social influence Flashcards
crowd and collective behaviour
The actions of people who have gathered together for a particular purpose the behaviour of clouds can often be spontaneous and unplanned this can sometimes be because an individual has lost a sense of personal control
Majority influence
when the majority of a group tries to influence other in group to conform (yield to group pressure) to their beliefs
Normative conformity
where people yield to group pressure because they want to fit in and are concerned about being rejected by others in the group however privately keep there own opinion
Informational conformity
people conform because they want to be perceived as correct as they are unsure if the answer/situation usually this also changes their private belief as well at public belief
Deindividuation
when people in a crowd lose their sense of individuality and feel more anonymous this can also happen if someone is wearing a uniform or costume
Situational factions research study - background
1974 by Bickman the clothing people wear highlights them in a position of authority and past studies show presents of one of these authoritive figures makes conformity more likely
Situational factions research study - aim
investigate degree of social power uniform has on other people
Situational factions research study - Hypothesis
a uniformed guard has more ability to influence individuals than the same person in a low-authority uniform i.e. Milk man
Situational factions research study - Experiment 1 method, design & materials
method- field experiment on street in Brooklyn
Design- independent measures design as participants only saw one of 3 levels of authority; milkman, civilian or guard
Materials-3 uniforms
Situational factions research study - Experiment 1 sample
153 adult pedestrians age estimated 18-61 this is an opportunity sample
Situational factions research study - Experiment 1 Procedure
there were 4 similar experimenters who weren’t told aim of research they completed the same amount of experimental sessions using 3 different situations (picking up bag, dine and meter & bus stop-no standing) and 3 different uniforms (civilian, milkman & guard)
Situational factions research study - Experiment 1 Results
no significant difference between civilian and milk man to much greater obedience to the guard across all 3 situations
Situational factions research study - Experiment 2 results
surveillance has no significant effect on obedience and the guard once again was obeyed more than the civilian
Situational factions research study - Experiment 2 design
the dime and meter method was used the same as in experiment one however this time the independent variables were the uniform but only guard or civilian and the second was surveillance or non surveillance
Situational factions research study - Experiment 2 sample
field experiment 48adult pedestrians estimate average age of 46 years old
Situational factions research study - Experiment 3A design
data was gathered using a questionnaire by college students which had 29 scenarios including the 3 originals they asked whether these were legitimate requests from a guard, milk man or Young man
Situational factions research study - Experiment 3A results
in the original scenarios the request coming from the guard didn’t make it more legitimate however in other situations they agreed the request coming from the guard was more legitimate
Situational factions research study - Experiment 3B design &results
189 college students were asked to predict what people would do in the different situations with different uniforms students didn’t thing guards would have any more social power in these situations
Situational factions research study - conclusion
Wearing uniform gives people more power and influence over non uniformed people
The higher status the uniform the more power it provides
How people think the will behave is not a Good predictor of how they will behave
Situational factors have an effect on obedience
Situational factions research study - Criticisms
the participants were selected by opportunity sampling
The research was culturally bias
The study was unethical as participants did not know they were being studied
There was a gender bias
As it was a field experiment there was little control over extraneous variables
