W10: Social Influences Flashcards
What is social influence?
The ways that people affect one another through changing attitudes, beliefs, feelings, or behaviours resulting from the real or imagined presence of others
- Conformity
- Compliance
- Obedience
What are the 2 types of conformity?
- Unconscious conformity (automatic behavioural mimicry)
2. Conscious conformity (informational and normative social influence)
What is informational social influence?
Using others’ actions or comments as a source of valid information about what is correct, proper or effective.
- e.g. autokenetic effect
- because we want to be right (the situation is difficult/ambiguous)
- INTERNALIZATION
What is normative social influence?
Using others’ actions or comments as guides for how to fit in and avoid disapproval or social sanctions (e.g., ridicule, ostracism)
- based on a desire to be liked/socially accepted when the situation is unambiguous., because one’s own beliefs conflict with group beliefs
- e.g. Line Judgement (Asch)
- TEMPORAL COMPLIANCE W MAJORITY
What are the factors affecting conformity?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Anonymity
- Expertise/Status
- Groupthink
- Culture (tight vs loose)
- Gender (depending on domain)
- Minority Influence (consistency and informational influence)
GUAEGCGM
GAUGECGM
What is compliance?
Compliance occurs when we are influenced via a direct attempt by someone without authority/power over us.
- Reason-based
- Emotion-based
- Norm-based
What is reason-based compliance?
- Norm of reciprocity
- you scratch my back I scratch yours
- soda experiment - Foor-in-the-door
- small then big
- window and yard sign example - Door-in-the-face
- big then small
- chaperoning zoo trip example
What is emotion-based compliance?
- Positive Mood
a. when you’re in a good mood, you assume others’ intentions are good
b. positive mood maintenance: saying no to a request is awkward and creates a negative affect - Negative Mood (increases compliance because it might make you feel better)
- e.g. catholic confessions example
What is norm-based compliance?
- Descriptive Norms
- objective facts (e.g. most people sleep less than 8 hours a day)
- informational influence - Prescriptive norms
- what people SHOULD be doing (e.g. you should be sleeping 8 hours per night)
- normative influence
The stronger the norm info, the stronger the compliance (e.g. specificity)
Why is obedience a type of conformity? (MILGRAM)
- Informational Influence
- ambiguous: strange, unfamiliar setting
- participants needed to look to an experimenter - Normative Influence
- unambiguous: shocking someone is wrong
- but if they didn’t do it, experimenter might get angry
How do you make it easier for participants to disobey? (MILGRAM)
- make victim closer
2. make authority less salient
Why did they obey?
- diffusion of responsibility
- step-by-step procedure
- lack of practice disobeying authority
