Social Influence Flashcards
Cryptomnesia
The process by which minority behaviours become the majority view.
Population does not remember how/why the shift happened
Conversion
ISI
The majority internlise a new behaviour or belief
What are the factors for Minority influence to be successful?
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
Moscovici (Minority Influence) - Method
Groups of 6, 2 of which were confederates - consistently called the slides green
Ppts judged colour of (blue) slides
Why does research into minority influence lack external validity?
artificial scenarios which do not reflect real-life situations
Asch - method
Conformity %
3 lines to compare to line X
1 true ppt
75% of ppts conformed at least once
higher conformity on more difficult tasks
Asch - factors that influence comformity
Group size
Presence of another dissenter
Task difficulty
Ppt variables
Gender
How did the addition of another dissenter effect conformity rates? - Asch
Conformity dropped to 31.8% with 3 confederates, but any more made little difference
What happened if the confederate was inconsistent? - Asch
25% conformity
Naive ppt act more independently
strengths and weaknesses of Asch as a lab study
Controlled
Minimise extraneous variables
Replicable
Artificiality = low ecological validity
Types of Conformity
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
Types of Social Influence
Informational SI
Normative SI
Research support - NSI
Adolescents exposed to messages that peers their age weren’t smoking were less likely to smoke
Hotel guests told that 75% of guests reused towels, 25% decrease in towel usage
Reasons for non-conformity
Independence
Anti-Conformity
Social Support
External locus of control
Locus of control
Rotter
0 = internal, things happen as a result of our own actions
13 = things happen as a result of forces beyound our control
LOC evaluation - Holland - Shocks
37% of internals refused to go to max shock
23% of externals refused to go to the maximum shock
LOC - Twenge - meta analysis
Meta analysis
Young Americans increasingly likly to believe that their lives are controlled by forces beyonf their control
What is an external LOC correlated with?
Poor school achievement
LOC Study- Schurz -ultrasound
Ultrasound stimulation to a learner
56 ppts
20 steps, highest caused skin damage
80% went to the end
Not predictive of LOC
Authoritarian Personality
Struct coherence to conventional values
Belief in absolute obedience
Adorno - F-scale
How do those with an authoritarian personality view the world?
measure the different components of the authoritarian personality
Those with an authoritarian personality saw the world as black and white
Strict adherence to social hierarchies
Elms + Milgram method
20 obedient, 20 defiant ppts, 2 months after shock experiment
MMPI + F-scale
asked about upbringing and their attitudes towards experimenter + learner
Elms + MIlgram findings
MMPI showed little difference between obedient and defiant ppts
Obedient ppts had higher levels of authoritarianism
Why are dispositional explanations of obedience not a full explanation?
Prejudice and submissiveness could be caused by a poor stabdard of education as a child
Lacks internal validity - ignores situational factors
How was Adorno’s sample bias? - F-scale
2000 white, middle-class Americans
Lacks population + temporal validity
Not generalisable
Milgram - background
Social psychology professor at Yale inspired by trial of nazi, Adolf Eichmann, who claimed he was simply ‘following orders’
Milgram - Method
40 male volunteers
15-450 volts
ppts encouraged to keep going when the wished to withdraw
Milgram - what % went to 450V?
65% continued to 450 volts, where the learner became unresponsive
What percentage went to max shock with learner in the same room
40%
Agentic State
A stae where a person acts as though they are an ‘agent’ of another person
Autonomous state
People have control and act according to their own wishes
Agentic state vs cruelty - Zimbardo
Ppts may have used the situation to express their sadistic tendencies
Guards acting harshly despite no authority figure
Obedience may be caused by certain aspects of human nature
RS - Legitimacy of authority
Showed students a film of Milgram
Experimenter blamed due to legitimacy of authority
Real-World application of agentic state + legitimacy of authority
Improving leadership + communication skills
Encourage critical thinking + independent decision making
Criticisms of agentic state
ignore individual differences
Oversimplify complex social and psychological phenomena
Weaknesses of Zimbardos study
ignores individual differences
Guards behaviour inconsistent
Stereotypical
Lack of realism
Ethical Issues
Lack of rtw
Zimbardo Conclusions
Social roles have a strong influence on behaviours
Power may corrupt those who yield it
Institutions brutalise people and lead to deinstitutionalisation
Prsons exert psychological damage
What percentage went to max shock when in an office building
48%
What percentage went to max shock when hands were touching
30%
What percentage went to max shock when orders given over phone
20.5%
How did Yuille and Cutshall obtain their results
interview
degree of stress - 7-point scale
Asked about how the event affected them emotionally
those with highest stress levels had most accurate results
What % went to max shock when the experimenter was replaced by another ppt in ordinary clothes?
