P1 Social Influence: Topic 3: Conformity to Social Roles (Zimbardo's Research)

Question 1

What is a social role?

Answer 1

• A part people play as members of a social group.
• With each social role you adopt, your behaviour changes to fit the expectations that you and others have of that role.

Question 2

What was Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 2

An attempt to explain the violent and brutal conditions often found in prisons.

Question 3

What are the two different explanations for why prisons are often violent and brutal?

Answer 3

Dispositional hypothesis - Guards & prisoners are just ‘bad seeds’, and this violence is due to the nature/personalility of people in prison.

Situational hypothesis - Brutality due to the environmental conditions of the prison.

Question 4

What were the aims of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 4

• To investigate how people would conform to the social roles of prisoner & guard in a simulation.
• To test the dispositional vs situational explanation of brutality seen in prisons.

Question 5

In order to start the experiment realistically, what procedures were the prisoners put through?

Answer 5

They were ‘arrested’ from their homes and put in a cell.

Question 6

What was Zimbardo interested in? (Why was he carrying out the research?)

Answer 6

The effect on the environment on people’s personality.

Question 7

What was ‘the hole’?

Answer 7

Solitary confinement.

Question 8

Why were the guards given uniforms and sunglasses?

Answer 8

Uniforms - Authority/power.

Sunglasses - To dehumanise the guards by a barrier.

Question 9

How did Zimbardo recruit participants?

Answer 9

Newspaper advert.

Question 10

What did potential participants have to do before they could be selected? Why?

Answer 10

Psychological test to test for emotional stability.

Question 11

What two roles did Zimbardo take on?

Answer 11

Prison superintendent & lead psychologist.

Question 12

What were Zimbardo’s instructions to the guards regarding maintaining order?

Answer 12

• No physical violence.
• Can create a sense of total power over prisoners.

Question 13

Explain what Zimbardo means when he says ‘the degradation process’.

Answer 13

Humiliation, delousing, stripping and blindfolding.

Question 14

What kind of activities did the guards have the prisoners perform?

Answer 14

• Clean toilets with bare hands.
• Line up and receive insults.

Question 15

What did Zimbardo say to prisoner 8612 when he asked to leave?

Answer 15

He will get the guards off his back if he became an informant (snitch).

Question 16

What did 8612 go back to the prisoners and say?

Answer 16

That they cannot leave and are stuck here.

Question 17

What happened to 8612 after thinking he was stuck here?

Answer 17

He became mentally disturbed and was released early.

Question 18

What problems arose for Zimbardo in terms of his role(s)?

Answer 18

He was so obsessed with his role he forgot he was a psychologist.

Question 19

Dave Eshelman was nicknamed the ‘John Wayne’ guard. Why?

Answer 19

His macho attitude.

Question 20

Esehlmen had recently seen ‘Cold Hand Luke’. What impact did this apparently have on his behaviour?

Answer 20

The prison guard was his inspiration.

Question 21

What did prisoner 416 do to try to ‘push the guards’ limits?

Answer 21

Hunger strike.

Question 22

Christina Maslach visited the experiment. What impact did her arrival have?

Answer 22

Zimbardo realised the boys were suffering and ended the experiment.

Question 23

In the wake of the studies like Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s, how did research change?

Answer 23

• Ethics of human subjects.
• Safeguarding to protect.

Question 24

Eshelman was ‘running his own particular experiments’. What impact does this have on the results?

Answer 24

• Accelerated abusive behaviour.
• Extraneous variable.

Question 25

What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 25

• Mock prison in Stanford Uni basement.
• Selected ‘emotionally stable’ student volunteers.
• Randomly allocated to guard or prisoner.
• Conformed to social roles through uniforms.
• Prisoners wore loose smock and cap and called by number only.
• Guards had clubs, handcuffs, keys, and sunglasses.
• Unforms created deindividuation so participants conform.
• Each role should play their role well.

Question 26

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 26

• Stopped after 6 days (threat to health).
• Guards constantly harrased prisoners to highlight social role differences.
• As time went on, guards identified with role more, becoming more aggressive.
• Prisoners rebelled after 2 days by ripping unforms, the guards retaliated with fire extinguishers.
• Prisoners felt depressed and anxious after.
• 1 prisoner released on 1st day for psychological disturbance signs.
• 2 more prisoners released on 4th day.
• Prison #819 went on hunger strike, so guards sent him to ‘the hole’, he was shunned by other prisoners.

