Lecture 5 - Social Influence

Question 1

Define social influence

Answer 1

• Social influence – “process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p.236)
• Social norms imply the presence of other people, which guide our behaviour e.g. recycling

Question 2

Define social norms

Answer 2

• Social norms – “rules and standards that are understood by members of a group and that guide and/or constrain social behaviour without the force of laws. These norms emerge out of interaction with others; they may or may not be stated explicitly, and any sanctions for deviating from them come from social networks, not the legal system” (Cialdini & Trost, 1998, p. 152)
• Sanctions = social approval/disapproval

Question 3

What is conformity?

Answer 3

• Asch (1951)
• Change behaviour/opinions in ways consistent with norms
• Rational process – people construct norm from others’ behaviour to determine appropriate behaviour

Question 4

Describe Sherif’s (1936) autokinetic study into norm development

Answer 4

• Social norms emerge to guide behaviour in conditions of uncertainty
• Autokinetic effect (point of light appears to move) – in the absence of physical objects in a dark room, light appears to move even though it doesn’t actually
• Participants asked how much light moved
• Most participants adopted own norm in range of 1 to 10 inches (varied)
• Judgements alone or in groups of 2/3 – call out estimates in front of other people
• Use judgments of others as frame of reference
• Converge away from individual to common standard: group norm (participants used each other’s estimates as a frame of reference and converged onto a group mean)
• Norm internalised and used as a frame of reference in subsequent judgements
• Using other people’s behaviours as a frame of reference to guide own actions (more likely in ambiguous contexts)

Question 5

What is informational influence (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955)?

Answer 5

• Ambiguous/uncertain situations
• Need to feel confident our perceptions/beliefs/feelings are correct
• Influence to accept info from another as evidence about reality
• True cognitive change (both public and private attitudes/behaviours change)
• Sherif’s study = informational influence
• Ambiguous -> uncertainty -> use others’ estimates as information to resolve subjective uncertainty

Question 6

What is normative influence (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955)?

Answer 6

• Need for social approval and acceptance
• Avoid disapproval
• Surface compliance (change in public attitudes/behaviours but no true cognitive change)
• Asch’s study = normative influence
• Unambiguous -> go along with the group (especially when under surveillance)

Question 7

Describe Asch’s conformity studies

Answer 7

• Visual discrimination tasks
• 7-9 people
• Which line length (A, B or C) is the same as target line (not an ambiguous task)
• One naïve participant, rest confederates (instructed to unanimously give wrong answer in subsequent trials)
• Average conformity 33%
• Why? – self-doubt, self-conscious, fear of social disapproval
• When judgements were anonymous, conformity dropped to 12.5%

Question 8

What is minority influence?

Answer 8

• Minority influence = “social influence processes whereby numerical or power minorities change the attitudes of the majority” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p.256)
• E.g. right to vote, environmental protection and climate change
• Effective if message is consistent, not rigid, committed
• Majorities and minorities exert social influence through different processes

Question 9

How do majorities exert social influence?

Answer 9

• Majority influence produces public compliance via social comparison (NSI) – people concentrate on what others say to know how to fit in – surface change

Question 10

How do minorities exert social influence?

Answer 10

• Minority influence produces indirect, private change in opinion; conversion effect as a consequence of active consideration of minority point of view

Question 11

What is obedience to authority?

Answer 11

• Milgram (1963) – “one of social psychology’s most dramatic research programmes”
• Obedience = following the demands of someone who is higher in the social hierarchy than oneself (authority figure/has power over us)

Question 12

Describe the procedure of Milgram’s studies of obedience?

Answer 12

• Investigating when/why people obey
• Electric shocks to confederate in mock learning study (experimenter = authority figure)
• People socialised to respect authority of the state
• Agentic state = mentally absolve of own responsibility and transfer responsibility to person giving order
• Participants believed they were in an experiment about learning/memory
• ‘Teacher’ (participant) and ‘learner’ (confederate) – real participant believed randomly assigned
• Incorrect answer = shock (increase by 15 volts) – measure number of shocks participant willing to administer (no shocks actually given)
• 150V = say shocks becoming painful
• 300V = stop responding
• Teacher instructed to increase the intensity of the shock one step on the generator on each error (generator had descriptive labels e.g. ‘slight’, ‘shock’)
• Throughout experiment, if participant was hesitating, experimenter told participant to go on:
• ‘Please continue’
• ‘The experiment requires you to continue’
• ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’
• ‘You have no choice, you must go on’

Question 13

What were the results of Milgram’s obedience studies?

Answer 13

• Panel of 110 experts asked to predict how far someone will go in experiment (red line = predicted)
• Predicted only 10% would exceed 180V and no one obey to end 450V
• Actual = 80% went past 150V, 62.5% went all the way to 450V

Question 14

What are some factors influencing obedience?

Answer 14

• Milgram conducted 18 experiments and varied parameters to systematically investigate which factors influence obedience
• Gradual change and commitment – participants committed to course of action (experiment starts with mild, trivial shocks and gradually increases, and difficult to change mind through experiment)
• Immediacy of victim – how close/obvious victim is to participant – as immediacy increased, obedience decreased (when victim unseen/unheard, 65% provided 450V; when victim in same room, 40% provided 450V; when force hand onto electrode, 30% provided 450V – doesn’t drop to 0 – immediacy prevents dehumanisation of victim)
• Immediacy of authority figure – obedience decreased when experimenter not in room and directions given by telephone (to 20.5%)
• Legitimacy of authority figure – lab coated experimenter/Yale University – reduction when the experiment was conducted in an industrial testing to 48% (people abdicate personal responsibility for their actions)

Question 15

What are some potential ethical issues with Milgram’s experiments?

Answer 15

• Is research important? (objectivity?) – does the information gained outweigh the risk to participants? (short term risk vs long term risk)
• Is the participant free to terminate the experiment?
• Does the participant freely consent to take part? (fully informed consent vs deception)
• Approx. 80% said they were glad to have taken part
• Post study interviews suggested participants were not harmed