Lecture 8 - Social Influence

Question 1

What is social influence?

Answer 1

The process by which attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people.

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

Attempts to persuade an individual to respond in a desired way to your request

Question 3

What is reciprocity?

Answer 3

A key notion in social exchange where we give benefits back to those who give benefits. This instinct is deeply ingrained in our society, to such an extent that it is found across different cultures.

Question 4

What are the three different types of compliance?

Answer 4

The foot in the door technique, the door in the face technique and low-balling

Question 5

What is the foot in the door technique?

Answer 5

First, you prime someone with a small easy request. We then ask a larger request (the target request), which they are now more likely to do.

Question 6

How does the foot in the door technique work?

Answer 6

If a person says yes to the initial request, they commit to the course action, so simply see the second action as a continuation of saying yes.
It can also change our self concept to say “yes”, allowing us to see ourselves as helpful, so we comply with the lager request to better our self esteem.

Question 7

What are 3 ways that the foot in the door technique is used in real life?

Answer 7

organ donation (signing up for a card does not seem a big request), pro-environmental behaviours, dating (“going for a drink” seems like a small action)

Question 8

What are the three factors that affect compliance with the foot in the door technique?

Answer 8

Individual differences- Likelihood of complying depends on the individuals tendency to act consistently.
payment- in 4/6 studies, if paid for the initial request, participants would not complete the larger task. This could be because it seems to have less of a quid-pro-quo, and we are no longer motivated by generosity, but gain.
Having the same requester for both requests and having the target request be similar to the initial request (if this is not the case, compliance will be reduced)

Question 9

What is the door in the face technique?

Answer 9

First, we pose a large request that we know will be rejected. We follow this with a smaller request that is more reasonable. People who either do or don’t do the target task will be more likely to do the smaller request (the target request)

Question 10

What are the two explanations for the door in face technique?

Answer 10

Reciprocal Concessions- We have a desire to reciprocate compromise. WE perceive that the requester has compromised or reduced what they are asking of us, so we the feel a pressure to say yes, so we have reciprocated this compromise.
Social responsibility and guilt- The target says yes to the second request to alleviate the sense of guilt and worry of not being a “helpful person”

Question 11

What is Low-balling in compliance?

Answer 11

It relies on the fact that people do not like to change their mind after committing to a course of action. The requester will pitch the request with lowered intensity/magnitude and, once the target has said yes, will then later reveal the more challenging details of the request.

Question 12

What is obedience?

Answer 12

The performance of an action in direct response to an order from a figure in authority.

Question 13

How many participants complied to the full scale in Milgram’s study?

Answer 13

65%

Question 14

How did the panel of participants predict the experiment to go?

Answer 14

in a panel of 100, with 39 psychologists, it was predicted that only 4% would go up to 300 volts and that only 1-2% would give the maximum voltage.

Question 15

Did Milgram’s study have good inter-rater reliability?

Answer 15

Yes

It was replicated in multiple different states

Question 16

What were 4 methodological issues with Milgram’s study?

Answer 16

Investigator effect- the researcher acting as the authority figure deviated from the script, adding more elements of coercion, when prompting the participant. The prompts were also not unambiguous orders, so may not fully reflect obedience
There were demand characteristics, as it was later reported that only 50% actually believed that the learner was actually receiving the shocks. It was also later discovered that Milgram misrepresented the debrief procedures.

Question 17

What are the three explanations for the results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 17

Agentic state (now just following orders)
Dehumanisation of the learner- The participant did not see them or learn their name, reducing empathy and humility
Slippery slope- The idea of consistent behaviour meant that the participant continued in a "I started so I'll finish"

Question 18

What percentage did Asch predict would give the wrong answer to the line task in his study if conformity was not involved?

Answer 18

1%

Question 19

How many participants in Asch’s study conformed across all trials?

Answer 19

11%

Question 20

How many participants in Asch’s study conformed at least once?

Answer 20

75%

Question 21

Obviously, group size affects conformity, but when does this tail off?

Answer 21

After about 7 people, increasing the group size doesn’t have much effect on conformity

Question 22

What are the three explanations for why the participants conformed in Asch’s study?

