Social Influence

Question 1

What is social influence?

Answer 1

Social influence is efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes and behaviours of one or more persons.

Question 2

Asch’s (1950s) Research on Conformity

What is conformity?

Answer 2

A type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behaviour in order to adhere to social norms.

Asch’s (1950s) Research on Conformity
* Participants were asked to indicate which of three lines matched a standard line in length.
* During the critical trials, participants had to give their answers after a unanimous group gave the
wrong answer.
* 76% conformed at least once to the group’s false judgment.
* Overall, they agreed with the errors 37% of the time.
* Later research found that an ally (someone who disagreed with the group) and the ability to make
responses privately both reduced conformity.

Question 3

Factors affecting conformity

Answer 3

• Cohesiveness - The degree of attraction felt by an individual toward an influencing group. As
  cohesiveness increases, conformity increases.
• **Group size **- As group size increases, conformity increases.
• Status - Senior group members often feel less pressure to conform.
• Unanimity – the bigger the unanimous majority the more pressure to conform
• Descriptive and Injunctive Norms
• Descriptive norms – describe what people do under different circumstances i.e. what is
  typical
• Injunctive norms – tell us what is approved or disapproved behaviour under different
  circumstances
  * Normative Focus Theory - Predicts that people are more likely to conform to descriptive and
  injunctive norms when they are salient to them. i.e. norms will influence us if they are personally
  relevant

Question 4

Why do we conform?

Answer 4

-Conformity stems from our** need to be liked and accepted** as well as our need to have a precise understanding of our social world (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955; Insko, 1985).
- Normative social influence refers to social influences stemming from our desire to be liked or
accepted by others. In order to get others to like us we want to appear similar and conform to social norms. (Social norms - rules regarding how people are expected to behave in specific situations)
- Informational social influence refers to social influence based on the desire to possess
accurate social perceptions. We want to have a correct understanding of our social world. This is an especially strong source of conformity when the task is important and difficulty and uncertainty are high.

Question 5

Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971)

Answer 5

• Aimed to determine whether participants would come to behave like real guards and real
  prisoners if placed in those roles.
• The participants quickly assumed the established norms of these roles, with the guards exercising
  complete control, treating the prisoners harshly, harassing and physically punishing them.
• A visiting psychologist deemed the study unethical and found that the prisoners showed signs of
  psychological distress.
• Zimbardo had to end the prison simulation early, finding that the extreme behaviour exhibited by
  the guards was due to the situation rather than personality traits.

Question 6

Why do some people not conform?

Answer 6

• Valuing individuality and control
  
  • Power
  • Presence of dissenters (those who hold minority opinions)
  • Strong personal convictions and high self esteem (less influenced by the need for social approval)

Question 7

Compliance

Answer 7

A type of social influence involving direct requests from one person to another.

Question 8

Reasons for why we comply

Principles that underlie compliance

Answer 8

• Friendship/Liking: we are more likely to comply if a friend or someone we like makes a
  request as opposed to a stranger or someone we do not like.
• Commitment/Consistency: if we have made a commitment to a position or action, we tend
  to comply with requests for actions that are consistent with the position or action as
  opposed to requests that are inconsistent.
• Scarcity: we tend to comply with a request if it involves outcomes or objects that are
  relatively scarce.
• Reciprocity: we are more likely to comply if the request comes from someone who has done
  a favor for us in the past.
• Social Validation: we are more likely to comply if we believe that similar others are behaving
  in the same way.
• Authority: we are more likely to comply if the request comes from an authority figure (it can
  be someone with real authority or someone who “appears” to have authority).

Question 9

Tactics for Compliance

Answer 9

• Friendship/Liking Tactics
• Commitment or Consistency Tactics
• Reciprocity Tactics
• Scarcity Tactics
• Sales Techniques and Cognitive Dissonance

Question 10

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Studies (1963, 1965a, 1974)

Obedience

Answer 10

Form of social influence in which someone simply tells an individual to perform a specific task or activity.

Compliance of person is due to perceived authority of asker. The request is perceived as a
command.

Question 11

Why does destructive obedience occur?

Answer 11

• Authority assumes responsibility
• Authority’s status is evident and reminds people of social norms to obey
• Authority’s commands involve gradual escalation (the foot-in-the-door compliance technique)
• Participants have little time for reflection or systematic processing

Question 12

Resisting the effects of destructive obedience

Answer 12

• Increase participants’ responsibility for any harm done to others
• Indicate that total submission to authority is inappropriate
• Provide disobedient models
• Question authority’s expertise and motives
• Increase awareness of the power of the situation
• Share the results of research studies on obedience

Question 13

Unintentional Social Influence

Answer 13

Emotional Contagion
– when our feelings and emotions are influenced by those of others unintentionally. When we
observe emotions in other we tend to match their feelings.
Symbolic Social Influence
— influence of others even when they are not there. The mental representations of others or our
relationships with them influence our behaviour.
* People can be influenced by others even when they are not physically present.
* Thinking about others evokes relational schemas, which may trigger goals related to them.
* Goals that are associated with a person one is thinking about may be activated.
* Being reminded of these goals can increase compliance with them and strongly affect behaviour.
Modelling
– learning through observing the actions of others or using them as a guide to own behaviour in
situations where there are no clear rules for how we should behave.