Slides Session 8 Flashcards
What is Social Influence?
Efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behaviours of another person or people
(it can be used for good or bad)
What are the basic principles, that techniques for gaining compliance, rest on?
- Friendship/ liking
- we are more willing to comply with requests from friends - Commitment/ consitency
- Once we have committed to something, we are more willing to comply with requests for behaviour that are consistent with this position - Scarcity
- We are more likely to comply with requests that focus on scarcity - Reciprocity
- We are more willing to comply woth eople who have done us a favour - Social validation
We are more willing to comply if that action is consistent with what we believe people that are similar to us are doing - Authority
We are more willing to comply with request from someone who has authority
What are the six tactics for compliance?
- Based on Friendship/ liking
1) Tactic: Incidental similarity – If the requester highlights slight similarities between them and ourselves which creates a feeling of affiliation and may result in compliance (can work with strangers as well)
2) Tactic: Ingratiation -enhancement of self-e.g. self-promotion/appearance or other e.g. flattery
- Based on Commitment/ consistency
1) Foot-in-the-door technique
- changing the terms of an agreement after someone has already committed to an action/decision and therefore will be hesitant to back out
2) Tactic: Foot-in-the-door technique - ask a smaller favour before asking the bigger favour almost guarantees achieving the latter to be achieved because of the need to be consistent
3) Tactic: The Lure effect – Targets are asked to do something appealing and once agreed are asked to do something not appealing instead (sometimes includes the same reward e.g. money)
3. Based on Scarcity
1) Tactic: The playing hard to get technique - when people have something which they present as scarce or valuable and they play hard to get e.g. romance
2) Tactic: The deadline technique - people are told they have a limited time to take advantage of an offer
- Based on Reciprocity
1) Tactic: The door-in-the-face technique - Asking for a lager favour which is refused as expected and then asking the smaller favour that they wanted all along as to appear that they are doing you a favour by asking a more reasonable request
2) Tactic: The that’s-not-all technique - offering people additional benefits to persuade them to comply
5. Based on Social validation
6. Based on Authority
What is Obedience and why does it often occur?
Obedience – the outcome when one person simply orders one or more people to perform some action
4 Factors are involved in Obeying:
- People in authority assume responsibility
- People in authority have visible signs of authority
- Commands are gradual in nature
- Events move at a fast pace
What are tactics to resist obedience?
- Remaining responsible for personal actions,
- Recognizing when submission is inappropriate,
- Authority figures can be questioned if necessary
- Gain knowledge such as that presented in social psychology on destructive obedience
What is conformity and what are social norms?
Conformity – efforts to change others’ behaviour in order to adhere to social norms through pressure to behave according to social norms
It is important to distinguish between:
1) Public conformity – Conforming publicly through doing or saying what others around us say or do
AND
2) Private acceptance – Although not always, it can still be a reflection of the group norm. Therefore, starting to feel and think as those around us do
Social norms – are detailed and explicit or unspoken and implicit rules indicating how people are expected to behave in specific situations. It may restrict our freedom but also prevents chaos
How do social norms emerge?
People still continued to obey/believe the group norm (Public conformity) even when no longer part of the group (Private acceptance). This is also the basis on which conformity is founded on, as these are 2 powerful motives to conform;
a) Our strong desire to be accepted and liked by others [known as normative social influence (see point 3 below)] and social norms help us to satisfy this need
b) Our desire to be right- to have an accurate understanding of the social world [known as informational social influence (see point 3 below)]
TOGETHER, these two aspects guarantee social influence to be a powerful force strongly affecting our behaviour
What Factors influence Conformity?
a) Cohesiveness,
the extent to which we are attracted to a particular social group and want to belong to it
b) Group size
The larger the group, the greater the number of people who behave in a certain way, the more likely we are to conform
c) Status within a group
Senior members of a group feel less pressure to conform than junior members
d) Types of norms influencing behaviour
- Descriptive norms - what most people do in a situation e.g. trends and
- Injunctive norms - specify what should or should not be done in a situation / what is approved or disapproved behaviour in a given situation e.g. what’s right or wrong
What is normative focus theory?
A theory that states that norms will influence behaviour only to the extent that they are salient (i.e. relevant)to the people involved at the time the behaviour occurs
Social Foundations of Conformity: Why do we conform?
Two powerful motives that we all share make us conform:
- Normative social influence:
- the desire to be liked
- it involves altering our behaviour to meet others’ expectations - Informational social influence
- The desire to be right
- it is based on our tendency to depend on others as a source for information about aspects of the social world.
Why do we sometimes not conform and what is the benefit?
Nonconformity – individuals have the ability to resist because we also have a strong desire for Individuation
Individuation - a need to be different from others in some aspect/s. Therefore, Asserting Uniqueness – People want to be unique
Actor-observer effect - A need to be in control of our own lives when observing others conforming behaviour in a situation as bad/poor and therefore, we want to maintain our personal freedom using methods such as reactance.
Power – People with power seem to enjoy more freedom than others and tend to make the rules
Benefits of nonconforming – Nonconforming individuals are seen as high in personal autonomy and therefore, higher in status and vise verse (exclusive shopping in casual wear)
What is unintentional Social influence?
Unintentional Social influence: How others change our behaviour even when they are not trying to do so
1) Emotional Contagion
– Unconsciously being influenced by others’ emotions and a basic but pervasive form of social influence
a) Social/Emotional contagion – moods spread from one person to another
b) Schadenfreude – taking pleasure in others misfortune or disappointments
c) Countercontagion – experiencing emotions different from someone we consider dissimilar to us
2) Symbolic social influence
– results from a mental representation of others or from our relationship with them. Thinking about other/s - triggers relational schemas - activates others goals for us or goals relevant to them- influences behaviour
3) Modeling: Learning from observing others – Watching and Imitating others
When does modeling occur? When we not sure how to behave or there are no clear rules on what is the appropriate behaviour
Distinguish between the following:
1) CONFORMITY.g.
2) COMPLIANCE
3) OBEDIENCE
4) UNINTENTIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Conformity efforts to change others’ behaviour in order to adhere to social norms through pressure to behave according to social norms
Compliance
the consequence of someone’s direct requests to others’ for behaviour change
Obedience
the outcome when one person simply orders one or more people to perform some action/s
unintentional social influence
