Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
People follow formal rules and regulations
Can be explicit (compliance)
Changing behaviours but not beliefs
What are the types of conformity?
Compliance and Obedience
What is obedience?
People following instructions from an authority figure
What is compliance?
Explicit
A person is doing what is asked of them or what is required by them from regulations
What are injunctive norms?
Norms that are perceived as being approved of by other people
What was Sherif’s study procedure in 1935?
Participants were asked to sit in a dark room and look at a pinpoint of light. There is an illusion where it seems the light is moving in the dark, this is called the autokinetic effect. The participants were unaware of this illusion and when the light disappeared were asked if the light had moved.
What did Sherif’s study find?
Participants asked to perform the same task, they had to call out their responses in groups of 2 or 3. Responses converged as they agreed with each other, creating a group normative estimate. Everyone’s estimates had become similar. This created a joint group frame of reference. A group norm emerged overtime. Participants saw how others in their group responded and adjusted their response. When they were asked to make a judgement on their own again, the group norm persists overtime.
How does ambiguity affect conformity?
When people are unsure of their own judgements
Groups give people a framework to judge an appropriate response
What is Asch’s study of conformity?
Male participants
True participant seated 6th in a row of 7 people
Perceptual judgement task
One was a true participant, the rest were confederates
Standard line and 3 comparison lines, they were asked to pick a comparison line which matched the length of the standard line. The right and wrong answers were obvious (unambiguous test.) Call out their answers. There was a control group.
Confederates before the ps gave the correct answer. Participant gave the correct response as well. 18 trials altogether. The confederates before the ps gave the wrong response for 12 of them. The participants gave the wrong answer as well to 6 or more trials.
Control condition: 99% accuracy
Experimental condition: participants chose the correct line 68% of the time
What a limitation of Milgram’s study?
Are people blindly obedient in a situation where they objectively have free will, or was it because of being deprived of free will as a result of bullying?
What are the ethical issues of Milgram’s study?
Psychological distress caused
Distress was long lasting
In the debrief, being told they were subjects to a huge hoax, could cause them future trust issues and low self esteem
How did Milgram counteract the ethical issues in his study?
Participants were relieved not distressed or angry in the debriefing
83% said they were glad to have taken part
1% were sorry to have taken part
15% had neutral feelings
Psychiatrist interviews were conducted and there was no ill effects for the participants
What did the replications of Milgram’s study find?
- Few cross cultural studies
Dolinski 2017 find in Poland that 90% of participants went up to 150 volts
Beauvois 2012 find that in France, participants who believed they were on a gameshow went up to 450 volts
-Gender
Milgram 1974 replicated his own study and found women obeyed as much as men
- Not related to pathological traits
- No difference if instructions were given by a robot or human (90% in both conditions) Grzyb 2023
What is social influence?
The effect others have on our thoughts, feelings and behaviours
What is acceptance?
Changing behaviour and beliefs
What does Sherif’s study suggest about conformity?
Ambiguous stimulus when the individuals were alone, so they used their internal frame of reference.
In the groups, individuals experienced a differential judgement from others, meaning their frame of reference was questioned and a joint frame of reference was established
If a participant is confident in their own response, they won’t be affected by the norms of a group. When there isn’t an unambiguous task, an individual expects no disagreement in judgement because they’re more sure of their answer. This individual can resist social influence.
What was the procedure of Milgram’s 1965 study of obedience?
Interested in why people confirmed in atrocities
The learner is a confederate
The teacher was the participant
The teacher had to teach the learner to learn a series of paired words, the learner’s memory was then tested
The learner is strapped in a chair, electrodes attached, when the learner made a mistake, the teacher gave them a shock.
Learner complained of a heart condition, the experimenter explained that although they were painful, they wouldn’t cause permanent tissue damage
15 volts (mild shock) to 450volts
Teacher moves to a higher voltage every time the learner makes a mistake
Learner has pre-determined responses e.g. complaining their heart bothers them, 300volts: learner stopped responding
When a teacher was hesitant, the experimenter would give them 3 prompts, please continue, it is essential for you to continue, you have no choice- you must go on
What did Milgram’s study of obedience find?
Original study: Obedience decreased as shock level increased, 63% of teachers went above 450 volts
Proximity of experimenter:
obedience stops when experimenter is more distant
yet when there were no instructions given at all, 2.5% still persisted to the end
Proximity of the learner:
When the learner wasn’t seen or heard, obedience is high and 65% finished to the end
Obedience drops, as the learner becomes closer
In a ‘touch’ condition e.g. teacher holding the learner’s hand down onto a shock plate, obedience is reduced
Group pressure:
2 disobedient peers (teachers), reduced obedience
2 obedient peers (teachers), obedience increased
What did Begue and Verizian’s study in 2023 find?
People were asked to deliver a noxious substance to a fish
Fish weren’t real, ps didn’t know
Ps were made aware that the fish would die if too much was given, substance would cause fish pain
most people continued to the end and killed the fish
Men with low empathy, high social dominance, high speciesism (see themselves as above animals) were most likely to continue
What did the Stanford Prison experiment find?
2 weeks
Participants were assigned to be prisoners or guards
Prisoners were arrested, cuffed and taken to prison
Prisoners wore smocks with numbers, addressed by their numbers
Processed like real prisoners
Guards dressed in khaki and wore sunglasses
Uniforms were used to deindividuate them
Prisoners began rebelling, which sparked authoritarian guard behaviour
Lead to the guards harassing and degrading prisoners
Experiment stopped after 6 days
People who volunteered for the study were more likely to be more aggressive, authoritarian, social dominance and abuse related dispositions. Lower on empathy. As participants weren’t randomly allocated
Guards made rules and would enforce them
Guards were enthusiastic about the roles they were given
Conditions were distressing and oppressive
What is the ‘power of the situation’?
Normative pressure
These situations are evil, not the individual
Moral judgement is suspended
Lucifer effect - people become evil, if the circumstances are right
Milgram and Zimbardo constructed their studies so evil could flourish, people in leadership roles were instructed to be evil e.g. experimenters in the Milgram study
What is the banality of evil?
Some argue that during the WW’s people weren’t evil, they were just doing their job. Adolf Eichmann was responsible for the Nazi final solution
Eichmann had a strong hatred for Jewish people
it’s not always about the situation, people choose to be in certain positions
How does task related factors influence conformity?
Difficult tasks makes participants feel more insecure in their own attitudes, thus the influence of others is stronger
How do group related factors influence conformity?
Group Size - Asch
Groups of 3-5 people produce more conformity
Group conformity maxed out at 5 members
More than 5 people makes no difference to conformity