20%
What %b went to max shock when in a run down building?
48%
What % went to max shock in Milgrams original study?
65%
What % went to max shock when someone else administered the shock?
92.5%
What did Asch do?
Conducted several experiments in the 1950s to determine how people are affected by the thoughts and behaviours of others
The Asch Effect
The influence of the group majority on an individuals judgement
2 Types of social influence
Normative Social Influence
Informational Social Influence
3 Types of conformity
Internalisation
Identification
Compliance
What did Zimbardo do?
Conducted a famous experiment which he claimed to demonstrate the power of conformity in social roles
Compliance
Going along with a request or demand in public whilst disagreeing with the group’s viewpoint or behaviour in private
The change in people’s expressed views is temporary
Internalisation
When an individual changes their behaviour to fit in with a group publicly whilst also agreeing with them privately
The strongest from of conformity
Identification
When someone conforms to the demands of a social roles in society
Asch - line judgement task method
Lines a,b,c & X
One true naive ppt
Asch - line judgement task results
75% conformed at least once
Asch - 4 key factors which influence conformity
Size of the majority
Presence of another dissenter
Public or private nature of response
Task difficulty
Asch - what happened to conformity rates with the presence of another dissenter?
Dropped to near Zero
Asch - limitations
Lacks ecological validity
Deception - ethical issue
Asch - Strengths
Lab setting meant variables were strictly controlled
- replicable
- minimize influence of extraneous variables
How did confidence influence Asch Study?
Ppts who felt confident in their decisions did not succumb to group pressure as easily
Perrin + Spencer - Asch experiment on engineering sudents
Conformity rates were not as high as in Asch’s study, which may be down to the engineers being confident in their decision making
What did Eagly believe caused men and women to show different levels of conformity?
Social roles
Women are more likely to conform because they don’t like conflict
Men are less likely to conform because they are expected to show independence and assertiveness
Normative Social Influence
People conform to the group norm to fit in, feel good and be accepted by the group
Informational Social Influence
People conform because they believe the group is competent and has the correct information, particularly when the task or situation is situational
Social Role - definition
A pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person in a given setting or group
Social norm - definition
A group’s expectation of what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour for its members - how they are supposed to behave and think
Script - definition
A persons knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting
How did Zimbardo collect his sample?
Advertisement in a California newspaper
70+ male volunteers - all underwent psychological testing and background checks
Narrowed down to 24 healthy male college students
Payed $15 / day
Zimbardo - Where was the mock prison set up?
Basement of a psychology building at Stanford
How long was Zimbardos experiment supposed to run?
2 weeks
Zimbardo - what happened on day 2?
Some of the prisoners revolted, and the guards quelled the rebellion by threatening the prisoners with night sticks
Zimbardo - How did the guards start treating the prisoners?
The guards harass the prisoners in an increasingly sadistic manner, through a complete lack of privacy and basic comforts
Zimbardo - what happened to the prisoners?
Began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness - began toerating the guards abuse?
Zimbardos role in the mock prison
Superintendent
Zimbardo - when did the exp end?
Why?
6 days due to the ppts deteriorating behaviour
Zimbardo - role of social norms
Guards to be authoritarian
Prisoners to be submissive
When prisoners rebelled, they violated these social norms, leading to upheaval
BBC Prison Study - Aim
Observe how dynamics between the group evolved over time
BBC Prison Study - how many volunteers?
5 guards
10 inmates
BBC Prison Study - what was measured daily?
Compliance, Stress & Depression Levels
BBC Prison Study - what was set up to stop the study if necessary?
