Topic 8 - Conformity and Obedience Flashcards
Is it a few bad apples or is it the barrel that is bad?
Bad barrel created by the system
what’s bad is the barrel (the situation in which the apples are contained)
What is the word meaning difference between Holocaust and Shoah?
Holocaust word original meaning - burnt sacrifice offered to a god; has religious connotations; looks at a wider spread of genocide within Nazi era Germany (including Romani, Slavs, LQBTQ, people with disabilities, and any sort of political opponents)
Ha Shoah - calamity in Hebrew - means destruction and refers to the fate of the Jewish people during the Nazi rule; may be more appropriate than Holocaust
What is the basic difference between conformity and obedience?
Conformity:
- Usually implicit
- Based on implicit norms or subtle social cues
- We start to implicitly conform our behaviour to others without really realizing it
Obedience:
- Responding and obeying to explicit orders, ex. drill sergeant
What is conformity?
a change in one’s behaviour due to the real or imagined presence of other people
Conformity research shows that much of what we do may not be based on logic and may not even be in our best personal interests. We are motivated by social and emotional goals like fitting in, feeling beautiful, looking confident, avoiding rejection, avoiding looking foolish or inferior.
Fashion and beauty trends and the influence of conformity show that conformity is often motivated by what?
often motivated by social and emotional goals
human behaviour that is based largely on conformity - not based on logic, often not even on function or even safety or health
Are Eastern or Western cultures more likely to conform in general, according to social psychology?
Western cultures - claim that we are more individualistic; would think that we would have less pressure to conform and more favourable views on individuality. We like to think that we like to be unique.
We believe that the West is less influenced by conformity, that they don’t care what others think, and we celebrate this rugged individualism.
Eastern cultures - more likely to be influenced by conformity
What are traits of individualistic cultures?
Value uniqueness, autonomy, self-sufficiency, independence
(predominant in Western culture)
Conformity is largely driven by what 2 factors?
1- social ambiguity - informational social influence
2- fear of rejection/diminished status (normative social influence
What is informational social influence and why does it influence conformity?
through informational social influence, we conform because we consider others a valuable source of information to guide our behaviour
we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action
results in informational conformity
Does informational social influence imply a lack of critical thinking?
NO
What is the difference between implicit and explicit forms of informational social influence / conformity?
implicit: observing others to better understand the situation
explicit: asking, “what do I do here?”
What is the relationship between informational social influence and private acceptance?
Informational social influence often results in private acceptance: will conform to the behaviour of others because we genuinely do believe that they are right
What is public compliance?
conforming to other people’s behaviour publicly without necessarily believing in what you are doing or saying
What happened in Muzafer Sherif’s study of the autokinetic effect?
Is this due to private acceptance or public conformity?
convergence of estimates as a result of informational social influence
they come to privately accept the wisdom of the group estimate - and actually believe that the group estimate is accurate
In the hotel towel use and water conservation study, what made people more likely to reuse towels?
the more personal the statement was
- first told what most people do
- then said most people who have stayed in this room
What is a bad way of using informational social influence if you don’t want someone to do a certain behaviour?
if you don’t want someone to do a certain behaviour, DO NOT reinforce how many people are doing it - it makes them feel like the behaviour is normal or ok
implicit message people take away is that lots of people are doing it, it is probably okay
How does informational social conformity relate to accuracy?
when perceived importance of accuracy is high, we are more susceptible to informational conformity
Do people conform more in a low-importance or high-importance condition?
people conform more in a high-importance condition/situation
The higher importance things are, the higher rates of social influence, and thus higher rates of misidentification we see in line with confederates
Why do witnesses have to be separated at a crime scene and interviewed separately?
dangers of social influence after crime and people’s memories melding together
even for judgments of the utmost importance, such as when an eyewitness to a crime later tries to identify the culprit, informational social influence shapes our perceptions
What is contagion in the sense of conformity?
the rapid spread of possibly irrational emotions or behaviour through a crowd as a result of informational social contagion
In truly ambiguous situation - people will often rely on the interpretations of others, but others may be no more knowledgeable or accurate than we are
the ‘they must know something I don’t’ phenomenon
When will people conform to informational social influence or be most susceptible to informational conformity and contagion?
What is a recent real-world example?
1- when the situation is ambiguous
2- when an apparent crisis is occurring
3- when others are perceived as experts or as having more information
recent real-world example: toilet paper panic during COVID
The Massacre at mY Lai is an example of what type of conformity?
Informational social conformity or informational social influence
roles of ambiguity, apparent crisis, perceived expertise
What is the problem with informational social influence?
The people we imitate may not be doing such things rationally and it can have devastating consequences.
What might informational conformity struggle to explain?
phenomenon that might be risky, dangerous, or maladaptive
What is normative social influence?
conformity so that we will be liked and accepted by others, for a sense of belonging that is important to our well-being
Why are there calls to end solitary confinement?
too painful and hurtful for a social animal
Overwhelming body of evidence shows us that solitary confinement causes extreme and sometimes permanent damage to the individuals who endure it - and to the families and communities to which they will return. Costly and counterproductive and also increases recidivism or recommitting crimes after being released - failing to reduce any sort of prison violence.
What are social norms?
implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviours, values, and beliefs of its members
What often happens to those who do not conform to social norms?
those who do not conform are perceived as different, difficult, and eventually deviant
Deviant members can be ridiculed, punished, or even rejected by other group members
How does normative social influence relate to public compliance and private acceptance?
can result in public compliance without private acceptance of the belief and/or behaviours
What is the North American Myth of radical independence?
Thinking we would resist conformity pressures when it comes to important behaviours such as hurting another person - but really we don’t always resist conformity when it matters and when it doesn’t make sense.
With variations of the Asch Line test, what happened to conformity when participants were asked to write down their answers on the paper (private) rather than say it outloud?
conformity dropped dramatically
What happened to conformity as the task became more important?
more important decision = increased compliance because it was ambiguous
What happens when it becomes more important for people to be accurate?
more likely to engage in informational conformity
less likely to engage in normative conformity
When conforming vs. not conforming, what is happening to brain activation according to fMRI?
When participants conformed to a group’s wrong answers, fMRI’s showed brain activity in areas responsible for vision and perception. When they chose to give the right answer and disagree with the group, areas of the brain that become active are much different. We see activation in the amygdala (devoted to negative emotions), and activation in the right caudate nucleus (devoted to modulating social behaviours). Your brain says you are risking your social standing.
