Social Influence Flashcards
What is compliance?
- The person conforms publicly but continues privately to disagree
- It is the shallowest form of conformity
What is identification?
- The person conforms publicly as well as privately because they have identified with the group and they feel a sense of group membership
- The change of belief or behaviour is often temporary
What is internalisation?
- The person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group
- It is the deepest form of conformity
Normative Social Influence
This is really just following the crowd in order to fit in with the ‘norm’ and be liked by the group.
Informational Social Influence
A person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right as we look to them for the right answer.
What was the Solomon Asch (1956) Line Experiment procedure?
- 123 American male students who thought they were taking part in a study of visual perception
- PPTs placed in groups with between 7-9 others, who were confederates.
- Had to say which comparison line. A, B or C was the same as stimulus line
- On 12/18 ‘critical’ trials the confederates gave identical wrong answers
- Real PPTs were always answering last or last but one
What were the findings of Solomon Asch (1956) Line Experiment?
- On 12 critical trials, 37% of the responses made by true PPTs were incorrect
- 25% never conformed on any of the trials • Control: 1% inaccurate response
What is distortion of action?
Didn’t want to ‘stand out’ so conformed to group publicly but not privately.
What was the distortion of judgement?
Doubted their accuracy.
How did group size affect conformity?
Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority.
- Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three.
How did unanimity affect conformity?
The extent to which all members of the group agree. In Asch’s study, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line.
- This produced the greatest conformity in naïve Pp.
How did task difficulty affect conformity?
Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer.
- Conformity increases because naïve Pp assume the majority is right.
The limitations of Asch’s study?
- Artificial situation and task - low external validity. Demand characteristics may have occurred
- Limited application of findings - only men from US an individualist culture (care about themselves). Collectivist cultures (i.e. China – care about others)have found higher conformity rates
Social roles
The parts people play as members of various social groups e.g parent, child, teacher etc. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role, e.g caring, obedient or aggressive
What is the social Identity theory?
- People identify themselves as belonging to particular social groups
- We favour our own group over any group to which we do not belong.
- We maximise the similarities within the group and the differences between our group and others.
What were the aims of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Attempts to explain the violent and brutal conditions often found in prisons had previously used dispositional attribution
- The condition of prisons are due to the nature of the prison guards and the prisoners.
What was Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment procedure?
- 25 male volunteers were randomly allocated ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’ for a study into ‘prison life’
- They were blindfolded, sprayed with disinfectant, given numbers to memorize to make it as real as posible.
- They were only referred to by number and supervised constantly.
- The guards wore uniform and were allowed to make up the rules.
What were the experiences of Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment guards?
- Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily.
- Within hours of beginning the experiment some guards began to harass prisoners. They behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it. Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented.
- The prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders, they were given pointless and boring tasks to accomplish, and they were generally dehumanised.
What were the results of Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment?
- The guards took to their roles with such eagerness that the study had to be discontinued after six days instead of the proposed 14
- The prisoners rebelled, ripped their uniforms and swore at the guards – who retaliated with fire extinguishers…
- Some prisoners exhibited passive behaviour, depression, crying and anxiety
What were the conclusions of Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment?
- The “prison environment” was an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior
- (none of the participants who acted as guards had shown sadistic tendencies before the study)
- People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play
- Especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of prison guards
- The roles that people play shape their attitudes and behavior.
Gamson (1982)
29 out of 33 Pp rebelled when asked to support the oil company. 88% rebelled.
What was Holland’s study with LOC and rates of obedience?
Repeated Milgram’s study. Measured if internal or external
37% of internals didn’t continue to highest shock level. Only 23% of externals didn’t continue.
Commitment
Minorities can exert influence by showing dedication, i.e. being willing to make sacrifices and take risks if necessary.
Flexibility
Majority opinions shifts more if the minority is flexible, accepting and considering valid counter arguments.
Consistency
According to minority influence research, the influence of a minority is most effective when it is consistent:
- DIACHRONIC CONSISTENCY, where a person maintains a consistent position over time.
