Social Influence - 01 Types/Explanations of Conformity & Asch Flashcards
What is social influence?
The process by which an individual’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviours are modified by the presence or actions of others
What is conformity?
A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure. Larger groups influencing an individual or a smaller group
What is compliance?
-refers to instances where a person may agree in public with a group of people but the person actually privately disagrees with the group’s viewpoint or behaviour
-public conformity only
Behaviour/opinions stop as soon as group pressure stops
What is identification?
-given a new social role
-we conform to the opinions/behaviour of the group because we value it and want to be part of it
-conform to the expectations of a social role
-publicly and privately change out opinions/behaviour to fit with a social role but it is only temporary
What is internalisation?
-refers to instances where a person behaves or agrees with a group of people because they have actually accepted the group’s point of view or beliefs
-Does result in change in the persons private beliefs and attitudes in the long term
-true change in public and private
What are the two main reasons why people conform?
NSI & ISI
What is NSI?
Normative social influence
-based on our desire to be liked and we conform because we think that others will approve of and accept us
-results in compliance
What is ISI?
Informational social influence
- based on our desire to be right
-we look to others, who we believe to be correct, to give us information about how to behave, especially in new or ambiguous situations
-results in internalisation
Research support for NSI-Linkenbach & Perkins (2003)
-found that teenagers exposed to the message that the majority of their age peers did not smoke were less likely to take up smoking
-can help to change negative behaviours in teens and so have important real-life application
Research support for NSI-Schultz (2008)
-found that hotel guests exposed to the message that 75% of guests reused their towel each day reduced their own towel use by 25%
-can be used to manipulate people to behave more responsibly when it comes to energy conservation so have important real-life applications
Research support for ISI-Lucas et al (2006)
-asked students to give answers to maths q’s that were easy or more difficult, there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult, this was most true for those who rated their maths ability as poor
-shows supporting evidence and therefore increases the validity as this as an explanation of why we conform
Research support for ISI-Fein et al (2007)
-judgements of candidate performance in US presidential debate influenced by knowledge of others, p’s saw reaction of their fellow p’s on screen during the debate. Produced large shift in p’s judgements of candidate performance
-Possible real-life application to elections. stop the manipulation of others, avoid commentary after a presidential debate
Evaluation of NSI (individual differences)
-NSI does not influence everybody in same way so there are individual differences
- People less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than those who do care. McGhee & Teevan (1967) students high in need of affiliation more likely to conform
-Weakness as it cannot be generalised to all people equally
Evaluation of NSI & ISI (they work together)
-Deutsch & Gerrard’s ‘two-process’ approach = behaviour either due to ISI or NSI but in most cases it is BOTH processes
-Problem as it isn’t always possible to be sure whether ISI or NSI is at work, especially true in real life conformity situations.
What kind of experiment was Asch’s study?
Lab experiment
Describe the sample used in Asch’s study?
-50 male students from Swarthmore college in the USA
What was the false aim given to the p’s in Asch’s study?
That they were participating in a vision test
What task did Asch use to investigate conformity?
a line judgement task
Describe the procedure of Asch’s study?
-Naïve participant put in a room with 7 confederates
-Each person had to state aloud which comparison line was most like the target line and the answer was always obvious
-the real p’s were always sat at the end of the row and gave their answer last or second to last
-there were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 of the critical trials
-there was also a control condition with no confederates and only “real p’s”
What were the results of Asch’s study?
-Real p’s conformed to the incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials
-Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of the p’s conformed at least once
-25% of the p’s never conformed
-In the control group less than 1% of the p’s gave the wrong answer
What did the p’s say in Asch’s interviews after the study?
-Most said that they knew they were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in or because they thought they would be ridiculed
-Some conformed as they questioned their judgement and thought that the others were right
How did Asch’s research display NSI
Most p’s conformed and gave the wrong answer because wanted to fit in to the group and they didn’t want to be ridiculed for giving the wrong answer
How did Asch’s research display ISI
Some p’s thought the other people were correct and so conformed as they questioned their judgement and wanted to get the answers right
What were the 3 variations of Asch’s study?
1- Group size
2- Task difficulty
3- unanimity
What happened when Asch changed group size in his experiment?
-One confederate = p’s conformed 1% of critical trials
-Two confederates = p’s conformed 12.8% of critical trials
-Three confederates = p’s conformed 32% of critical trials (HIGHEST LEVEL)
-Further increases did not increase the levels of conformity so size of majority is important but only up to an optimal point
What happened when Asch changed task difficulty in his experiment?
-Asch made the line lengths closer together and therefore the task harder
-found that conformity to majority increased
-suggests that ISI plays greater role when task is harder/more ambiguous
What happened when Asch changed unanimity in his experiment?
-Asch instructed one confederate to give the right answer
-conformity dropped to 5.5% when one confederate disagreed with the majority
-If one confederate gave a different incorrect answer from the other confederates, then conformity dropped to 9%
-suggests if you break a group’s unanimous position, then conformity is reduced
Evaluation of Asch’s study (demand characteristics)
-possible p’s figured out aim if everyone else is getting the answer wrong
-may cause the p’s to go along with the aim and purposefully give the wrong answer to please researcher
-so results may invalid
Evaluation of Asch’s study (population validity)
-Androcentric all participants being male
-Also ethnocentric all participants from USA
-Females may have conformed more due to women being unequally treated in the 1950s
-Also people from different cultures may conform more or less due to beliefs
-so cannot be generalised to rest of the world or other genders
Evaluation of Asch’s study (mundane realism)
-in real life never really have to say if two lines match
-Plus conformity situations in real life are different as they may determine things like friends and jobs
-in experiment you might seem weird for a bit but will not affect you once you leave the room
-in real life if you do not conform it can have affects for the rest of your life
Evaluation of Asch’s study (ethical issues)
-Study is deceptive
-p’s told they were taking part in a vision test
-if they are giving different answers this may make them worry and cause psychological harm
-they may think that there is something wrong with their sight which can cause stress for the p’s
Evaluation of Asch’s study (ethnocentric)
-conducted in America only
-expect different results in different cultures
-Smith et al (2006) analysed results across multiple cultures
-average conformity rate in individualistic cultures (Europe & USA) = 25%
-average conformity rate in collectivist cultures (Africa, Asia, South America) = 37%
-cannot be applied to all cultures and lacks population validity
Evaluation of Asch’s study (child of it’s time)
-Study took place in America in the 1950s
-Was a time were conformity was high and being different was considered less socially acceptable
-Perin & Spencer replicated it in 1981
-33 male students used and only had one conforming response in 396 trials
-so lacks temporal validity and would have different results today.
