Social Influence Flashcards
which two researchers conducted studies on minority influence?
- Moscovici
- Nemeth
Outline Moscovici’s Study on minority influence
- Ppts were asked to judge whether a slide was blue or green
- 2 conditions, a consistent one and an inconsistent one
- People were influenced 8.2% of the time in the consistent variable
What did Nemeth find about minority influence?
- People are more likely to agree when the minority is flexible
1 weakness of Moscovici’s experiment
- Low ecological validity
Who conducted a study into obedience?
- Milgram
What was Milgram’s procedure?
-40 male ppts
- They were the teacher
- Gave out electric shocks to a learner of increasing severity when the ‘learner’ got questions wrong
- At 330v the screams of the confederate went silent
- There was an authority figure in the room encouraging them to do the shocks
At what voltage did the confederates screams go silent in Milgrams study?
330v
What were the findings in Milgrams Study?
- All ppts went to the shock level of 300v
- 68% of ppts went to the highest shock level
1 strength of Milgrams study into obedience
- Lab experiment
4 weaknesses of milgrams study
- Demand characteristics
- Ecological validity
- Population Validity
- Unethical: deception
Who conducted a study into conformity?
Asch
What are the findings of Aschs initial study?
- The control group without confederates had an error rate of <1%
- Experimental group had a conformity rate of 32%
- This shows normative social influence
What are 2 weaknesses of Asch’s study
- low ecological validity
- demand characteristics
What other 3 conditions did Asch add to his study into conformity?
- Amount of confederates
- Group size: conformity didnt increase past 32%
- Task difficulty
What are 3 explanations for obedience
- Legitimacy of authority
- Agency theory/ agentic state
- Authoritarian personality
