Social Influence Flashcards
Social influence
Ability to change or direct another person’s behaviour
Three basic motivations that make people vulnerable
- Hedonically motivated (pleasure vs. pain)
- Approval motive (Accepted vs. rejected)
- Accuracy motive (believe what is right vs. believe what is wrong)
Hedonic motive
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
Approval motive
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.
Norms
Customary standards for behaviour that are widely shared by members of a culture
Norm of reciprocity
Unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them
Normative influence
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.
Door-in-the-face technique
Large request you know will be denied, then follow-up with smaller request which will look good in comparison.
Conformity
Our tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it
Asch’s conformity study
- 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
What’s going on in Asch’s conformity study?
Distortion of judgment and distortion of action
Distortion of judgment (informational social influence)
- 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
Distortion of action (normative social influence)
- 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
Obedience
Tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do
Milgram’s shock experiment
- 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
Detached resposibility
Increasing the participant’s feelings of responsibility should lead to a change in the obedience rate
Deindividuation
Ability to avoid responsibility for one’s behaviour
Motives to obey
Detached responsibility Deindividuation Characteristics of the authority figure (e.g. proximity) Context Lack of clear authority Rebellion of others
Context of obedience
When at Yale high obedience, when conducted elsewhere rates dropped
Lack of clear authority
Two experimenters disagreeing, dropped obedience rates
What did obedience studies show?
Cognitive processes allow us to rationalize away our own responsibilities to the point where we can say only following orders
Attitude
Enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event
- Tell us what we should do
Belief
Enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event
- Tell us how to do it
Informational influence
Another person’s behaviour provides information about what is true
Persuasion
Person’s attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person. Two types: systematic and heuristic.
Systematic persuasion
Appeals to reason; persuasion through strong arguments
Heuristic persuasion
Appeals to habit or emotion; persuasion through the use of shortcuts
Consistency in accuracy motive
Evaluate accuracy of new beliefs by assessing consistency with old beliefs; motivated to be accurate and consistent
Foot-in-the-door
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.
Cognitive dissonance
Unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes or beliefs
How to alleviate cognitive dissonance
- 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”)
