Social Influence 1: Majority Influence Flashcards

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1
Q

what is the ‘autokinetic effect’?

A

sherif 1936 - an illusion where a light shown in a dark room on a dark screen appears to move when it doesn’t. a group of male participants were asked to determine how much the dot had moved. the findings showed that our perception of ambiguous physical reality is greatly influenced by other’s judgements

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2
Q

what was Asch’s paradigm and what were the findings?

A

participants were presented with 3 lines, 2 of which matched in length. they were asked which ones matched. 37% of responses were incorrect when there were confederates saying the wrong answer (majority influence)
but -
63% were correct, and 95% of participants gave a correct response at least once despite the majority of the group giving wrong ones

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3
Q

when do people conform?

A
  • asch showed that increasing the group size increased the conformity up to a certain point. group size has more influence on ‘tastes’ and ‘trends’- the bigger the group the more conformity
  • people are more likely to conform when the majority is unanimous, when the majority is not unanimous there is a drop in conformity
  • the degree of conformity varied between cultures: highest conformity was found in collectivist cultures
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4
Q

how do people conform?

A

distortion of perception (conforming without awareness)
distortion of judgement (doubting themselves)
distortion of action

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5
Q

why do we conform?

A

deutsch and gerard 1955:
informational social influence - accepting the majority as right, wanting to make an accurate judgement
normative social influence - compliance without acceptance, need for approval
turner 1982:
referent informational influence - conformity dependent on social position/group. if majority is in the ‘ingroup’ = conformity. if majority is in ‘outgroup’ = non conformity

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6
Q

what did abrams 1990 find?

A

in private, conformity was similar with majority ingroups and outgroups, but in public we are more likely to conform with in groups and a lot less likely to conform with outgroups

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