Ethics Committee
BBC Prison Study - Results
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 as the guards had a weak group identity and the prisoners formed a strong group identity
BBC Prison Study - days 1-3
All prisoners acted in a way that they thought would allow them to become guards
BBC Prison Study - day 4
The prisoners group formed a stronger idedntity as they knew they couldn’t get promoted
BBC Prison Study - day 6
Prisoners rebelled - ppts formed a democracy which eventually failed because of group tensions
Some ex-prisoners tried to establish a hierarchy
BBC Prison Study - how did it end?
The ethics committee stopped the experiment early due to the ppts stress levels
BBC Prison Study - Conclusion
The volunteers didn’t embody or stick to their assigned role
This implies flexibility of roles
BBC Prison Study - strengths
No deception
Protection - ethics committee
BBC Prison Study - limitations
Lacks ecological validity
Staged for TV
Lack of empowerment
Obedience
The change of an individuals behaviour to comply with a demand by an authority figure
Why do people comply?
Concern of consequence if they do not comply
Inspiration of Milgrams experiment
Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal
Claimed he was ‘following orders’
Milgrams - Method
40 male volunteers, told they were participating in a study to improve learning and memory
Shown a device they were told would deliver electric shocks of different intensities
Volts increased in 15V increments
Milgram - What % went to the max shock?
65%
Milgram - % max shock in office building
48%
Milgram - % max shock with learner in same room
40%
Milgram - % max shock when hands were touching
30%
Milgram - % max shock when orders given over phone
23%
Milgram - strengths
Strict control of variables
Milgram - limitations
Low ecological validity
Deception
Lack of protection
Agentic state
An individual acts as though they are an agent of another person
Autonomous state
People act according to their own wishes
How was agentic state shown in Milgrams study?
Ppts admitted to feeling under ‘moral strain’
Agentic shift
An individual shifts from autonomous to agentic state
What 3 Factors did Milgram suggest may have caused the ppts to stay in the agentic state?
Insistence of authority
Pressure of location
Unwillingness to disrupt
3 main situational factors of obedience
Proximity
Location
Power of uniforms
What did the researchers wear in Milgrams study?
Lab coat
Who proposed the idea of an authoritarian personality?
Adorno
What does the F stand for in the F scale?
Fascist
F-Scale evaluation
Easily manipulated - ppts may be able to 2nd guess
Correlates with education - provides an alternative explanation
Independence
A lack of consisten movement either towards or away from social expectancy
Anti-conformity
A consisten movement away from social conformity
Asch - conformity levels with the presence of a dissenter from the start of the study
5.5%
Asch - conformity rate when a dissenter joined later in the study
8.5%
Cultural differences in LoC
Japanese people conform more easily than Americans also have higher levels of authoritarianism
What type of LoC is more likely to resist obedience?
Internal
What factor makes an internal LoC more likely to resist obedience?
Suspecting manipulation
Conversion
The process where the majority gradually adopt a new minority viewpoint or behaviour.
The new belief becomes accepted both privately and publicly
How does Conversion happen?
Informational Social Influence
3 Main factors in Minority Influence
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
When is commitment seen as stronger?
If the minority has to resist social pressure and abuse because of their viewpoint
Systematic Processing
The minority viewpoint is carefully considered over time
What is needed for permanent change?
identification
Moscovici - Judge colour of slide - Results
Ppts conformed 8.42% of the time
32% agreed at least once
Confederates inconsistent - 1.25% conformity
3 Things guards were given in Zimbardos study
Batons
Mirror sunglasses
Uniform
Hoffling - Hospital study providing external validity to Milgrams study
Researcher phoned nurses and instructed to administer 20mg of Astroten, an unfamiliar drug
21/22 obeyed
What evidence was there to suggest that the ppts in Milgrams study believed the shocks to be genuine?
