adopt a group norm)
  
  • They want to do the right thing but lack in information
  • Observing others can provide this information

Question 16

How did Asche then respond to Sherifs experiment?

Answer 16

• That his results were expected -> i.e. argued that it is expected that people will converge on ambigous stimuli
• Asche argued that as social psychologists -> should be focussing on WHY ppl CONVERGE in situations when the answer is OBVIOUSLY wrong
• Method:
  
  • 7-9 males (1 real participant) called out which of the 3 comparison lines matched the standard line
  • real partipant answered 2nd last in each trial
  • confederates planned to only answer correctly 1/3 of time
  • results: 1/4 people answered correctly,
  • 50% conformed to wrong majority in all 6 + trials
  • 5% conformed to wrong majority in ALL trials
• important message: most people conformed AT LEAST some of time to wrong majority

Question 17

based on post-study interviews of Asches experiment, why did people conform?

Answer 17

• own perceptions inaccurate
• fear of censure (disapproval)
• saw the lines as majority did

Question 18

In general, what are the factors that influence conformity?

Answer 18

• privacy of responses (see fig 7.6): when answers are in private -> conformity reduces
• personality traits (BUT SITUATION DEPENDANT): conformist personality > conform
• sex differences: females > males (SEE 7,7)
  
  • this is only somewhat accruate
  • exp. shows F conform to more masculine tasks and M conform to more femanine tasks
  • neutral stimulus: conformity lvl in F + M same
• cultural diff.: collectivist > indivisualist cultures
• group size: most conformity when groups 3-5 ppl
• type of judgement: ppl conform more when things are objective, harder to conform when it is things like (YOU LIKE JASS NOT ROCK)
• unimity of responses: as soon as you get people deviating from majority -> decrease in confomity

Question 19

what does figure 7.8 illustrate about the relationship between conforming and conpentancy of support?

Answer 19

• conpentacy of the support:
  
  • no social support (everyone saying wrong answer) -> conformity increases
  • incompetent supporter (someone with glasses/visually impaired) -> conformity decreases slightly
  • competent supporter -> little conformity

Question 20

what are the two social influence processes that underline conformity?

Answer 20

1. normative: agree with others to gain social approval and must be SURVEILLANCED by the group (surface change)
2. informational influence: turn to others when we are uncertain -> reality check for ambiguous stimuli and brings TRUE change

Question 21

Can conformity still occur without these two processes operating?

Answer 21

• Deutsch + Gerard (1955) showed that conformity can still occur
• i.e. even when group is not there (Norm.I cancels out) + the answer to something is obvious (info.I cancels out)
• figure 7.6 illustrates this: when indivisual is private + anonymous setting (no normative influence) + when stimulus is still present and certain (no informational influence) -> STILL 25% CONFORMITY OCCURING)

Question 22

if normative + informational influence is not enough to explain why ppl conform, what are some theories proposed to explain?

Answer 22

• the referent informational influence
• critisies “dual-process” model (AKA normative + informational influence)
• proposes that indiv. conform because we belong in groups/identify with our in-group -> group norms has become our own mantra and our own way of thinking
• indiv. genuinely belives group norm/beliefs and genuinely become apart of who indiv. is

Question 23

what are the steps in conforming according to the referent informational model?

Answer 23

1. self categorises self to the group
2. discover in-group norms from an individual that provides information about these norms
3. cognitively represents these norms
4. assign the norm to ones self - i.e. self stereotyping
5. in-group normative behaviour (conformity)

Question 24

What is the major difference between the dual-process model and reference informational influence model?

Answer 24

• the dual-process model focusses on interpersonal dependancy
• the referent informational influence model focusses on social groups that the indivisual belongs to and its group norms

Question 25

It is usually the majority that is powerful and produce conformity - BUT can the minority group have the same effect?

Answer 25

- minority group which is defined as a group that is in the minority in terms of power status or group number (i.e. only small no. of ppl) - indivisuals can conform from the influence of minority groups - conformity is true change -> indivisuals conforming to the minority group is because they genuinely belief/agree with the groups norms and is NOT because of social pressure/fear of censure as the group is in the minority so they would not be getting social approval from conforming to this group

Question 26

What study in particular was reinterpreted in terms of minority influencing forming conformity?

Answer 26

* Asche's line experiment * Moscovici re-interpreted Asch's line experiment and said that it was minority influence * confederates opinion of the line 2 matching standard was MINORITY opinion when compared to general public (us) interpreting the line

Question 27

when is a minority group considered to be the most effective?

Answer 27

* minority group considered to be the most effective -> WHEN CONSISTANT and are on the same page * NOT EFFECTIVE when there are different opinions and conflict within the minority group

Question 28

explain why minority influence produces TRUE change

Answer 28

* when indivisual decides to follow minroity group -> not doing it for social approval * conforming to minority will usually GO AGAINST what society approves/believes * T.F indivisual must really believe minority group for them to conform