- SYNCHRONIC CONSISTENCY, where there is agreement among members of the minority group.
What was Moscovici (1985) to support consistency?
- His sample consisted of 172 female participants who were told that they were taking part in a colour
perception task. - The participants were placed in groups of six and
shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue. The participants had state out loud the colour of each slide. - Two of the six participants were confederates and
in one condition (consistent) the two confederates said that all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.
Evaluating Moscovici’s study
- Lacks ecological validity as they were in a laboratory setting
- Biased sample – gender biased as all ppts were female
- Lacks mundane realism – choosing colours has no real bearing on real life
consequences, people may take more care not to be influenced if it affected their life
Evolutionary theory
- The tendency to form attachments is INNATE
- This tendency is present in both infants and mothers
What was Milgram’s procedure?
- Each participant was paid $4.50
- They were told that the study concerned the role of punishment in learning.
- They were introduced to another person whom they believed was also a subject but was really a confederate of Milgram.
- The participants & the confederate drew straw to see who would “teach” and who would “learn”.
- The subject always had the teacher’s role.
- Confederate’s task was to memorize pairs of words.
- When tested, the “learner/confederate” would indicate his answer using a system of lights.
- The “teacher/subject’s” role was to administer a shock every time the learner made a mistake.
- Each switch is clearly labelled with a voltage designation that ranges from I5 to 450 volts.
- There is a 15-volt increment from one switch to the next going from left to right
Milgram - What % of participants delivered the maximum 450-Volt shock, which was labelled XXX?
65%
What were Milgram’s findings?
- All 40 PPTs went to 300 volts
- 65% administered the maximum shock of 450 volts
- Most participants found the procedure very stressful & wanted to stop.
- Signs of anxiety: sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning, digging their fingernails into their flesh, and having of nervous laughing fit.
- 3 subjects had seizures
Conclusions of Milgrams Study?
- Under certain circumstances, most people will obey orders that go against their conscience.
- When people occupy a subordinate position in a dominance hierarchy, they become liable to lose feelings of empathy, compassion and morality, and are inclined towards blind obedience.
- Atrocities (WWII) may be largely explained in terms of pressures to obey a powerful authority.
Milgrams study - Evaluation ethics.
- INFORMED CONSENT: All Pp volunteered for research, but they were not fully informed as deception was used.
- DECEPTION: A ‘cover story’ of a study of memory was used; the ppt did not know that obedience was being studied, that there were no shocks and that the ‘learner’ was an actor.
- RIGHT TO WITHDRAW: Pp were encouraged by an authority figure to continue.
- PERSONAL DISTRESS: All Pp experienced stress during and after the procedure as a result of their behaviour.
- DEBRIEF: Milgram pioneered the use of full debriefing; he also provided long term support for Pp who required it so that the self image of ppts was not affected.
Milgrams Study - Limitations?
- Low internal validity – guessed the shocks weren’t real so Milgram didn’t test what he intended to (Orne and Holland)
- Perry (2013) confirms this – listened to tapes of Milgram’s Pp. Many expressed doubts about the shocks
Milgram’s Study - Strengths?
Good External Validity Hofling (1966)
- Used a real life situation and environment of a hospital
- Doctors gave the nurses an order over the phone to administer a drug at a dose that was double the maximum dose stated on the box and he would sign for it later
- They found that 21/22 of the nurses followed the orders
(21/22 different nurses, when asked, said they would NOT have obeyed in that situation)
What are situational variables?
Milgram identified several factors that he believed influenced the level of obedience shown by Pp. They are related to the EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES rather than to the personalities of people involved.
Milgram variables - Uniform?
Uniforms, such as those worn by police officers, add further legitimacy to an authority figure.
• Milgram made sure that the researcher in his study was dressed in a lab coat.
• Bickman carried out a study where ordinary people were told to pick up litter on a New York street, loan a coin to a stranger or move away from a bus.
