Section 6: Social Influence

Question 1

Compliance

Answer 1

change behavior in response to direct request

Question 2

conformity

Answer 2

change behavior to fit with social norms even though no one has pressured them directly

Question 3

obedience

Answer 3

change behavior in response to direct order from authority figure

Question 4

Solomon Asch’s line study demonstrates conformity based on what type of influence? What did Asch do? How does his study show this?

Answer 4

Research question: none
6 males - told particpant that they were testing visual pereption
-Others went before all with obvious wrong answer
IV: particpant doing same task with people vs alone
DV: measuring responses of answers
Results: When in a group: 76 conformed some of time even they know when it was wrong
alone: 95% correct
NORMATIVE INFLUENCE

Question 5

Group size also influences conformity. How? How do the law of diminishing returns and seeing too many people behave in the same way contribute?

Answer 5

more people is more likely to conform - as long as 4 but nothing after
limit is 1-15

Question 6

There are two other things that influence conformity. What are they?

Answer 6

Presence of dissenting ally: decrease conformity if one other person says different answer
Awareness of the norm: awake of norm and reminded, more likely if someone else does it

Question 7

Sherif conducted a study looking at conformity that used the autokinetic effect. What did Sherif do? What did he find? What type of influence did he demonstrate?

Answer 7

Q: can perception be changed or swayed by others
Autokinetic: perceptual anomaly: in dark room and see point of light–> say the distance it moved when it really does not at all
IV: compare alone vs. with others
DV: how far it “moved”
-motivated people to be accurate so rely on others

Question 8

What is the norm of reciprocity? How does this influence compliance?

Answer 8

give back/ return favor of someone does something good for us

Question 9

We talked about 4 compliance techniques that can be used to get people to do what you want them to do. What are they? How do they work? (Be sure to include details, like reciprocal concessions!)

Answer 9

1. Foot in Door: 2 steps
   a. break ice
   b. once commit, ask bigger request ex. sign petition then ask for donation
2. Door in face: 2 steps
   a. initial request is large
   b. smaller request= feel obligated to comply
3. Low-balling: agreed to initial request that they have not followed through –> tend to still comply to initial costs Ex. cars salesman, amazon w/ SH
4. That’s not all: inflated request –> says no ==> then bonuses and extras = bargain

Question 10

Stanley Milgram conducted a famous study on obedience to authority. What did he do? What did he find?

Answer 10

Research question: will people obey an authority figure even when they know their actions will hurt someone else?

• Procedure: Shock punishment on memory, participant is teacher and research confederate was the learner, if wrong then learner is shocked. Previous heart damage from learner but should have no severe shock effects. Participant was delivered of 45 volts shocks as a sample which was painful. Learner is yelling about being released in the next room. Authority figure is in lab coat = please continue, have to keep going. Learner stopped making voices around 350 and figure said treat no response with wrong response. Participant thinks learner possibly dead
• IV: nothing manipulated
• DV: how far they go up shock generator
• Before experiment: asked several people how far they thought ordinary people would go up the shock generator up to 450 volts – asked college students, psychiatrists, and middle class adults: no more than 3% of ordinary people would go up to top and they would be Satanists or psychotics, average would stop at 135 volts
• Results: 65% went all the way to the top, 3% quit at 420, 20% at 315-360, 12% at 300

Question 11

What factors increase or decrease violence? Be specific about which ones increase it vs. decrease it.

Answer 11

Authority and legitimacy:
-verified the location: ½ =Yale University, lab and other ½ =crappy office building
-Lab coats vs not wearing coat= conveys power, display status
Conflicting orders:
-varied number of experiments that 2 gave conflicting orders: okay you can stop, or now you can’t stop, and then you say you can decide which decreases obedience
Physical Proximity:
-Standing right next to you vs away – next= more powerful
-teacher and learner: most obedient when cannot see or hear learner in other room
-teacher is least obedient when sitting next to learner and pick up their hand on the shock directly
Personal responsibility:
-believe that they give up responsibility, therefore it’s not teacher’s fault
Gradual escalation:
-functions like foot in door, start at bottom of shock generator and move up 5 volts, not 5 to 400
Disobedient role model:
-more than one confederate and another participant: helps people not obey

Question 12

All things being equal, people tend to be obedient to authority. How is this used in our daily lives?

Answer 12

• Expertise: yield to influence of authority, trust that authority figure is expert and know what they are doing
• Information influence again: assume they know wisdom and knowledge. We’re not being threaten or punished – people have the need to be accurate
• Used today in advertising: pain relievers - 4/5 doctors agree