Social influence Flashcards
What is social influence?
The process whereby attitudes and behaviours are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people
What is compliance?
Attempts to persuade an individual to accept a request to respond in a desired way
What is reciprocity?
Key notion in social exchange. Deeply ingrained in almost all cultures and societies
3 techniques of compliance?
Foot in the door, door in the face, low balling
What is the foot in the door technique?
Smaller request that virtually everyone agrees too, followed by the target large request. Affected by several factors
Why does the foot in the door technique work?
Commitment to a course of action, change in self -view,
What is the door in the face technique?
Larger request first that most people will reject, followed by a smaller and more reasonable request
Why does the door in the face technique work?
Derived from the norm to reciprocate, recognise the requester has made a concession, social responsibility an guilt
What is low-balling?
Relies on the fact that people do not like to change their mind after committing to a course of action.
What is obedience?
The performance of an action in direct response to an order from a figure in authority
What are the results from Milgram’s study?
65% gave the full 450 v shock
Why will people blindly follow orders from authority figures?
Agentic state, the instrument of another, increased psychological distance, little or no sense of personal responsibility
What are the ethical considerations of Milgram’s experiment?
- Harm
- Deception
- Insufficient debriefing
- Participants not told immediately that the learner did not receive any shocks
- Could any debrief overcome the emotional harm
- Transformed view of human behaviour
REPLICATIONS of milgram’s study would not be possible today
Critical evaluation of Milgram’s methods?
1) Researchers improvised from the scripted prods and invented more coercive prods
2) Were the prods a reflection of obedience to order? “you have no other choice, you must go” is the only prod that is a clear order
3) Some were participants sceptical of cover story and only 50% believed the learner was receieving the shocks
4) Engaged fellowship as an alternative explanation
5) Milgram misrepresentated debrief procedures
Define conformity?
Behaviour in accordance with the social norm
Asch’s conformity experiments 1950
First two trials all confederates answer correctly, but then give false
only 1’4 participants provided the correct answer on all 12 trialsW
Why did people conform
Informational influence - looking to others for help
Normative social influence - fear of appearing foolish and need to be accepted
Referent information influence - people derive identity from majority response (conform to group schema)
What is critical for minority influence?
Consistency - consistent condition in Moscovici’s experiment, 8% said green when slides were blue
What is social faciliation?
The enhancement of performance in the presence of other people - Allport 1924
Evidence for social faciliation?
Triplett - cyclists were faster with other cyclists compared to alone
Why does social facilitation happen?
Zjonc - presence of others leads to arousal which increases the likelihood of performing the dominant response.
What is social loafing?
When individuals work as a group. they often generate less effort than if they worked alone.
Why do people loaf?
Evaluative apprehension - tasks are uninteresting
Output equity - expecting other members to load, so loaf yourself
Deindividuation - being in a group leads to a weakened sense of personal identity (can explain anti-social behaviour in large groups)