2 had panic attacks
70% stated in the debrief that they believed it to be genuine
ppts showed signs of anxiety and distress - trembling, biting lip
Puppy study - supporting internal validity of Milgrams study
15V shocks - students told volts increased
Puppy squealed
Most students went up to 450V
3 Traits of authoritarian personality
Rigid beliefs in conventional values
Intolerance of ambiguity
Submissive towards authority figures
Abu Ghraib study - Zimbardo evaluation
Guards abusive towards prisoners even though the guards were held accountable for their behaviour
Uniforms of Prisoners in the Stanford Prison experiment
loose smock to wear and a cap to cover their hair
How were the prisoners identifies in Zimbardos study?
by a number
The effect of uniforms in Zimbardos study
Lead to de-individualisation, meaning they were more likely to confirm to social roles
Milgrams - % max shock when in a run-down office
47.5%
Milgrams - % max shock when learner in same room
40%
Milgrams - % max shock when hands touching
30%
Milgrams - % max shock when orders iven over phone
20.5%
Milgrams - % max shock when in ordinary clothes
20%
What did Adorno believe about absolute obedience?
Absolute obedience is a psychological disorder with its roots embedded in personality
‘other’ groups
Minorities
What is believed to cause an authoritarian personality?
Harsh parenting in childhood, where the parents gave conditional love.
Children acquire hostility and resentment towards this parents and displace it onto socially inferior - This is known as scapegoating
Authoritarian personality definition
a type of personality that Adorno believed to be especially susceptible to obey authority
Such individuals are thought to be dismissive of those of a lower status and submissive towards those of a higher status
Adorno Sample
2000 white, middle-class Americans
Adorno - Aim
Investigate unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups
2 examples of items on the F scale
‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn’
‘There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for their parents’
Cognitive style of an authoritarian personality
No fuzziness between categories of people, with fixed fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
Authoritarianism cannot explain a whole countries behaviour
Millions of individuals in WW2 Germany displayed obedient and antisemitic behaviour, but they can’t all have the same personality
More likely explanation that the Germans identified with the Nazi state, meaning AP cannot explain the atrocities of WW2
Education vs Obedience + Authoritarianism
less-educated people are consistently more authoritarian and obedient than well-educated people.
2 Explanations of resistance to Social influence
Social Support
Internal LoC
Asch - social support
a dissenter doesn’t have to give the correct answer, but simply break the unanimity to free the individual to follow their own conscience
Milgram - social support
10% conformity when joined by a disobedient confederate
Social Support definition
the presence of people who resist social pressures to conform or obey and help others to do the same.
These people act as models for resistance to SI
Evidence for social support as an explanation for resistance to SI - smoking
Pregnant adolescents with a buddy who advocated against smoking were less likely to smoke than their peers without a buddy
The Rosenstrasse Illustration
Protest in Nazi Germany in 1943 where German women protested against the arrest of their Jewish husband.
Despite threats that they would be fired up on, the women collectively refused orders to disperse and their husbands were eventually set free
Snowball effect
Over time, more and more people become converted, and there is a switch from the minority to the majority
What does minority influence lead to?
Internalization or conversion, in which private attitiudes are changed as well as public behaviours
Moscovici - investigatin the effect of minority influence - procedure
group of 6 people, 2 of which were confederates, asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides. the confederates consistently said green
Moscovici - what % conformed to the minority?
8.42%
Moscovici - % conformity with an inconsistent minority
1.25%
Moscovici - % wrong answer with no confederated
0.25%
Stimulated Jury - support for flexibility of minority influence
A group discussed compensation to be payed to someone involved in an accident
Inflexible confederate had no effect, as well as a Confederate who was flexible too early. only those who ccompromised later were successful
2 types of consistency
Synchronic Consistency
Diachronic consistency
Synchronic Consistency
Minority all saying the same thing
Diachronic Consistency
All saying the same thing for some time
5 steps of social change through minority influence
- Drawing attention to issue
- Cognitive conflict
- Consistency
- Augmentation principle
- Snowball effect
Social change through majority influence
Social norms intervention
Young adults frequently misinterpret the frequency at which a behaviour occurs among their peers.
Social norms interventions communicate to a target population the actual norm concering such behaviour, in the hope that recipients will change their behaviour to bring it in line with the norm
How does minority influence explain social change?
Nemeth states that minority influence causes people to engage in divergent thinking which leads to better decisions and creative solutions to social problems
Why does minority influence only happen gradually?
there is a tendency for humans to follow the majority influence, meaning people are more likely to maintain the status quo than engage in social change
Support for Normative SI - messages on door
Nolen et Al - hung message on door that most residents are trying to reduce energy usage
Saw a significant decrease in energy usage compared to the control who saw message with no reference to other people behaviour
