Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in persons behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.
Types of conformity
- Devised by Herbert Kelman in 1958.
1. Internalisation
2. Identification
3. Compliance
What is internalisation?
- When an individual will internally and externally conform as they have realised and accepted the views of the majority of the group.
- Deepest form of conformity
- The views expressed by the majority become part of the individual’s own beliefs system, and views will persist when other group members are absent.
- Permanent
What is identification?
- We act the same as the majority group because we share their beliefs and want to fit in/be accepted.
- Moderate level of conformity
- Publicly agree with group but do not privately agree.
- Value the groups identity (how can I benefit)
- Temporary form of conformity
What is compliance?
- ‘Going along with others’
- Shallowest form of conformity
- Publicly and privately not agreeing but going along as its easier.
- Superficial change
- Opinion will stp as son as the group pressure stops
Explanation of conformity
- The need to be right, ISI
- The need to be liked - NSI
What is NSI?
- Normative Social il Influence
- Going along with the majority to gain approval.
- Often due to fear of rejection.
- Occurs in non-ambiguous situations
- May not agree with the majority group but go along with them anyway.
- ‘Fit in with the norm’
What is ISI?
- You lack information- others are better informed than you.
- You want to be right and correct.
- Occurs in an ambiguous situation
- Also typical in situations where there is an emergency.
- We are unsure how to behave so we look to the majority for answers as we believe them to be right.
Study supporting ISI
Sherif (1935) and the light in the dark
Sherif’s study’s aim
To investigate where people are influenced by others (ambiguous task)
Sherif’s study’s method:
- Used the auto kinetic effect where a still point of light in the dark appears to move.
- Participants were shown a still point of light in the dark and estimated how far it moved, first on their own and then in groups.
Sherif’s study results
- When alone, participants developed their own stable estimates, known as personal norm.
- In the groups, judgements gradually became closer and closer until a group of norm developed.
Sherif’s study conclusion
- Participants were influenced by the estimates of other people.
- Estimates converged because participants used information from others to help them.
- Supports ISI
Sherif’s study evaluation:
- Lacks ecological validity
- Deception: told that the dot will move, ethical issues
- Lacks temporal validity as it was all the way before World War 2
Study that supports ISI:
Sherif (1935)
RSM of Sherif
Lab experiment
Research design of Sherif
Repeated measure
Other study supporting ISI:
Lucas et al (2006)
Lucas et al (2006) overview
- Asked students to give answers to Mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult.
- Greater conformity to incorrect answers that were more difficult.
- Most true for students who rated their mathematical skills as poor.
- People conform in situations where they don’t know the answer.
Criticisms of ISI
- Lacks supporting evidence
- Features of the task will impact majority influence.
- In some judgements there is clear and concise information.
- However,other judgements can be subjective.
- These judgements are made on a social consensus.
Asch’s support for NSI, method:
- Seven male student participants were shown two cards: the test card showed one vertical line; the other card showed thee vertical lines of different lines.
- The participants were to call out, in turn, which of these three lines was the same length as the test line. The correct answer was always obvious.
- On 12/18 ‘critical’ trials the confederates gave identical wrong answers.
Asch’s support for NSI, results:
- On critical trials, 37% of the responses made by true participants were incorrect.
- 25% of the participants never conformed .
- So, 75% did conform.
- 1% gave the wring answer in the control group.
- During post-experiment interviews, most participants who had conformed, experienced a distortion of judgement.
- 9% conformity rate when
Asch’s support for NSI, conclusion:
- Even in unambiguous situations, there may be strong pressure to conform, especially if the group is a unanimous majority.
- Some people experienced NSI and felt compelled to accept the mistaken majority’s norms or standards of behaviour.
- Others experienced informational pressures and doubted their own judgments.
Asch’s support for NSI, criticisms;
- Lacks temporal validity: since this experiment ws during the Cold War, people conformed more as they didn’t want to be percieved as communists and going to prison - McCarthyism
- Beta bias
- Gender bias: lacking population validity as only men were used.
- Demand characteristics: since it’s a lab experiment.
- Ethical issue: deception and physiological harm.
Support for Asch:
Perrin and Spencer (1980):
- Science and engineering students, 1 out of 396 conformed.
- Youth on probation, simiar results to Asch
Variables affecting conformity:
- Group size
- Task difficulty
- Unanimity
Variables affecting conformity, group size:
-Asch found that conformity tends to increase s the size of the group increases.
- With 1 confederate in the group conformity was 3%.
- With 2 confederates conformity increased to 13%.
- With 3 or more it was 33%.
- Little change n conformity once the group size reaches 4/5.
- 4 is considered the optimal group size for conformity to occur.
- Brown and Byrne suggested that people might suspect collusion if the majority rises beyond three or four.
- Bonding Smith supported this idea, by performing a meta analysis of 133 Asch type studies from 17 countries and found that conformity peaks with four or five confederates.
Variables affecting conformity, task difficulty:
- In one variation Asch made the differences between the lines length, much smaller under these circumstances, the level of conformity increased.
- Lucas et al Found that influence of task difficulty is moderated by the self efficacy of the individual. When exposed to maths problems in an Asch type task, high self-efficacy participants (participants who were more confident in the abilities) remained more independent than low self-efficacy participants, even under conditions of high task difficulty. This shows that situational differences and individual differences are both important in determining conformity.
Variables affecting conformity, unanimity:
- One nonconformist confederate introduced to see if it affected conformity.
- One confederate with correct answer, conformity dropped to 5.5%.
- One confederate with the wrong answer, conformity fell to 9%.
- Conformity is reduced when unanimity is broken.
What is social role:
- Behaviour expected of an individual who occupies a given social position of status.
What is conformity to social role:
- The extent to which people behave in expected manners, according to the social role.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, procedure:
-Mock prison sit up in the basement, Stanford University.
- Advertised for volunteers and selected those who are deemed emotionally stable, which were 24 male students.
- Students were randomly allocated ‘guards or prisoners’.
- Prisoners were arrested in their homes and delivered to the prison.
- Blindfolded, strip-searched, and given a uniform and a number.
- Prisoners daily routine were very strict - 16 rules to be followed enforced by the guards who took shifts, were only referred to by their numbers.
- Guards had their own uniform, and were told they had complete power over the prisoners.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, findings:
- Guards became to be fully invested in the social roles.
- Study was stopped after six days instead of 14, as the gods became a threat to the president’s physical and mental well-being.
- After two days, prisoners would rebel against the harsh treatment, and by the guards by ripping the uniforms amongst other things.
- Guards would retaliate with violence and aggression.
- Guards word pitch prisons against one another.
- One prisoner was released on the first day as he showed signs of psychological disturbance.
- Two more were released on the fourth day, and one prisoner began a hunger strike - guards would force-feed him.
