Social Influence Flashcards
Asch’s study aim
To see how people responded under group pressure
Asch’s study method
They were shown different lines and asked which was the shortest, everyone answered the wrong answer and they saw what the other participant answered
Asch’s study results
75% conformed at least once
Asch’s study conclusion
People are influenced by group pressure but there is evidence that people can resist the pressure to conform
The 3 social factors of conformity
Group size
Anonymity
Task difficulty
The 3 dispositional factors of conformity
Personality
Expertise
Milgram’s study aim
To see if a normal person would give a potentially lethal electric shock
Milgram’s study method
Had an actor in one room and a participant in the other, they were asked to give ‘electric shocks’ to the person in the other room
Milgram’s study results
65% went to the lethal electric shock
Milgram’s study conclusion
Obedience is little to do with dispositional factors and more to do with social factors
The 4 factors in Milgram’s agency theory
Agency
Authority
Culture (social hierarchy)
Proximity
Milgram’s agency theory - agency
That people sometimes act as an agent for someone else
Agentic state
Where someone acts on behalf of someone else
Autonomous state
Where people behave according to their own principles
Milgram’s agency theory - authority
Agentic shift often occurs if they are asked to do something by authority
Milgram’s agency theory - culture
Some people have more authority because of their position in the social hierarchy
Milgram’s agency theory - proximity
If you are closer to the consequences then they are less likely to be agentic
The 4 factors of Adorno’s theory of authoritarian personality
The authoritarian personality
Cognitive style
Originates in childhood
Scapegoating
Adorno’s theory - authoritarian personality
Some people have an exaggerated respect for authority so they are more likely to obey orders and often look down on people with inferior social status
Adorno’s theory - cognitive style
They think in ‘black and white’ so they believe in rigid stereotypes and struggle to believe that some people can be good and others can be bad
Adorno’s theory - originates in childhood
That an authoritarian personality is nurture rather than nature so can be developed with strict parents with strong discipline
Adorno’s theory - scapegoating
People with an authoritarian personality displace their negative feeling on those who are socially inferior
Piliavin’s subway study aim
To investigate bystander behaviour in a natural environment
Piliavin’s subway study method
4 researches got on a subway. One person played the victim and had to ‘collapse’ on the floor until assisted. They either carried a cane or smelt of alcohol and after 150 seconds another researcher would help
Piliavin’s subway study results
The person with a cane was helper 95% of the time whereas the person smelling of alcohol was only helped 50% of the time
Piliavin’s subway study conclusion
Certain characteristics of a victim make a difference on whether they receive help
The 4 factors effecting bystander behaviour
Presence of others
Cost of helping
Similarity to victim
Expertise
Antisocial behaviour
Behaviour that is harmful to others
Collective behaviour
Behaviour that emerges when a group of people join together
Deindividuation
When someone ‘loses their identity’ and takes on the group identity in a crowd
Prosocial behaviour
Behaviour that is beneficial to other people around you
Zimbardo’s study aim
To investigate deindividuation
Zimbardo’s study method
They had to give an ‘electric shock’ to someone in another room in front of each other. One group were in normal clothes and the other group wore a large coat and a hood to hide their identity
Zimbardo’s study results
The deindividuated group were more likely to press the button and normally pressed it for longer
Zimbardo’s study conclusion
Deindividuation and anonymity increase the likelihood that people will act antisocially
Reicher’s case study aim
To study the behaviour of a crowd and see if it could be described as ‘ruly’ rather that ‘unruly’
Reicher’s case study method
He analysed reports from police, newspapers, TV and radio stations about riots in Bristol. He also interviewed 20 people to get understanding of what happened
Reicher’s case study results
His summery of the event was that people thought that the police had launched unjustified attacks, the attacks from the rioters were mainly focused on the police but then spread to surrounding businesses. After the police had left the rioters then helped the area with traffic issues
Reicher’s case study conclusion
That the crowds behaviour was rule driven as they only attacked police and left when the police left
The 4 factors of crowd and collective behaviour
Social loafing
Culture
Personality
Morality
Social loafing
Individuals make a reduced individual effort when they are part of a group than when they are on their own
