Week 4 Social influence Flashcards
Social influence
process whereby attitudes, and behaviours are influenced by the real or implied presence of others
Compliance
Superficial change in expressed atttiudes and behaviours in response to requets or group pressure
- Compliance does not involve internal change
- Compliance occurs only under surveillance (real or assumed)
- The source of influence has the power
Persuasive influence
Privately adhering to, or adjusting our thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviours to be consistent with the standard of the group.
- Involves internal change
- Doesn’t need surveillance
- Source of influence doesn’t need to have power
Reference group
groups to which we feel closely related and which has a great influence on our attitudes and behaviours
Obedience: experiment description
Milgram experiment 1974 (obj: investigate obedience to authority)
- 20 to 50 years old men
- randomly assigned role of teacher while a confederate was learner
- teacher had to learner’s knowledge under different conditiosn
–> 65% obedience
Conformity experiment
Asch experiment 1951
- male unviersity students
- take part in a visual discrimination task with different lenghts of line
–> average conformity rate 33%
Process of conformity
- Normative influence : person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval, wants to fit in
- informational influence: pressure to conform to a group norm
Factors which influence confirmity
- Low-self esteem
- Unanimous group,
- Attractive group’s status
- No prior commitment
Minority influence + factors
The minority can introduces social change(s) that can lead to innovation
Factors which influence minority:
- Investment (minority making significant personal and material sacrificies ex: Colin Kaepernick)
- Autonomy (minority acting out of principal rather than personal motives)
- Consistency (a minority which doesn’t change its opinion)
Membership group
Group to which we belong
- not particularly feeling a sense of belonging
- doesn’t not have much influence on our attitudes and behaviours
Majority
Type of compliance
Direct and public
Minority
Type of compliance
Indirect and private
Majority
Cause of compliance
Normative or informational influence
Minority
Cause of compliance
Due to cognitive conflict
Majority
Content of thinking
Message is passively
accepted as valid without
much thought
Minority
Content of thinking
Carefully analyse the message –> Need to convince the majority
that the message is valid
Majority
Direction of attention
Focus is on the source of
the message
Minority
Direction of attention
Focus is on the message itself
Majority
Differential influence
- Public compliance with the
majority view - Little or no attitude change
Minority
Differential influence
- Little or no public compliance
with the minority view - Great change in private attitude
Obedience experiment - facotrs which influence obedience
In Milgram but completed with Hogg & Vaughan in 2014
- Victim unseen but heard
- Experimenter giving orders in the room
- in a university
- no peer pressure
- in the USA
Influence of a minority study
Moscovici experiment 1969
obj: investigate influence of a minority
- take part in an experiment of a colour perception
Influence of a minority study - result
- Higher number of errors (people who answered greeen when it was blue) when the minority was consistent
