social influence 10 - 13 Flashcards
factors that affect social influence (social support)
social support leads to people resisting social pressure as they have an ally which builds confidence for example in Asch’s variation when there was one correct dissenter in the group, conformity rates dropped to 5%
evaluation of social support
strengths: research support from Asch’s study when one dissenter in the group reduced conformity to 5%. In milgrams study when a disobedient role model was present then only 10% shocked until 450v
weaknesses: social support is not a strong explanation in the real world as group sizes are massive and one dissenter won’t have any influence unlike in small groups.
what is locus of control
peoples perception of the degree of control they have over their behaviour.
high external locus of control: people see future resulting from external factors and luck or fate
high internal locus of control: people feel a stronger sense of control. rely more on seeking info and more likely to show resistance to social influence.
ppl with high internal LOC are more self confident and have less need for social approval.
evaluation of locus of control
strengths: research evidence from psychologists who interviewed german people who had sheltered Jewish people from the Nazis. These German people had an internal locus of control, which had allowed them to disobey the Nazis.
weaknesses: psychologists found that conformers were less assertive than non-conformers but that the two groups did not score differently on a test to determine their locus of control. This suggests that assertiveness is more important than locus of control
minority influence
Minority influence is a form of social influence in which members of the majority group change their beliefs or behaviours as a result of their exposure to a persuasive Minority
consistency experiment (minority influence)
moscovici got 172 FEMALE pps who were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides with varying shades of blue. two of six pps were confederates. in the consistent variation they said all 36 were green. in the inconsistent variation they said 24 were green and 12 were blue. in consistent condition 8.2% agreed. in inconsistent condition 1.25% agreed. a consistent majority is 6.95% more effective.
wood est al carried out meta analysis and found consistent minorities are more influential.
flexibility experiment
nemeth: pps in groups of four had to agree on an amount of compensation to give to a ski lift victim. 2 conditions where one the minority argued for low rate but were inflexible and one where they were flexible. he found in the inflexible condition the minority had little or no effect. however in the flexible condition the majority were much more likely to compromise asw.
commitment experiment (minority influence)
augmentation principle explains how minorities change the majority by implementing risky actions so the majority pays more interest for example emily pankhurst who walked into race horses. xie et al found you need about 10% of the minority population to affect the majority.
evaluation of minority influence
strengths: Wood carried out a meta-analysis of 100 studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were the most influential.
weaknesses: lack of realism w moscovici study as ppl are not asked to identify colours day to day so lacks ecological validity. ppl may accept the minority on a surface level but become irritated by it and belittle it.
social change
when a whole society changes/adopts new beliefs as a result from minority influence. one example is women’s voting.
steps in how minority influence brings social change:
drawing attention to issue
consistency
deeper processing
augmentation principle
snowball effect: minority becomes majority through NSI
social cryptoamnesia: ppl know a social change occurred but the source is dissociated. this could be bc it is the law
evaluation of social influence in the role of social change
strengths: nolan hung messages on the doors of houses in san diego every week for a month: a message that most ppl reduce their energy usage. a control group didn’t mention other residents. the group that mentioned other residents found less energy usage. thus meaning conformity can lead to social change through NSI.
weaknesses: nemeth argued the effects of minority influence is indirect and delayed. therefore it shows it’s effects are fragile and limited. which makes it difficult to measure scientifically.