Answer 22

Informational Influence- We assume the others have the right answers, so comply with their “insight”
Normative Social Influence- we want to fit in and not look foolish
Referent Informational Influence/Social Identity Approach- We conform as this defines us as a member of a social group, which then betters our self concept and sense of self identity.

Question 23

Why (related to personalism) why the results from Asch’s study not be entirely due to conformity?

Answer 23

As the test (identifying lines) is not personally important to the participant, they may not be passionate about it enough to stand their ground or bother to resist conformity.

Question 24

How is the majority and minority ambiguous in Asch’s study?

Answer 24

The group acts so abnormally in the incorrect answers that the participant may compare them to the individuals in the outside world, therefore considering themselves part of the majority and the “participant” group the minority

Question 25

Detail Moscovici’s study

Answer 25

All female participants.
groups of 6 with 2 confederates
They reported evidently blue slides shown to the group to be green

Question 26

What were the results of Moscovici’s study? What did this show?

Answer 26

When the minority did not answer every slide as being “green”, the majority only agreed 1.25% of the time
When they consistently said the slides were green the whole time, the majority agreed 8% of the time
This shows that consistency is pivotal to social influence

Question 27

What are the four factors needed for minority influence?

Answer 27

• be consistent over time and within the minority group
• clear and constant viewpoint
• Appear unbiased and use evidence of personal sacrifices
  Be flexible

Question 28

What is latent influence/conversion effect in minority influence?

Answer 28

Majority members consider the viewpoint over time, causing them to later align their behaviours with the minority’s viewpoint.

Question 29

What is social facilitation?

Answer 29

The enhancement of performance in the presence of others

Question 30

How did Triplett et al provide evidence for social facilitation?

Answer 30

He found that cyclists could cycle faster when with others compared t when they were by themselves.

Question 31

How can social facilitation affect eating behaviour?

Answer 31

Meal intake increases as the number of people that they are with also increases (Herman 2015)

Question 32

How have some disputed the effects of social facilitation?

Answer 32

Some have suggested that the presence of others can actually impair performance

Question 33

What was Zajonc’s theory and research around social facilitation (relating to how ease and difficulty of tasks affect SF)

Answer 33

• tested a sample of 45 undergraduate males
• He gave them either an easy task or a difficult task (either putting on and removing shoes or removing shoes, socks, coat and putting on clothes)
  They were either alone or watched by confederates.
  Those performing the easy task completed it quicker when around others, whilst those who completed the hard task performed better when on their own.

Question 34

What is the explanatory model for how difficulty of task affects social facilitation?

Answer 34

Presence of others leads to physical arousal, which increases the likelihood of performing well on habitual tasks, but impairs our ability in difficult tasks.

Question 35

What research evidence is there that participant characteristics can affect social facilitation?

Answer 35

In a review/comparison of 14 studies, performance in the presence of others tended to be facilitated in individuals scoring high on positive traits (such as extraversion or high self-esteem) and were impaired in individuals scoring high in negative traits (neuroticism, low self esteem).

Question 36

What is social loafing?

Answer 36

When individuals work as a group, they often generate less energy/effort compared to when working by themselves.

Question 37

How did Ringlemann’s tug-of-war study demonstrate the effects of social loafing?

Answer 37

He used a tug of war task with teams of 8. They measured the effort when in an 8 player team vs when pulling on the rope yourself. However, the group force was 50% less than the sum of each participant’s individual efforts.

Question 38

What are the three explanations for social loafing?

Answer 38

Evaluation Apprehension- some of he group find the task uninteresting, so disengage and put in less effort, believing the rest of the group’s efforts will conceal this
Output Equity- You expect fellow group members to loaf, so you do so yourself.
Matching to a standard- When there is no clear indication of how others are performing, we often underestimate the effort they are putting in, and subsequently put in minimal effort.

Question 39

What is deindividuation?

Answer 39

When Being in a group leads to a weakened sense of personal identity, diminishing peoples self awareness and causing people to feel less personally responsible for their actions. This can be accentuated by eliminating personal/identifying factors, causing the group to all “seem the same” (i.e. having similar clothing/costume/masks/setting)

Question 40

How is being part of a crowd different to being deindividuated?

Answer 40

Crowds have a common social identity and come together to achieve goals. People are attenuated to and to the group norms of this social identity. Therefore, in crowds, this is not a case of deindividuation, but changing your social identity as you now identify with the common group.