• Only 14% of people obeyed an individual dressed as a milkman, while 38% obeyed a person wearing a security guard’s uniform
Milgram’s Variables - Proximity
How physically close individuals are to the consequences of their actions affects how much they feel compelled to follow orders.
• Being further away from the consequences of our actions leads to increased levels of obedience.
• Milgram found that when the teacher and the learner were in the same room, and the teacher could see the learners’ distress, obedience levels dropped to 40%.
• When the teacher was instructed to take the hand of the learner and place it on a metal plate to receive
Milgram’s Variables - Location
Just as an individual can be seen as an authority figure, places or locations can also been seen as more or less authoritative.
• Locations such as prestigious universities or government buildings add to the legitimacy of the authority figure.
• Obedience rates are higher in institutional settings and are deemed to have a legitimacy all of their own.
• When Milgram carried out his study at the prestigious Yale University, obedience levels were higher than when he moved the experiment to an office block in a run-down part of town (decreased to 47.5% from 65%)
Legitimate authority
- Legitimate social power is held by authority figures whose role is defined by society, because of their credentials and knowledge we trust them and they have the power to punish us.
- Research suggests that obedience level are dependent on the culture e.g Milgram in Germany (85%) and Mann in Australia (28%).
What is the agentic state?
Where we are the agents of an authority and are not responsible for the consequences of our actions. In this state people mindlessly accept orders from an authority figure.
What is the Authoritarian Personality?
- Individual’s with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be obedient.
- Research carried out in the 1940’s and 50’s on 2000 white middle class students found that children who were exposed to a strict upbringing and physical punishment were more obedient individuals.
The Authoritarian Personality - Evaluations
+ Demonstrates that the situation is not always responsible for obedience.
- Doesn’t take into account other personality types
AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY - (ADORNO et al 1950)
- Adorno developed an attitude questionnaire which became known as the F-SCALE (the F stands for fascist – submission to authority, usually political, and accepting violence as an acceptable way to achieve this).
- Findings: People who scored high on the F Scale (authoritarian) identified with ‘strong’ people and were contemptuous of ‘the weak’.
- They were conscious of their own and others’ status and showed a ‘blind respect’ to people with power.
- Authoritarian people: Cognitive style – no “fuzziness” between categories of people (v. black and white) and were driven by stereotypes and prejudice.
Why do people have the Authoritarian Personality?
- Harsh parenting – strict discipline, expectations t be completely loyal, high standards, unconditional love for parents – even if they do not agree with them.
- These experiences create hostility and despair in the child – who displaces these feelings onto the ‘weak’ (scapegoating).
Criticism for Dispositonal Explanations?
- Measurement of authoritarianism relies on self-report (F-scale) data which may be invalid due to social desirability bias.
- Greenstein (1969) – the F-Scale is “a comedy of methodological errors” – e.g. every item is worded in the same direction – you could tick the same line of boxes down one side (agree, agree agree) of the page and score as HIGH authoritarian.
Cultural differences found in Smith and Bond 1993?
- Meta-analysis using Asch’s method in
different cultures - Highest conformity in Fiji= 58%
- Lowest conformity in Belgium= 14%
What are cultural differences that affect conformity?
- Individualist cultures = value independence and individuality, so encouraged to make OWN decisions (25.3% conformity)
- Collectivist = attach importance to the social group, so encouraged to fit in with views of group (37.1% conformity)
Experiment which focuses on the time validity of Asch’s study?
- Perrin and Spencer (1981)
- Carried out Asch’s study 25 years later
- PPT: 33 male students, 20 male students on Probation (confederates were Probation officers) and 16 unemployed West Indian men, with average age of 19 years old
Perrin and Spencer (1981) findings on time validity of Asch’s study?
- Male students NOT on Probation = almost non-existent
- Male students on Probation = similar rates to Asch’s rate of conformity
- West Indian PPTs = high rates of conformity when in groups with majority white confederates
The strengths of Asch’s study?
- Controlled conditions which allowed Asch to measure conformity and control EV’s.
- Large sample size of 123 participants and were all similar in demographics (age, sex, etc.) which means that they were with their peers and people are more likely to conform with peers in real life.
