Social Influence Flashcards
Abortion
the 1803 Ellenborough Act made abortion punishable by death. After this, the ALRA group formed to legalise abortion and raise awareness of backstreet abortions. In 1861, the Offences Against the Person Act made abortion punishable by life imprisonment. In 1929, the Infant Life Preservation Act made abortion legal if the mother’s life was at risk. In 1967, abortion was made legal after the biggest rally since the women’s suffrage campaigns.
Abu Ghraib
Zimbardo’s study was a lab experiment and lacks ecological validity. Psychologists questioned whether people really behaved like this in the real world, as participants know it was an experiment. However, there are real-world parallels. Abu Ghraib was an American prison where prisoners were tortured and killed despite this being against thee law. All the guards conformed to this and it was only one person who stopped it. This shows that it does have validity as it can be seen in the real world.
Adolf Eichmann
a Nazi war criminal who was tried at the Nuremberg trials, and was said to be the inspiration for Milgram’s obedience experiment, as Eichmann claimed he was “just following orders” and Milgram wanted to test the validity of his defence
Agency Theory
sees people as socialised to obey authority to keep stability in society and sees obedeince as occurring in heirarchical social systems, where individuals act as agents for those of higher social ranks
Agentic State
individual carries out the orders of another person, acting as their agent with little personal responsibility
Agentic Shift
when someone goes from an autonomous state to an agentic state
Allen and Levine (1968)
showed that the social acceptance of the minority group is important in resisting conformity by repeating Asch’s line judgment task but introduced a dissenting confederate wearing thick-rimmed glasses, thus suggesting he was slightly visually impaired
Anti-Conformity
a consistent movement away from social conformity, such as adopting the behaviour and norms of the minority
Artificial Situation
where a situation has low ecological validity and cannot be generalised to real-life situations
Asch Effect
the influence of the group majority on an individual’s judgement
Attracting Attention
minorities attract the attention of the majority to the issue
Augmentation Principle
the appeal of the minority is strengthened if they are perceiveved to suffer for their views
Authoritarian Personality
a person who has extreme respect for authority and is obedient to those who have power over them
Autokinetic Effect
an experiment done by Muzafer Sherif in 1935 to ascertain whether people conform to a group on an ambiguous task. Sherif showed a group of people the autokinetic effect and asked how far they thought the spot of light moved. All participants gave similar answers, and when asked again individually, they still stuck to the group norm. Sherif then repeated the experiment, asking participants individually first, then as a group and found that people changed their answers when in the group
Autonomous State
where individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions
BBC Prison Experiment
This was an experiment that mimicked Zimbardo’s prison study, but in 2006. They wanted to observe how dynamics between the group evolved over time. Like Zimbardo’s experiment, but it was a controlled observation set in a mock prison and filmed for broadcasting. 15 male volunteers took part who were assigned roles randomly, with five being guards and ten being inmates. Compliance, stress and depression levels were measured daily. They were told that one random prisoner would be promoted and become a guard on day three. An ethics committee was set up. It could stop the experiment at any point. The guards did not form a group, did not always use their authority and did not identify with their assigned role. The unequal system eventually failed because the guards had a weak group identity and the prisoners formed a strong group identity.
Berkowitz (2004)
defined a social norm as a group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour for its members, such as how they are supposed to behave and think
Binding Factors
a concept theorised by Milgram, who stated there are factors that bind someone to a commitment even if they don’t want to do it, for example, if Milgram’s participants had stopped, they would be admitting what they had done was wrong
Bond and Smith Experiment 1996
Williams and Sogon repeated Solomon Asch’s experiment with people from different cultures, and found that people from collectivist cultures, such as China, conform more than people from individualistic cultures, such as America
Child Labour
The Factory Act 1833 was introduced by Ashley Cooper and Michael Sadler although most people were against it because it would take away a large amount of workforce and informce for families. It wasn’t until 1901 that a law was passed stating that all children had to attend school. This happened around the same time as slavery was abolished in America.
China’s One Child Policy
introduced in 1979, the One Child Policy was implemented to fix overpopulation and starvation issues in China. The Chinese government manipulated people by seeming flexible -making it the one birth policy, so families with multiples were exempt, allowing families to have a second child if their first child was disabled or allowing families in rural areas to have a second child if their first child was a boy. If people had more than one child, they were taxed heavily and if they could not pay, they had their belongings stolen ad homes smashed. In 2016, it was changed to a Two Child Policy because the Chinese workforce had shrunk so much and there was a disproportionate amount of boys. In 2021, it was changed to the Three Child Policy, but due to social cryptoamnesia, people no longer see the point in having more than one child. Due to the communist ideology in China, any protests would not be known about across the wider country.