Question 27

What two processes did Zimbardo propose that can explain the prisoner’s ‘final submission’?

Answer 27

Deindividuation - So immersed in group norms you lose sense of identity & personal responsibility.

Learned helplessness - Participants learned whatever they did had little effect on what happened to them. The guards unpredictable decisions led to prisoners giving up responding.

Question 28

What are some ethical issues in the SPE study?

Answer 28

• Lack of fully informed consent by participants as Z didn´t know what would happen in experiment.
• Participants playing prisoners weren´t protected from psychological harm as they went through humiliation and distress.

Question 29

What is the definition of ecological validity?

Answer 29

• Whether a study is conducted in a real life setting.
• So results can be generalised to real life behaviour.

Question 30

What is the definition of population validity?

Answer 30

Whether a study´s sample is representative of the target population the researcher wants the findings to apply to.

Question 31

What is the definition of demand characteristics?

Answer 31

This is where a participants guesses the aim of the study and changes their behaviour to spoil or help a studies results.

Question 32

What is the definition of internal validity?

Answer 32

• Whether a study has measured the thing it was supposed to.
• Is there anything that lowers the accuracy of a study?

Question 33

What is the definition of minority influence?

Answer 33

Refers to a minority (or 1 person) persuading others to adopt their beilefs, attitudes, or behaviour.

Question 34

How does minority influence differ from majority influence?

Answer 34

A process of conversion happens as opposed to compliance.

Question 35

What did Moscovici (1969) propose in order for the process of conversion to happen?

Answer 35

Three behavioural styles.

• If a minority group has this, they are more likely to be successful in converting the majority.

Question 36

What are the three behavioural styles proposed by Moscovici (1969)?

Answer 36

Consistency, commitment, and flexibility.

Question 37

What is consistency?

Answer 37

• Most important aspect of behavioural style.
• People hold their position.
• Being consistent & unchanging in a view is more likely to influence the majority, than if a minority is inconsistent and always changes mind.

Question 38

Why is consistency important?

Answer 38

• Confronted with a consistent opposition, members of majority sit up, take notice, and rethink their position.
• When majority confronted with someone with self-confidence & dedication to take a popular stand & refuses to back down, they assume he/she has a point.

Question 39

What are the two forms of consistency?

Answer 39

Diachronic consistency - they have been saying the same thing for a long time.

Synchronic consistency - people in the minority are all saying the same thing.

Question 40

What is commitment?

Answer 40

Sometimes minorities engage in risky & extreme activities to draw attention to their cause & to show their commitment.

• This is called the augmentation principle.

Question 41

What is the augmentation principle?

Answer 41

• The majority pays more attention to the actions being taken.
• More likely to integrate it into their personal viewpoints due to personal sacrifice made by minority.

Question 42

What is an example of the augmentation principle?

Answer 42

Fathers for Justice.

Question 43

What is flexibility?

Answer 43

Consistency is good for minority influence but it´s not always enough, there must be some flexibility too (compromise).

• Being rigid & repeating same arguments is not persuasive.

Question 44

What did Nemeth (1986) argue?

Answer 44

Relentless consistency can be a turn-off & so not influential.

Question 45

What did Nemeth do in 1986 to test if relentless consistency was a turn-off?.

Answer 45

• Participants in groups of 4 to agree on amount of compensation they would give to victim of ski-lift accident.
• 3 genuine & 1 confederate.
• Two conditions
  1. Minority argued for low rate of compensation & refused to change position.
  2. Minority argued for low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible).

Question 46

What were the findings of Nemeth´s study?

Answer 46

• When confederate was not budging from low amount, minority had little/no effect on majority.
• In flexible condition, majority much more likely to compromise & change view.

Question 47

What can we learn from Nemeth´s study?

Answer 47

• Being consistent & repeating same argument/behaviours seen as rigid, unbending, dogmatic & inflexible.
• This is off-puting to majority & unlikely to result in conversion to minority positions.

Question 48

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 48

More & more adopt the minority opinion until gradually the minority becomes the majority.

Question 49

What study did Moscovici do to support his evidence?

Answer 49

A similar procedure to Asch´s but in reverse. He placed 2 confederates together with 4 genuine participants.

