Social Influence Flashcards
What happened in Milgrams Study?
Men applied for an offer to be in an experiment at a university studying memory. When they arrived they were with another PP(Confederate) and the PP was taken into a room with the experimenter and an electric shock board that went from 5 volts 400 volts and displayed “Danger of death, high voltage.”
The Confederate sat in the other room where they could not be seen and they answered questions about memory. Every time they got an answer wrong the PP had to deliver an electric shock increasing in severity with every wrong answer. The Confederate groaned in pain and eventually yelled to be released(really just a recording) as the shocks increased.
Psychologists estimated that only 1% of PP’s would deliver a 400 volt shock but actually around 60% went all the way. If the PP showed signs of hesitance the experimenter would say “the experiment requires that you continue.”
These results show that people will obey unreasonable orders if they come from someone in a uniform.
What happened in Zimbardo’s car study?
Aim: To see if people are more anonymous and become deinviduated in a city rather than a more rural area.
Method: A car with the bonnet up was left in New York and in a small Californian village to see if anything would happen to them while the car was there.
Results: The car in the city was very damaged and lots of parts had been salvaged from the car and it was un-drive-able and completely wrecked. The countryside car was fine apart from someone had lowered the bonnet to stop the car getting wet.
Conclusion: People become de-individuated in a city and are more anonymous meaning they become less self-aware and do more irresponsible things.
What happened in the study regarding the nurses and doctors?
Aim: To see if people would obey an unreasonable order in their normal work environment.
Method: People pretended to be doctors and rang nurses and told them to prescribe patients a much higher dose of the medicine than that which would be normally prescribed.
Results:The nurses knew this would be potentially lethal but 20 out of 21 nurses prescribed the lethal dosage despite saying they would make their own decision if it came down to it.
Conclusion: Nurses are likely to obey the instructions of a doctor even if there may be bad consequences for the patient. (This may have been because the doctor was in a position of legitimate authority.)
What happened in Asch’s study?
Aim: To see if people would be influenced by others and knowingly give the wrong answer because of the answers of the others in the group.
Method: A PP sat in a room with 4 other Confederates. There were a set of lines on the board and they were asked if the one line was the same length as the other lines.
Results: The Confederates all gave the wrong answer saying the line was the same despite it being obvious that it wasn’t. Almost all of the PP’s agreed with the Confederates even though they knew they were giving the wrong answer.
Conclusion: People will knowingly answer something wrongly perhaps to avoid conflict or confrontation and disagreement within the group.
What happened in Pilliavin’s bystander intervention study?
Aim: To see if the appearance of someone needing help affects the time it takes for someone to intervene and help them.
Method: A man in a suit was made to fall over in front of a crowd of people. He then appeared to be drunk and he fell over. An ugly facial scar was put on his face and he fell over in these scenarios multiple times.
Results: The suited man received help within 1 minute 90% of the time. The drunk man was 60%. Finally the scarred man was helped within a minute 30% of the time.
Conclusion: The appearance of the person needing help greatly affects the amount of people and the time it takes for help to be offered towards them.
What happened in Zimbardo’s authority uniform study?
Aim: To see if the appearance of someone changes if they will be obeyed when giving orders.
Method: A Confederate wore a casual jacket and asked people to pick up a piece of litter and then he changed uniform to wear a security guard outfit and asked passers by to pick up the litter.
Results: The man wearing the security guard outfit was obeyed many more times than the man wearing the casual jacket.
Conclusion: The appearance of the person giving orders has a big effect on if they are obeyed or not.
Define deindividuation
When someone loses their individuality and sense of self awareness and this increases the likelihood of somebody committing a crime or doing something they wouldn’t normally.
Define social loafing
When one or more people don’t do the work or task they should be in the group and essentially slack off.
Define Obedience
When one or more people obey an order or set of instructions. Many factors affect this such as if they are in a legitimate authority and the uniform that the person giving the order is wearing. Also the attitude and personality of the people who are obeying behavior.
Define Deindividuation
When someone loses their individuality when part of a big group and is then more likely to commit crimes and do something they wouldn’t otherwise.
They have a loss of self awareness and will be more likely to do something they wouldn’t normally if they are by themselves when they feel responsible for their actions.
Define Social Loafing
When one or more people in a group doesn’t take part and slacks off in their work in the group. This is affected by many factors such as group size and the task at hand.
What is the Auto-kinetic effect?
It is when there is a spot of light shining somewhere that appears to move but actually doesn’t. It is a trick of the light and just how the brain perceives it.
This was explored in a study where PP’s were asked whether the light moved and they agreed with everyone else in the group due to conformity but also the auto-kinetic effect.
Where might deindividuation occur?
In large groups of people such as crowds or friendship groups where people lose their anonymity and their sense of themselves.
Give two criticisms of Milgram’s obedience study.
It carries many ethical issues as several PP’s were traumatised by the experiment and two experienced seizures and obviously were badly affected.
The PP’s were told they were in a memory experiment when in reality they were in an obedience study. The researchers deceived the PP’s and they essentially had little or no right to withdraw.
What happened in the smoke filled room study?
Aim: To see if people are more likely to do something in an emergency if others are present.
Method: PP’s were made to complete a questionnaire when they were in a room. Sometimes there were others in the room and sometimes they were by themselves. Smoke began to pour under the door and the amount of times the PP’s reacted and did something were measured.
Results: The PP’s very rarely reacted when there were others present but virtually always reacted when they were by themselves.
Conclusion: The more people present during an emergency decreases the likelihood that people will do anything and not react to the situation at hand.