Cultural and historical validity of Asch’s study?
- P’s all men, all American
- 1950’s – conformity was the norm
- Conformity may only be high when perceived costs of non conformity are high
- Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted experiment on British students in 1970s and found low levels of conformity
What are the real world applications to Asch’s study?
- Pressure to conform particularly strong in juries
- First vote of jury determines over 95% of cases
What is deindividuation concluded by Zimbardo?
The decreased sense of self-awareness that can occur in groups or crowds.
What is learned helplessness that Zimbardo concluded in his experiment?
Where an organism forced to endure aversive, painful or otherwise unpleasant stimuli, becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent encounters with those stimuli, even if they are escapable.
What are the limitations of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
- Methodological evaluation: Most of the research is experimental therefore lacks ecological validity, has high demand characteristics, may show experimenter bias by the choice of activity for participants and the participants can only show a limited range of behaviour.
- Andocentric - all American males and so therefore difficult to generalise.
What was Haslam and Reicher’s replication of Zimbardo’s Study?
- They carried out this study in the UK and used 15 males between 22 and 44 selected from 500 volunteers (adverts)
- They were randomly allocated 9 prisoners and 6 guards in a built prison.
- The guards were unwilling to impose authority over the prisoners and so therefore prisoners rapidly took charge
- Following the breakdown in authority both groups attempted to establish an equal and fair social system
- Haslam suggested that tyranny may become acceptable when law and order breaks down and groups feel powerless
What were the differences between the Haslam and Zimbardo?
- Prisoners in Haslam’s study were tougher and streetwise.
- In this prison all participants wore microphones and were aware that they were being filmed rather than through hidden cameras in Zimbardo’s study.
- However the findings show that research can only be understood in the social and cultural context that it takes place in.
- Social roles nowadays are different than in the 1970’s
What did Eichmann’s trial show us?
- He explicitly declared that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Führerprinzip.
- Israeli psychiatrists concluded that Eichmann was ‘normal’
What is situational factor affecting obedience?
Explanations that focus on the influences that stem from the environment in which that individual is found.
What is dispositional factor affecting obedience?
Explanation of individual behaviour caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual’s personality – e.g. an authoritarian personality’….
How can social support help resist conformity?
- The pressure to conform can be resisted if there are other people present who are not conforming .
- Simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority is social support. It enables the naive participant to be free to follow their own conscience.
- Solomon Asch’s study
How can social support help resist obedience?
- In one of Milgram’s variations, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.
- The participant may not follow the disobedient person’s behaviour but the point is the other person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ of dissent for the participant to copy and this frees him to act from his own conscience.
What is the Locus of Control?
- Julian Rotter proposed the Locus of Control which refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives.
- Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them.
- Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck ot other outside forces.
Resistance to social influence due to LOC?
- People with high LOC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey.
- If a person takes personal responsibility for their actionsand experiences, they tend to base their decisions on their own beliefs rather than depending on the opinions of others.
- People with high internal LOC tend to be more self confident, motr achievement oriented and have higher intelligence.
- These traits lead to greater resistance to social influence.
What are the srengths of the Social Support?
-
Susan Albrecht et al. evaluated Teen Fresh Start USA to help pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke.
- Adolescents who had a slightly older mentor were less likely to smoke.
- Showed that social support helps young people resist social influences. -
William Gamson - participants were told to produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign.
- Higher levels of resistance were found because the participants were in groups so could discuss what they were told to do.
What are the limitations of the Locus of Control?
- A weakness is the evidence that challenges the link between the LOC and resistance.
- Jean Twenge et al analysed data from America locus of control studies conducted over 40-year period.
- From this data it is clear that people became more resistance to obedience yet also became more external. - Another limitation is brought up by Rotter 1982 who points out that LOC only significantly affects their behaviour in new situations.
- If you have conformed or obeyed in a specific situation in the past, the chances are you will do so again in that situation regardless of whether you have a high internal or external LOC.