Cognitive Conflict
a conflict is created between the message of the minority and the belief already held by the majority, causing the majority to process the message of the minority more deeply
Cognitive Dissonance
unpleasant feeling of anxiety created when simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas
Collectivist Cultures
cultures such as China, which generally emphasise the needs of the group over the individual
Commitment
consistency in the face of abuse shows that minorities are committed and helps motivate individuals to consider their viewpoint
Compliance
people change their behaviour but not their minds; they know what they are doing is wrong; compliance is always separate from other forms of conformity
Confidence
another personality factor that can explain differences in conformity as the more confident an individual is, the less likely they are to conform
Conformity
changing what we do, think or say in response to others
Consistency
minorities continue to express their message over time and are perceived as united on the message, consistent minorities are persuasive and create doubt about established viewpoints and beliefs
Conversion
where majorities become gradually won over to a minority viewpoint
Critical Mass
the moment at which a minority viewpoint becomes mainstream
Degradation Process
the process of degrading a person, causing them to decline to a low, destitute or demoralised state
Dehumanisation
degrading people by lessening their human qualities
Deindividuation
the opposite of individuation; a process by which a person becomes so immersed in the norms of the group that they lose sense of self and personal responsibility
Deutsch and Gerrard (1955)
defined a social norm as a group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour for its members, such as how they are supposed to behave and think
Deutsch and Gerrard (1995)
categorised motivation to conform into two types: normative social influence and informational social influence
Diachronic Consistency
where members of a minority continue to express their message over time
Disobedient Models
provide social support by modelling that disobedience is possible, therefore could be seen as a form of conformity
Dispositional Attribution
explanation of individual behaviour as a result caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual
Dissenters
those who go against the majority, providing social support and thus making it easier for individuals to also resist social influence
Ethnocentrism
the attitude that one’s ethnicity or nationality is superior to other ethnicities or nationalities
Falchikov (1990)
content analysis into children’s ideas about old age using drawings made for the purpose and found evidence of stereotyped perceptions of older people in children
Fascist Scale
created by Adorno in 1950 and measured by a questionnaire to measure how many authoritarian personality characteristics a person has
Flexibility
minorities that compromise and are slightly inconsistent are more persuasive, but this questions the importance of consistency
Hare (2003)
described a social role as a pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person in a given setting or group
Heaven’s Gate Cult
a Californian cult which combined elements of Christianity with a belief in UFOs. In March 1997, 39 members of the group committed suicide in the belief that their souls would be transferred to a spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Most of the cult members had severed contact with their families and had sold their worldly belongings. They had committed themselves to a celibate life with eight of the men submitting to voluntary castration, seemingly in preparation of a new gender-free level of existence
Henri Tajfel Experiment 1971
the same as the Robber’s Cave experiment, but took place online with people who had never met in real life, but the results were the same
Hofling Hospital Experiment 1966
Involved 22 real nurses on night duty at a psychiatric hospital. The investigator phoned them and asked if they had the drug astrolen. When the nurse checked she could see that the maximum dosage is supposed to be 10mg. When they spoke with the doctor, they were told to administer 20mg of the drug to a patient. The doctor would say that they were in a hurry and would sign the authorization form later on. When asked previously what they would do in that situation ninety-three percent of the nurses stated they wouldn’t obey, but in reality ninety-five percent obeyed.
Identification
people change their behaviour and mind for a time, but it is later changed back; people switch from internalisation to identification
Individualistic Cultures
cultures such as the United States, which generally emphasise the needs of the individual over the group
Individual Variables
personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
Informational Social Influence
behaviour that is done to be right when you are unaware of what to do and follow the group norm and conform
Individuation
the process by which a person develops an understanding of self, developing an individual from the universal
Ironic Deviance
takes place when we believe that the behaviour of the majority is the result of unreasonable pressure from authority
Internalisation
people change their behaviour and their mind and believe that what they are doing is right; they may later switch to identification
Jelly Bean Experiment
this is an experiment where participants are asked to estimate how many jelly beans are in a jar and then discuss their answers. The participants are then asked again what they think. The study found that most participants changed their answers.
