Social Influence Flashcards
What is social influence?
Social influence - many ways in which people produce changes in others - in their behavior, attitudes, or beliefs - is a common part of life
What is conformity?
Most people behave in accordance with social norms most of the time, in other words, they show strong tendencies towards conformity. Yet, they underestimate the degree to which they conform
Who first studied conformity and what was further discovered about it?
Conformity was systematically studied by Asch first whose research indicates that many people will yield to social pressure from a unanimous group.
Many factors influence conformity including - cohesiveness; degree of attraction felt by an individual towards some group, group size, and type of social norm operating in that situation - descriptive and injunctive norms
Does norm influence us?
Norms tend to influence our behavior primarily when they are salient and seen as relevant to us.
What are two important motives that underlie our tendency to conform?
1) the desire to be liked by others and
2) desire to be right or accurate.
These two motives are reflected in two distinct types of social influence: normative and informational social influence
Read more on these two types of social influence.
What factors encourage nonconformity?
Several factors - refusing to “go along” with the group. These include status within the group, power, and the desire to be unique.
How are the effects of social influence?
The effects of social influence are powerful and pervasive but tend to be magnified in situations where we are uncertain about our win judgements of what is correct
When do we feel pressure to conform?
When we are engaged in synchronous behavior - coordinated with others - ourselves, we experience pressure to conform
When do we show reactance to conform?
As observers, we may become sensitive to restrictions that synchronous behavior exerts on personal freedom and experience reactance - and resist strong pressure to conform
Do pressures to conform produce any effects?
Yes, pressures to conform often produce harmful effects and cause even good people to perform harmful actions.
How do minorities influence other minorities?
Under some conditions, minorities can induce even large majorities to change their attitudes or behavior. This is most likely when the minority is consistent, but not seen as dogmatic.
What is compliance?
Compliance - getting others to say yes to our requests
What are three widely used tactics based on commitment/consistency?
1) foot-in-door
2) lowball procedure
3) the lure effect
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What are three widely used tactics based on the principle of reciprocity?
1) door-in-the-face
2) that’s not all techniques
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What are 2 techniques based on the principle of scarcity?
1) Playing hard to get
2) deadline technique
that is perceived as scarce or hard to obtain is valuable.
Scarcity, one tactic for gaining compliance, can help individuals to get a job.
Do people underestimate when they ask others to comply?
Yes, People making requests tend to underestimate the likelihood that others will comply, perhaps because they ignore the social “costs” of refusal(saying no to requests) on the part of the target people.
What is obedience?
It is a form of social influence in which one person orders one or more others to do something, and they do so. It is, in a sense, the most direct form of social influence.
What does Stanely Milgram’s research indicate about Obedience?
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What is destructive obedience?
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What factors can reduce the occurrence of destructive obedience?
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What is unintentional social influence?
When other people can influence us even when they do not intend to do through Unintentional social influence
What is emotional contagion?
Instances in which our own emotions are influenced by those of others even when those individuals do not intend to produce such effects.
What is symbolic social influence?
It occurs when our thoughts about others influence our actions or thoughts even if they are not present.
What is modeling - social influence?
The third form of social influence is modeling - which we learn from observing the actions of others or use them as a guide to our own behavior in situations where it is not clear how we should behave.
