social impact theory of obedience Flashcards
what does the term ‘social impact’ refer to?
- social impact refers to the effect that real or imagined people can have our behaviour
what does ‘social’ mean in the context of social impact?
- ‘social’ refers to the effect coming from other people
who developed the theory of social impact?
- Latane
what are ‘social force fields’?
- social force fields describe how we behave and influence each other through our ongoing interactions
who is the ‘source’ in the SIMPT?
- the source is the person who is doing the influencing
who are the ‘targets’ in the SIMPT?
- the targets are the people who are being influenced
what are the three laws of behaviour?
- social force
- psychosocial law
- divisions of impact
what is social force?
- the pressure put on people to change their behaviour
- if it succeeds, it results in social impact
what factors make up social force?
- social force is made up of strength, immediacy, and numbers
what is strength in the context of social force?
- strength refers to how much power the person influencing you has
- e.g. a high rank in an organisation means more strength
what is immediacy in the context of social force?
- immediacy refers to how recent the influence is and how close the influence is
- e.g. an order from a boss standing next to you vs an email from last week
what is numbers in the context of social force?
- numbers refers to how many people are putting pressure on you to do something
- more people means more social force
how does social force apply to Milgram’s study?
- Milgram’s found that obedience was lower when the authority figure was absent (variation #7) or had less strength (variation #13)
what is Latane’s equation for social impact?
- i = f (SIN)
- s is strength, i is immediacy, and n is numbers
what is psychosocial law?
- suggests that the first source of influence has the most dramatic impact
- each subsequent source generates less social force
how does the psychosocial law apply to being watched?
- being watched by one person may make you feel awkward, but being watched by two doesn’t make you feel twice as awkward
- increasing the number of watchers (e.g. 100 or 1000) doesn’t drastically increase the sense of pressure
how does psychosocial law apply to authority figures?
- one authority figure, such as a teacher giving an order, generates significant social force
- however, bringing in more authority figures (e.g second or third teacher) doesn’t double or triple the social force
does increasing the number of authority figures always increase social force?
- no
- bringing in the entire school staff to repeat the order won’t be as effective in increasing social force as expected
what is the divisions of impact?
- means that social force is spread out between all the people it is directed at
- if directed at one person, the pressure is high, but if directed at two, each person feels less pressure
how does the divisions of impact apply to multiple people?
- if there are ten people, each person feels only one tenth of the pressure
what is diffusion of responsibility?
- diffusion of responsibility is the idea that the more people there are, the less personal responsibility each person feels
how does the divisions of impact apply to Milgram’s study?
- obedience decreased is Milgram’s variations when the ppt had a rebellious partner, showing how the social force is divided
what is Latane’s equation for divisions of impact?
- i = f (1(SIN)
how does Latane describe social impact?
- Latane described social impact as a phenomenon where people affect one another in social situations
what are some examples of social impact in daily experiences?
- examples of social impact include embarrassment, persuasion, humour, and many other experiences governed by the presence and actions of others
how can social impact be observed?
- it can be observed visually and also alters forces within the target, such as thoughts, attitude, incentives and physiological state
what do the impact of others on someone’s attitude depend on?
- number of people in the environment
- immediacy of the impact eg I message is given by people you know
- strength of impact eg persuasion power of those giving message
supporting evidence: B + L
Bassett and Latane
- found ppts would assign nearby fictitious events in a newspaper more column inches than faraway events
- supports immediacy as a factor affecting obedience
supporting evidence: B, B + M
Berkowitz, Bickman and Milgram
- conducted study at City University of NY that demonstrates reduction is social impact (psychosocial law)
- 1 to 15 confederates gathered on the street, craning their necks to look at the sixth floor of a university building
- Milgram recorded the scene from a sixth-floor window
- the number of passers-by who stopped and looked up was counted
- more confederates led to more passers-by imitating the behaviour
- however, the effect diminished as the confederate group size increased
- the number of passers-by grew smaller relative to the group size, and the effect levelled off
- law of diminishing effect
supporting evidence: L + D
Latane and Darley
- found that lone person was more likely to help someone in need compared to group of people
- diffusion of responsibility similar to a divisional effect
- suggests that an authority figure would have diminished capacity to influence someone if that someone had an ally or group of allies
other things (weakness): active nature of social interaction
- simpt views individuals as passive receivers of others’ behaviour
- it disregards the active nature of social interaction and what the target brings to the situation
- the theory oversimplifies human interaction by ignoring individual differences
- some individuals are more resistant to social influence, while others are more passive
- considered a static theory because it does not account for the dynamic interaction between target and source
weakness/strength: descriptive
- model is useful as a general formulation
- it can predict behaviour under certain conditions
- descriptive rather than explanatory
- it does not explain why people are influenced by others, but rather under what conditions they are more likely to be influenced
application (strength)
- theory is quantifiable because its principles can be observed in everyday behaviour
- research on conformity, obedience and bystander behaviour has shown impact of:
- strength, immediacy and number on human responses in social situations
other things (weakness): limited
- theory is limited in the types of social situations it can explain
- it cannot predict outcomes when two equal groups impact each other
- e.g. football crowds where both supporting groups are equal in number, strength and immediacy
- it is unclear who would be the source and who would be the target is such situations
