Social influence Flashcards
what is social influence?
effects that other people can have on our thoughts, feelings and behaviours
what is radicalisation?
type of social influence where people are encouraged to strike out at a society that they are led to believe is wrong or immoral
what is conformity?
people follow rules and regulations
changing behaviour, but not beliefs
what is compliance?
process of doing as one is asked, or as one is required by regulations
what is obedience?
process of doing what one is told by an authority figure
what is acceptance
changing behaviour and beliefs
Sherif (‘35, ‘37) - explain study on conformity (methods and findings)
method:
- PPs seated in dark, asked to observe pinpoint of a light
- light suddenly disappears
- PPs on their own, asked to estimate how much it moves
- later, PPs asked to do same thing, but this time they are given estimates of two others in study
found:
- when PPs interacted with each other, results became more similar to each other, compared with answer alone
- new group norm emerges, which persists over time (when asked alone again, group norm answer remains
Asch ‘55 method and findings
method:
- PP in group of 6 confederates
- diagram of lines, asked to choose which comparison line matches the standard line
findings:
- in control condition = 99% accuracy
- in experimental condition = 63% accuracy
Milgram ‘65, ‘74
method:
- PP is to teach “student” (confederate) a series of paired words, and then test memory
- punish errors by giving electric shock
- hear “student” has a heart condition, hears about “paste” that prevents burning, and that shocks would not cause permanent damage
- at 300V person stopped responding, which is taken as incorrect response
- “please continue”, “it is absolutely essential that you continue”, “you have no other choice, you must go on”
findings:
- as intensity of shock increase, obedience decreased
- 63% of PPs went up to and beyond 450V
- more (65%) went to the end when student pounded on wall rather than made noise
Milgram variations
proximity of experimenter:
- obedience drops to 21%
proximity of learner:
- if teacher cannot see/hear learner at all, almost 100% obedience
group pressure:
- two disobedient peers reduced complete obedience to 10%
- two obedient peers raised it to 93%
- very similar results across all studies, no gender differences, few cross cultural differences
stanford prison experiment ‘71
method:
- prisoners arrested and taken to prison, processed like real prisoners
- guards dressed the same, designed to deindividuate them
results:
- prisoner rebellion sparked authoritarian guard behaviour
- lead to harassment, degradation
- stopped after only 6 days (meant to be for 2 weeks)
factors affecting social influence
individual/task related factors:
- difficult task
- participants feel incompetent/insecure
group related factors:
- group size
- seems to be optimal group size - too many or too little seems to reduce conformity
unanimity:
- if someone dissents, conformity occurs only one fourth as often
status:
- higher status has more impact
- lower status people more likely to conform
public/private
prior commitment:
- people unlikely to back down
why do people get influenced?
(normative/informational SI)
normative social influence = to avoid rejection (compliance)
informational social influence = to obtain important information (acceptance)
who is more susceptible?
gender?
- not really any differences found
personality/individual differences?
- fairly weak connections
- low self esteem, high need for social support, need for self control, low IQ, high anxiety = greater conformity
culture?
- collectivist cultures tend to be more likely to conform than individualist cultures
- conformity greater in cultures where there are heavy sanctions for non conformity
when do we resist?
- tend to resist when influence attempts are blatant
- social support, dissenting