Jobsworth
do everything by the book and enjoy watching others being punished, often have authoritarian personalities
Jonestown
a cult set up by Jim Jones in the 1960s in California which relocated to the Guyanese Jungle. Over 930 people died at Jonestown. 909 of them died in a mass murder-suicide, making the Jonestown murder-suicide the greatest single loss of American civilian life until 9/11 in 2001
Kilham and Mann (1974)
replicated Milgram’s experiment in Australia and found only 16% went al the way
LaVoy et al (2001)
conduct analysis examined the drawings made by groups of seven- and eight-year-old children from Japan and the US. They found significant cultural differences, for example, the Japanese children added significantly fewer smiles, created larger figures and had a higher number of details in their pictures
Legitimacy of Authority
the degree to which indviduals are seen as justified in having power over others due to individuals being socialised to accept the power and status of authoirty figures, an example of which is army officers, who are seen as having legitimate authority to issue orders and wear insignia to show legitimate authority, which puts emphasis on doing your duty
Leonard Bickham Experiment (1974)
Bickman designed an experiment to ascertain whether appearance of the person will have an effect on obedience. He dressed his experimenter up as a guard, milkman and civilian and got him to give people orders. 89% obeyed the guard, 57% the milkman and 33% the civilian.
Lifton (1986)
studied German doctors at Auschwitz and they way they slowly shifted from autonomous to agentic state, suggesting this is a very slow process
Location
can add to or subtract from the legitimacy of an authority figure
Locus of Control
extent to which individuals believe they can control events in their lives, individual differences in a person’s beliefs and expectations about what controls events in their lives
Continuum of Locus of Control
people are not either internal or external; there is a spectrum and on one side is highly external and one side is highly internal and low locus of control is in the middle
External Locus of Control
where a person believes that what happens to them is largely down to luck and chance, so are more likely to conform because their personal opinions are limited
Internal Locus of Control
where a person believes that what happens to them is largely the result of their own behaviour and that they have control over their lives because they think for themselves and control their own behaviour, meaning they are less likely to conform
Low Locus of Control
the middle point on the continuum of locus of control, whereby someone is neither highly internal or highly external
Mai Lai Massacre
a real world parallel of the Milgram experiment, when American soldiers killed 405 innocent unarmed civilians in the Vietnam village of Mai Lai, purely because they were told to
Majority Influence
alternative term for conformity
Mantell (1971)
repeated Milgram’s experiment in Germany, found that 80% went all the way
Margaret Singer Hypothesis 1995
cult bonds are often created through such factors as the emotional attachment to the group and fear of powerful leaders making people feel dependent on the group
Margaret Wetherell Experiment 1982
involved the Robber’s Cave experiment being repeated in different cultures, and found cultural differences. Children in New Zealand, North America and Britain show far more in-group favouritism than Pacific Island, Maori and Polynesian children
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
an experiment designed to ascertain how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, where sixty five percent of participants attempted to shock an innocent stranger with 450V of electricity, purely because an authority figure told them to. All participants went past 300V, which is enough to kill a person
Milgram Paradigm
experimental procedure for measuring obedience rates
Minority Influence
where an individual or small group influence attributes and behaviour of a larger group
Mock Psychiatric Ward Study
– In 1973, Norma Orlando looked at how people conformed to roles given to them in an experiment in a mock psychiatric ward. The ward was open for three days and 51 staff members took part, 29 as mock patients and 22 by working their normal jobs. The mock patients quickly began acting like normal hospital patients. They conformed to their given roles. Lots of patients showed signs of having withdrawal and depression. Six mock patients attempted to escape the ward. Some mock patients admitted to feelings of lost identity. This study gave an insight into real patients’ experiences in hospital, which influenced hospital staff to empathise more with patients.
Morality
decisions and behaviour based upon the perception of proper conduct
Murder of Kitty Genovese 1964
an example of social conformity, in 1964, a 28-year-old bartender, Kitty Genovese, was raped, robbed and stabbed in Central Park. 38 witnesses heard a disturbance (though most of them assumed it was nothing serious) but none of them called for help. This is an example of social conformity
Neto’s Experiment 1995
Neto repeated Solomon Asch’s experiment with both men and women and found that women are more likely to conform than men
Normative Social Influence
behaviour that is done to be liked when you want to fit in with a group and be socially accepted, such as how people are more likely to smoke or vape if all of their friends are doing that even though they know the health risks
Obedience
complying with demands of an authority figure
Perrin and Spencer Experiment 1980
Perrin and Spencer repeated Solomon Asch’s experiment with UK engineering students and only 1 in 396 conformed. This shows that Asch’s research is not consistent across situations and time so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour, as people were more likely to conform to established societal norms in the 1950s. This shows that Asch’s experiment does not have temporal validity.