• Placed in groups of 4 participants & 2 confederates.
• Shown 36 slides which were clearly different shades of blue and were asked to state colour of each slide aloud.

Question 50

What were the 2 conditions of Moscovici´s study?

Answer 50

1. The 2 confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides.
2. The 2 confederates answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. (Inconsistent).

Question 51

What were the findings of Moscovici´s study?

Answer 51

• Only 0.25% of control group responses were green.
• For experimental group, 1.25% of participants answers were green when confederates gave inconsistent answers.
• 8.24% went green when confederates consistently said green.

Question 52

What is the conclusion of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 52

Minority have some influence on majority (1.25%) but more if they’re consistent (8.42%).

Question 53

How does the film ‘12 angry men’ show minority influence?

Answer 53

1 juror gets others who previously disagreed to come to his side.

Question 54

What characteristics does juror 8 show in ‘12 angry men’?

Answer 54

Uncertainty; wasn’t aggressive or contest others.

Question 55

What characteristics does juror 3 show in ‘12 angry men’?

Answer 55

Stubborn; contests everything; certain he was right; took it all personally.

Question 56

How does juror 8 manage to change the majorities views?

Answer 56

• Started by agreeing that he didn’t know why he was convinced.
• This opens others to his perspective so he can persuade them.

Question 57

What did Clark (2001) do?

Answer 57

Used the ‘12 angry men’ idea.

• Participants were acting as jurors & were more influenced by the minority when they thought they had defected from the majority.
• They were seen as independent & so minorities arguments were more effective.

Question 58

What are 3 strengths of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 58

1. M said a conisistent minority opinion has a greater effect. Wood (1994) carried out a meta-analysis & found consistent minorities are a major factor in minority influence.
2. Martin (2003) put forward a message supporting a viewpoint. One group heard minority group agree and other group heard majority group agree. Pps less willing to change opinions if they listened to minority group.
3. More pps agreed with minority privately. Those who ‘go public’ must be at the ‘tip of the ice berg’ & hold their new views strongly.

Question 59

What are 2 limitations of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 59

1. Real life social influence situations more complex. Majorities have more power & minorties are more committed. Research just treats minority as smallest group of people so other features are absent.
2. Task was simple & so very different from how minorities try to change majority opinion in world. In Jury & political campagning outcomes are more important.

Question 60

M said a conisistent minority opinion has a greater effect. Wood (1994) carried out a meta-analysis & found consistent minorities are a major factor in minority influence.

How is this a strength of Moscovici’s study (1969)?

Answer 60

There is strong research evidence that demonstrates the importance of consistency.

Question 61

Martin (2003) put forward a message supporting a viewpoint. One group heard minority group agree and other group heard majority group agree. Pps less willing to change opinions if they listened to minority group.

How is this a strength of Moscovici’s study (1969)?

Answer 61

This suggests the minority message had been more deeply processed & had a more enduring effect.

Question 62

More pps agreed with minority privately. Those who ‘go public’ must be at the ‘tip of the ice berg’ & hold their new views strongly.

How is this a strength of Moscovici’s study (1969)?

Answer 62

Minority influence is valid. It’s a relatively unusual form of social influence but can change people’s views powerfuly & permantently.

Question 63

Real life social influence situations more complex. Majorities have more power & minorties are more committed. Research just treats minority as smallest group of people so other features are absent.

How is this a limitation of Moscovici’s study (1969)?

Answer 63

Research studies are limited in what they can tell us about real world minority influence.

Question 64

Task was simple & so very different from how minorities try to change majority opinion in world. In Jury & political campagning outcomes are more important.

How is this a limitation of Moscovici’s study (1969)?

Answer 64

Moscovici’s study lacked external validity & is limited in what it tells us about how minority influence works in real-life social situations.

Question 65

What is meant by social change?

Answer 65

Occurs when society/large parts of society changes their views & adopts new behaviours as the ´norm´through minority/majority influence.

Question 66

What are the 6 processes that occur when a minority influence creates social change?

Answer 66

1. Drawing attention
2. Consistency
3. Deeper Processing
4. The augmentation principle
5. The snowball effect
6. Social Cryptomnesia

Question 67

What does the first process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 67

1. Drawing attention.

• Minority group must draw attention to issue via marches, campaigns or social media.
• Gives social proof as it shows the problem is true & real.
• e.g. Civil rights marches in 1950s America to draw attention to the segregation & exclusion of blacks.

