Social Influence Flashcards
Define social influence
The process in which behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the real or implied prescence of others
Types of social influence
- Compliance
- Conformity
- Obedience
Compliance
Changing behaviour in response to a request
* Used to reach goals or attain social or personal gains
* Is only a temporary and overt change
Factors that influence compliance?
- Group strength - Social pressure, want to be a part of the group
- Group size - Increased people present = increased compliance
- Immediacy - Being in the immediate prescence of a group
- Similarity - Sharing something in common with the person making request
Foot-in-the-door technique
(compliance)
Small request (accepted) followed by the ‘real’ and larger request
Freedman and Fraser (1966)
foot-in-the-door technique
Small request: Sign a petition
Large request: Install a large and distracting sign in front lawn (says “Drive Carefully.”
* Sign petition and then install sign (experimental): 55% compliance
* Just install sign (control): 20% comliance
Foot-in-the-door technique issues
- The time between the two requests is crucial and can influence results
- The sex of the experimenter has an influence
Door-in-the-face technique
Huge request (rejected) followed by a smaller ‘real’ request
Cialdini et al. (1975)
(Door-in-the-face technique)
- Students asked to perform as unpaid counsellors for juvenile delinquents for 2 years
- Then asked to chaperone a 2 hour zoo trip instead
Results: 16.7% agreed without huge request first, 50% with request
Low-balling
Get someone to commit to a request and then increase the ‘cost’ of the request
Cialdini et al. (1978)
(Low-balling)
- Ask students to participate in an experiment
- After agreeing, reveal that it was taking place at 7am
Results: Told its at 7am before agreeing (24% compliance), only reveal after (56%) - When offered the chance to drop out, 95% of the 56% still turned up as promised
Joule (1987)
low-ball vs foot-in-the-door
Students were requested to stop smoking for 18 hours for 30 French francs
* Lowball: Originally offered 50 francs
* FITD: First asked to fill in questionnaire and then asked real request
Low-ball more effective as students were already committed whereas was an extra request for FITD
Norm of reciprocity
‘Doing a favour’ for a person before asking them to do something for you
Relies on social norm that people will treat others as they are treated
Regan (1971)
(Norm of reciprocity)
Raffle tickets study:
* Confederate gave participants free soft drinks
* Asked participants to buy their raffle tickets
* More likely to buy ticket if they were given the drink first
If someone gives you something, you feel like you owe them
What is power?
In terms of compliance
The perceived power exhibited by the source of influence.
The capacity to influence other whilst resisting their attempts to influence
5 types of power
(French and Raven, 1959)
- Reward power - ability to reward
- Coercive power - ability to punish
- Expert power - Knowledge and information
- Legitimate power - Position of authority
- Referent power - being liked by others (charisma, trust)
What is Conformity?
Changing attitudes or behaviours in order to fit in with the group majority
Characteristics of people who conform more
- Low self-esteem
- High anxiety
- Low IQ
- Authoritarian personality
- High need for social support or approval
- Inferiority complex
- Insecurity within the group
- Low group status
Situational factors of conformity
- Culture - individualistic or collectivistic
- Group size
- Group unanimity
Asch (1951)
(conformity)
Line experiment
* Extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform
* Lab experiment, line judgment task, naive participant in a room with seven confederates
* Results: Experimental Group: 75% conformed at least once, around 50% conformed in 6 or more trials, 25% never conformed
* Control Group: 99% chose the correct line
Normative influence
People conform because they want to fit in and be accepted within the group
* Beliefs don’t change
Informational influence
People believe that others are better informed and know better
Why did people conform?
(Asch)
- Demand characteristics
- Doubt own judgement - e.g. eyesight
- Majority size and unanimity
- Fear of ridicule
- Fear of standing out
- Task difficulty
What is obedience?
Form of social influence where an individual will act in response to an order from an individual (usually an authority figure)
* Hierarchy of power and status
Factors influencing obedience
- Social proximity to authority figure or victim
- Legitimacy of power - e.g. uniform
- Location - e.g. Harvard vs old warehouse
- Diffusion of responsibility
- Group pressure
- Persuasion
Milgram (1964)
(obedience)
- Electric shocks for incorrect answers ranging from 15 to 450 volts in 15-volt increments
- 65% continued shocks up to 450 volts
- However, 90% disobeyed if another participant did
Social facilitation
Triplett (1898)
Improvement of performance in the prescence of others
Drive theory of social facilitation
Zajonc (1965)
Social facilitation is due to arousal enhancing whatever response tendency is dominant
* Increased arousal improves easy tasks and hinders performance on dificult ones
What causes arousal levels to increase?
- Evaluation apprehension - anxiety regarding being judged
- Distraction - cognitive overload when paying attention to task and others
- Mere prescence of others
What factors influence the social facilitation effect
?
Physical proximity and size of audience
Minority influence
The minority changing the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of the majority
* Sufragettes Movement (founded 1897)
* Civil Rights movement (1896-1970) - MLK
Factors of minority influence
- Self-confidence
- Consistency
- Commitment to cause
- Flexibility
- Defection from the majority - destroying the illusion of unanimity within the majority (sug-groups within)
What is the role of a leader?
To help lead and guide people towards the group goal
* Inspire commitment
* Mobilise resources
* Devise strategies
* Create opportunities
* Influence outcomes
Leader vs manager
Manager: Planning, organising, scheduling, budgeting, staffing
Leader: provide a vision, determine direction of an organisation, goals, provide resources and support to get the job done
Leader: Born or made?
Prescribed leader: Are appointed the poisiton - usually be an authority person
Emergent leader: Emerge from the group and take charge - usually have the respect and support of group members
Types of leaders
Task orientated: Focus on meeting objectives
* Provides instruction and corrects mistakes
Person orientated: Focus on developing communication, maintaining social
interactions and ensuring all group members are involved
* Positive feedback after good performances and encouragement after mistakes
Leadership styles
Democratic: Offers guidance and allows members to be involved in decisions - has the final say
Autocratic:
Leadership styles
Democratic: Offers guidance and allows members to be involved in decisions - has the final say
Autocratic:
Heine and Lehman (1997)
Japanese don’t rationalise with the free-choice paridigm - Candians do
- Difficult choices are not psychologically threatening, as they do not affect the core aspects of the self
- Self/ internal attitudes are not self-defining - relaionships and social roles are
- Therefore, if a bad decision is made, it does not pose a threat to their cultural criteria of the self