Personality
combination of characteristics that forms an individual’s distinctive nature
Plastic Straws to Paper Straws
the Be Straw Free Movement was launched by Milo Cress, an American 9-year-old. It was picked up by Figgener who launched the hashtag #StopSucking, because every year 500 million straws are discarded in America alone and take 200 years to decompose whereas paper straws only take 6 weeks to decompose and don’t kill 1000000 sea turtles a year. Plastic straws were banned in the UK in 2020
Prior Commitment
once a person publicly commits themselves to an opinion, they are less likely to change their minds
Reactance
occurs when a person feels that someone or something is taking away his or her choices or limiting the range of alternatives
Resistance
the ways in which individuals attempt to withstand perceived attempts to threaten freedom of choice
Robber’s Cave Experiment 1961
a series of experiments conducted by Muzafer Sherif involving a boys’ summer camp. The experimenters divided the boys into two groups. The groups became quite cohesive, involving norms of behaviour, jokes and secret codes. They set up a competition in the form of a tournament. Within the group, the boys were loyal, cooperative and had great solidarity, but between the groups, they were aggressive and prejudicial. The experimenters then introduced activities which required both groups to cooperate and work together.
Robinson and Anderson
conduct analysis that looked at the prevalence of stereotypical representations of old age in a sample of American cartoon programmes
Rotter’s Questionnaire
a 13-part questionnaire to measure locus of control
Schank and Abelson (1977)
defined a script as a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting
Script
a person’s knowledge about a sequence of events expected in a specific setting
Situational Variables
features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
Smoke-Filled Room Experiment
this experiment was conceived following the Woolworth’s fire. In this experiment, one participant is put in a room with several confederates, under the illusion that they are filling out a survey. A fire alarm is then sounded and smoke is pumped into the room. The confederates are told to ignore the fire. Due to informational social influence, most people stay in the room long enough to die of smoke inhalation.
Snowball Effect
minority influence slowly spreads to greater number of people until a tipping point is reached
Social Approval
when an idea is accepted in society
Social Change
the process by which attributes, beliefs and norms of acceptable behaviour vary over time
Social Cryptoamnesia
where people forget the original source of the opinion change, as it just seems normal
Social Disapproval
when an idea is unaccepted in society
Social Impact
where people change their behaviour because they are under a certain amount of pressure
Social Norm
a group expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable for its members, such as how they are supposed to behave and think
Social Roles
the parts individuals play as part of a social group
Social Support
perception of assistance and solidarity available from others
Solomon Asch’s Conforming and Normative Social Influence Experiment 1951
an experiment to ascertain whether people conform to a group even if they know the group is wrong. Participants were shown four lines and asked to identify which of the two lines are the same length. Each person at the table would answer wrongly and the participant would be the last but one to speak. All Asch’s participants were white male American college students. Asch found that 33% of the time, participants conformed to the obviously wrong answer. They were more likely to conform if the task difficulty was increased and less likely to conform if one confederate went against the group.
Stanford Prison Experiment
one of the most ethically debatable experiments in history, done to ascertain whether people would conform to social roles of a prison guard or prisoner, when placed in a mock prison experiment. The experiment had to be shut down after six days because the guards had begun torturing the prisoners.
Stanley Milgram
a psychologist who was the son of two Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany and the rest of his family were all sent to concentration camps. Milgram was interested in investigating the Nazi Hypothesis and what makes a person commit atrocities, so designed his Obedience experiment
Status
the position of an individual within a hierarchical group; conformity is easier to resist if people perceive themselves to be of a higher status
Synchronic Consistency
where members of a minority can be perceived as united on their message
Systematic Processing
analysis based on critical thinking, if people have time to consider the consequences of obeying, they are more likely to disobey orders that have negative consequences
Tarnow (2000)
found that flight crew were overly dependent on pilot’s perceived authority, for example, wouldn’t criticise pilots even if they were doing something dangerous because they assume the pilot must know what they were doing
Uniform
gives the impression of legitimacy to authority figures, for example, in Milgram’s experiment, the researcher wore a white lab coat
Veganism
founded by Donald Watson in 1944. He believed eating animals was cruel and would lead a decrease in the animal population. He founded the Vegan Society in 1944 with 25 subscribers. There are now 600000 vegans in the UK alone. Most people now know what vegan means and there are vegan options in most restaurants and supermarkets, as well as vegan clothes, shoes, cars and make-up. Vegans were originally called dairy-free vegetarians.
Wiesenthal’s Experiment 1976
Wiesenthal repeated Asch’s experiment, but was focusing on the effect of confidence on conformity, and showed that participants who were confident in their ability to complete a task were less likely to conform
Williams and Sogon Experiment 1984
Williams and Sogon repeated Solomon Asch’s experiment with groups of strangers and groups of friends and found conformity was higher amongst groups of friends than strangers
Woolworth’s Fire 1979
on 8th May 1979, a fire broke out in the Manchester branch of Woolworth’s, which killed 11 people. Later investigations found that the main reason people died was because they ignored alarms, instructions from staff and even the smell and visibility of smoke, but instead followed the social norm and waited to pay their restaurant bills
Zeitgeist
means spirit of the time, related to what things were happening at the time that made people think a change was needed