Question 68

What does the second process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 68

2. Consistency.

• Minority group must be consistent in message & for prolonged period of time.
• e.g. Many marches spanning number of years, with many hundreds of people taking part, all conveying same message.

Question 69

What does the third process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 69

3. Deeper Processing.

• Majority now paying attention & taking note of the consistency.
• They start to think about & process the message of the minority.
• e.g. Ordinary citizens start to think about the unjustness of the treatment of ethnic minorities.

Question 70

What does the fourth process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 70

4. The augmentation principle.

• If minority appears to suffer or engage in risky/dangerous behaviour to support their cause people are more likely to believe cause is important.
• e.g. Many of the ´freedom fighters´were beaten & there were incidences of mob violence.
• e.g. 3 civil right campaigners were murdered whilst protesting.

Question 71

What does the fifth process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 71

5. The snowball effect.

• More people, including government officials, start to convert to minority message.
• Minority eventually becomes the majority position.
• e.g. Government passed US civil rights act in 1964 to prohibit discrimination & this is supported by majority of citizens.

Question 72

What does the sixth process that occurs when a minority influence creates social change mean?

Answer 72

6. Social Cryptomnesia.

• A cognitive bias experienced by whole cultures following social change.
• A failure to remember the origin of a change, in which people know that a change has occured in society, but forget how this change occured (e.g. the steps that were taken to bring this change about, and who took these steps).
• May lead to reduced social credit towards minorities who made major sacrifices that led to change in societal values.

Question 73

What do conformity & obedience have a role in?

Answer 73

Both have a role in social change.

Question 74

What are lessons from conformity to show social change?

Answer 74

• In a variation, Asch showed importance of dissent when 1 confederate gave correct answer (this dissent has potential to lead to social change).
• Environment & health campaigns exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI (e.g. “Bin it - others do”).
• Social change is encourages by drawing attention to what majority are doing.

Question 75

What are lessons from obedience to show social change?

Answer 75

• Milgram´s research shows importance of disobedient role models. In a variation where confederate teachers refused to shock learner, the rate of obedience decreased.
• Zimbardo (2007) said obedience is used to create social change through gradual commitment e.g. following a small instruction makes it more difficult to resist a bigger instruction as people drift to a different behaviour.

Question 76

What are 4 evaluation points of the role of Minority Influence on Social Change?

Answer 76

1. Minority influence is only partly effective. Social change happens very slowly, when they even happen at all.
2. There is some debate as to whether minority or majority influence leads to deeper processing.
3. Minority influence can inspire social change.
4. Many studies in social influence have limited external validity.

Question 77

What is evidence, explanation & a link back to this point:

1. Minority influence is only partly effective. Social change happens very slowly, when they even happen at all.

Answer 77

• Bashir (2003) investigated why people resist social change & found people didn´t want to be associated with stereotypes such as ´tree hugger´or ´man haters´.
• Led to researchers advising minority group that hope to create social change to avoid behaving in ways that will reinforce stereotypes & cause majority to resist change.
• This piece of research does have good real world applications (it can help minority groups to more effectively achieve social change) but also proposes a weakness to the idea that all minority influence is effective.

Question 78

What is evidence, explanation & a link back to this point:

2. There is some debate as to whether minority or majority influence leads to deeper processing.

Answer 78

• Moscovici argued minority & majority influence use different cognitive processes.
• Mackie (1987) disagrees & presents evidence that if a majority disagrees with you then we are forced to think long & hard about their reasons. Due to NSI.
• Means central element of Moscovici´s theory could be wrong & so reduces internal validity of theory.

Question 79

What is evidence, explanation & a link back to this point:

3. Minority influence can inspire social change.

Answer 79

• Nemeth (2009) says minority arguments cause people to engage in divergent thinking.
• This thinking leads to better decisions & creative solutions to social problems.
• Shows minorities are valuable because they stimulate new ideas & open people´s minds.

Question 80

What is evidence, explanation & a link back to this point:

4. Many studies in social influence have limited external validity.

Answer 80

• Nolan (2008) hung messages on front doors of houses. Key message was most residents are trying to reduce energy usage.
• Significant decreases in energy use compared to a control group who saw messages to save energy but with no reference to other residents behaviour.
• Shows conformity can lead to social change through operation of NSI.