Lecture 6 - Group Persuasion

Question 1

(lecture):

Give 2 reasons as to why people conform in a group?

Answer 1

(lecture):

Informational Influence:
- The desire to be right usually leads us to change our minds and our behaviour.

Normative influence:
- The desire to be liked may lead us to change our public behaviour but not our private opinions.

• Conformity occurs first for public behaviour, but this behaviour may cause people to change their private beliefs (Buehler & Griffin, 1993)

Question 2

(lecture):

Why is conformity higher for ambiguous tasks?

(informational influence)

Answer 2

(lecture):

(Coleman, Blake, & Mouton, 1958)

If you don’t have the knowledge, you are more likely to believe what others around you tell you.

Question 3

(lecture):

In a group, do deviants receive more negative or positive evaluations from others?

Answer 3

(lecture):

Normative Influence

Deviants in a group expect (Gerard & Rotter, 1961) and receive (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955) more negative evaluations from the others

Question 4

(lecture):

read -

Conformity is higher when people depend on the group for rewards (Lewis, Langan, & Hollander, 1972) or will interact with them in the future (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955)

Answer 4

(lecture):

Question 5

(lecture):

In group persuasion, give an example study of minority influence.

Answer 5

(lecture):

Moscoviciʼs (1985) Studies

• Six-person groups rated the colour of slides, with a two-person minority of confederates.
• The minority consistently said “green” when the answer was blue.
• Almost a third of participants reported seeing at least one green slide.

Question 6

(lecture):

Give 3 situations where minority influence can become more effective.

Answer 6

(lecture):

See slide 10 in the relevant powerpoint slide.

Question 7

(lecture):

read -

The dual-process hypothesis suggests that majorities elicit conformity, whereas minorities elicit conversion/innovation (Moscovici, 1985; Peterson & Nemeth, 1996)

Answer 7

(lecture):

Question 8

(lecture):

read -

Power of ‘broadcast’ media comes not just from scope of message dissemination – also comes from shared awareness that so many others are watching

When aware that others are watching same event (e.g., sports, political speeches etc.) this initiates shared attention effect - deeper processing through central route ELM (Steynberg, Bramlett, Fles & Cameron, 2016)

Answer 8

(lecture):

Question 9

(lecture):

Is information from media effective?

Answer 9

(lecture):

See slides 12-17 in the relevant powerpoint.

Question 10

(lecture):

Describe resistance in group persuasion.

Answer 10

(lecture):

See slides 18-27 in the relevant powerpoint.