Social Influence Flashcards
Conformity
A person’s behaviour or thinking changes because of group pressure. This pressure can be imagined or real
Social factors affecting conformity
- group size
- anonymity
- task difficulty
How does group size affect conformity
People more likely to conform to behaviour of others when in a group of three or more due to increased pressure
How does anonymity affect conformity
Being anonymous reduces conformity as we will not face consequences of ridicule or disagreement
How does task difficulty affect conformity
People conform more when attempting a more difficult task as they lack confidence in there own judgement and look to others for guidance
Dispositional factors affecting conformity
- personality
- expertise
How does personality affect conformity
Lower self esteem and social status can cause people to conform more as they look to others for guidance
How does expertise affect conformity
People with high expertise are less likely to conform as they have more confidence in their own ability
Asch DATE
1955
Asch AIM
- study conformity
- see if people would choose an incorrect, unambiguous answer to conform
Asch METHOD
- 123 American male students
- 1 naïve P tested with 6-8 confederates with P near end
- had to say which line was same length as X (A, B or C)
- confederates have right answers first then wrong
Asch RESULTS
- in 12 critical trials naïve Ps gave wrong answer 36.8%
- 25% Ps never conformed, 75% confirmed at least once
Asch CONCLUSION
- people influenced by group pressure
- Asch effect - to what extent people conform in unambiguous situation
Asch STRENGTH
- lab study
- high control of variables, able to carefully alter specific factors (group size), standardised procedures, can be replicated and verified
- high internal validity
Asch WEAKNESSES
- results may only be relevant to 1950s America
- senator McCarthy led McCarthyism to identify and ostracise people with communist tenancies, similar study in UK (1980) - only 1 P conformed in 396 trials
- Asch effect may not be consistent over time
_ - artificial task
- judging length of line isn’t common, real life task, people may be willing to conform when task unimportant, naïve P in group with unknown people
- results can’t be generalised to when results are conformity are important
Obedience
Acting in response to a direct from an authority figure
Milgram’s agency theory DATE
1963
Milgram’s agency theory parts
- social hierarchy
- agency
- proximity
- authority
Milgram’s agency theory SOCIAL HIERARCHY
- most societies are structured in a way that means people take orders from those above them
- we are agents for them
Milgram’s agency theory AGENCY
- agentic state - we act on behalf of somebody else and follow orders blindly, we feel no responsibility, more likely to be obedient
- autonomous state - we behave based on our moral principles, have free will, are responsible for our actions, less likely to be obedient
- agentic shift - moving from autonomous to agentic state when confronted with person perceived as having legitimate authority
Milgram’s agency theory PROXIMITY
- closeness
- obedience decreases as proximity to the person you’re harming increases - guilt
- obedience increases as proximity increases to authority figure
Milgram’s agency theory AUTHORITY
Uniform makes authority figure more legitimate
Milgram’s agency theory STRENGTH
- research support
- Blass and Schmitt (2000) showed film of Milgram’s experiment who blamed ‘experimenter’ over ‘teacher’ for harming ‘learner’
- students recognised legitimate authority of experimenter caused obedience