Social Influence

Question 1

Social influence

Answer 1

Ability to change or direct another person’s behaviour

Question 2

Three basic motivations that make people vulnerable

Answer 2

• Hedonically motivated (pleasure vs. pain)
• Approval motive (Accepted vs. rejected)
• Accuracy motive (believe what is right vs. believe what is wrong)

Question 3

Hedonic motive

Answer 3

Offer rewards and punishments: goal to create situations where others can achieve more pleasure by doing what we want them to do. But sometimes this can backfire - people resent being threatened or bribed

Question 4

Approval motive

Answer 4

Motivated to have others accept us, like us and approve of us. Involves norms, norm of reciprocity, normative influence and door-in-the-face technique.

Question 5

Norms

Answer 5

Customary standards for behaviour that are widely shared by members of a culture

Question 6

Norm of reciprocity

Answer 6

Unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them

Question 7

Normative influence

Answer 7

Another person’s behaviour provides information about what is appropriate - use other people’s behaviour to tell us what to do since we don’t know what to do.

Question 8

Door-in-the-face technique

Answer 8

Large request you know will be denied, then follow-up with smaller request which will look good in comparison.

Question 9

Conformity

Answer 9

Our tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it

Question 10

Asch’s conformity study

Answer 10

• Participants were shown 3 printed lines and had to say which of the three lines matched a standard
• Each person answered in turn
• All confederates (people in on the study) but the last person who was the participant
• First trials responded correctly, then confederates changed their response
• 75% of participants conformed on at least one trial, even if they didn’t believe the response was correct

Question 11

What’s going on in Asch’s conformity study?

Answer 11

Distortion of judgment and distortion of action

Question 12

Distortion of judgment (informational social influence)

Answer 12

• Participants realize that their judgment was different from the group’s judgment and conformed because they assumed that their judgment was incorrect
• Conformed for information - wanted to be correct

Question 13

Distortion of action (normative social influence)

Answer 13

• Not appearing different from the group was important

- Did not assume group was right, but felt compelled to conform to the group’s response and not violate norms

Question 14

Obedience

Answer 14

Tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do

Question 15

Milgram’s shock experiment

Answer 15

• Confederate = learner; participant = teacher
• Authority figure was researcher, who urged participant to keep going
• Read words and repeat back, shocked when mistake given
• 30 levels of shock from 15 volts to 450 volts - increase voltage with each wrong answer
• 80% shocked learner even after complaining, screaming, then going quiet
• 62% went the whole way delivering the highest possible voltage
• Showed that individuals, under the right conditions, will do all kinds of bad things

Question 16

Detached resposibility

Answer 16

Increasing the participant’s feelings of responsibility should lead to a change in the obedience rate

Question 17

Deindividuation

Answer 17

Ability to avoid responsibility for one’s behaviour

Question 18

Motives to obey

Answer 18

Detached responsibility
Deindividuation
Characteristics of the authority figure (e.g. proximity)  Context
Lack of clear authority
Rebellion of others

Question 19

Context of obedience

Answer 19

When at Yale high obedience, when conducted elsewhere rates dropped

Question 20

Lack of clear authority

Answer 20

Two experimenters disagreeing, dropped obedience rates

Question 21

What did obedience studies show?

Answer 21

Cognitive processes allow us to rationalize away our own responsibilities to the point where we can say only following orders

Question 22

Attitude

Answer 22

Enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event
- Tell us what we should do

Question 23

Belief

Answer 23

Enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event

- Tell us how to do it

Question 24

Informational influence

Answer 24

Another person’s behaviour provides information about what is true

Question 25

Persuasion

Answer 25

Person’s attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person. Two types: systematic and heuristic.

Question 26

Systematic persuasion

Answer 26

Appeals to reason; persuasion through strong arguments

Question 27

Heuristic persuasion

Answer 27

Appeals to habit or emotion; persuasion through the use of shortcuts

Question 28

Consistency in accuracy motive

Answer 28

Evaluate accuracy of new beliefs by assessing consistency with old beliefs; motivated to be accurate and consistent

Question 29

Foot-in-the-door

Answer 29

Small request, then follow up with larger requests. Effective because if you say yes to the first request, then why not stay consistent and say yes to a similar request? Otherwise you have to justify why you said no.

Question 30

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 30

Unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes or beliefs

Question 31

How to alleviate cognitive dissonance

Answer 31

• Restore consistency among actions/attitudes/beliefs (i.e. change a cognition); change your behaviour (e.g. overeating -> exercising and eating well)
• Add a justifying cognition (e.g. “At least I don’t smoke or drink”)