Week 5: Social Influence

Question 1

What are the factors that increase the likelihood of imitating observed behavior (aka learning)

Answer 1

Learning is a change in human performance that results from a learner’s interaction with the environment. Some of the theories that highlight how this happens are : Social Learning Theory, Social contagion and the chameleon effect.

Chameleon Effect = Unconscious mimicry of nonverbal behaviors to foster connection.
Social Contagion = The spread of emotions, behaviors, or ideas through a social network, often unconsciously.
Social Learning Theory = A broader theory that explains how people learn by observing others and consciously imitating behaviors that are rewarded or reinforced.

Question 2

What is Social Learning Theory (SCT) (Bandura,1960)?

Answer 2

People learn from the social enviornment by:
-identification of model individual 🦸
- observation: this requires attention 👀
-Remember/retention of behavior observed 🔁
-Reproduction: learned must be able to physically and cognitively copy the action 🏃
-Motivation: even if learner can do the action they must be motivated to do so 💪
-noticing whether there is vicarious reinforcement: identifying whether model is being praised or punished for the action 🔭

Reciprocal Determinism: idea that behavior, personal factors (cognition and emotions) and enviornment influences all interact and influence one another. Individuals are active participants in learning.

All explored in Bandura’s bobo doll 🪆 studies.

Question 3

What is social contagion?

Answer 3

The spread of behaviors, attitudes, and emotions through social networks 🕸️
- Adaptation: When people observe and mimic what they see (adopting new trends) 🧱
-Complementary: enhancing and completing what somebody else is doing 🧩
-Can be emotional contagion (im sad - u become sad)
- Adolescents are most vulnerable
- Can include up to 3 degrees of social interactions

Example may be: fashion trends, activism movements, viral products on social media

Question 4

What is the chameleon effect?

Answer 4

It is the unconscious tendency to mimic posture, mannerism, facial expressions and other behaviors from people you interact with.
- Mimicry (mimic 👯‍♀️) strengthens social bonds and stengthens relationships
- Help create social bonding (social affiliation), and stronger emotional bond

Question 5

What is the difference between injunctive and descriptive norms? What are their implications?

Answer 5

Focus theory of normative conduct (cialdini):
Both of these are types of social norms that guide behavior within a group
- Injunctive norms: what people believe is generally approved or disaproved of in a certain context (don’t throw trash on the floor) 🚮. These tend to have a greater influence than descriptive norms
-Descriptive norms: What people ACTUALLY do int he situation

Question 6

What is the difference between informational and normative influence?

Answer 6

These are 2 more types of social influence:
- Informational influence: changing beliefs or behaviors because we believe others have more accurate info. Driven by desire to be correct ✅ or understand how to act in a situation (studied with Sherry’s autokinetic study 🔦 -ppt work together to reach correct answer)
- Normative influence: Comforming to expectations and behaviors of a group to gain social approval/avoid rejection rather than because you think the group is correct 👩‍🦯👩‍🦯 (studies with Asch’s line test)

Question 7

What is conformity?

Answer 7

Altering one’s beliefs, attitudes or behaviors in accordance with behavior of others.
Asch’s line test can be used to investigate this phenomenon:
-it investigates the effect of group pressure on behavior.
-helps understand what causes independence and what conformity
Had to match lines of same length, confederate before all chose incorrect

Question 8

What is the difference between public and private compliance based on Sherif’s auto kinetic effect?

Answer 8

Private conformity: changing one’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors to conform with a group and maintaining the change even when group isn’t present ⬜️
Public conformity: Only changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors when in public, because you privately disagree 🔳

Question 9

How can personality affect conformity?

Answer 9

👯‍♀️=conform 💃=no conform
-Openness: high openness leads to innovation and novelty seeking 💃
- Extraversion: extroverts seek social approval so in loose (flexible, informal and permissive) social contexts 👯‍♀️
- Agreeableness: agreeable people seek social harmony , they values cooperation and prosocial behavior 👯‍♀️
- Conscientiousness (being diligent, responsible and thorough in actions and decisions): conscientious individuals like structure and adhere to social norms 👯‍♀️
- Neuroticism (person that experiences lots of anxiety, sadness and fear): these people are often unstable. 💃 when behave antisocially/antagonistically but 👯‍♀️when have to deal with stress of deviating

Question 10

How do situational factors influence whether we conform?

Answer 10

-In general it seems as if women are more likely to conform but it varies LOTS on situational factors
-The larger the group size the greater the conformity (+ social pressure) , after group reaches certain size conformity stops increasing 👯‍♀️💃
-Unanimity: if all the group is saying the same thing we are more likely to conform 👯‍♀️
- In tight cultures with strict social norms there is higher conformity👯‍♀️
- In loose cultures with greater tolerance for deviance and individuality less conformity 💃
-the status level/authority of the group that you should conform with – the higher the status the more 👯‍♀️
- level of free will perceived: more free will = more 💃. People with low self control also have low free will (decisions are dominated by impulse not desire)

Question 11

How does our brain react when we fail to conform?

Answer 11

Failing to conform ignites both cognitive and emotional processes, these are some of them:
- activation of anterior cingulate cortex: brain region involved with creating feelings of discomfort, social pain and conflict.
- decreased release of dopamine: when we conform/are involved with social interactions we are rewarded however when we do not we do not get the extra ‘boost’
- Amygdala activation: amygdala may send signal of a perceived threat to our social standing/belonging
-Prefrontal cortex: activation to help us reflect on our actions/choices and find a way to re-establish harmony

Question 12

What is minority influence? When is it more effective than majority influence?

Answer 12

When a smaller group (aka the minority) can influence the beliefs, attitudes and behavior of the larger group. Rather than relying on conformity and social pressure (normal conformity) it relies on persistence and consistency in presenting the viewpoint. It is more effective when the goal is long-lasting and causes meaningful changes.

Question 13

What are some strategies used to increase influence from a minority position?

Answer 13

1) having a consistent message
2) being flexible and compromising, being open to incorporating elements from the majority view
3)being confident, direct in a respectful way
4) using evidence and rational argument

Question 14

What is compliance? What is acquiescence?

Answer 14

The act of changing one’s behavior in response to a direct request from another person or group, it doesn’t necessarily have to involve an internal agreement but rather a change in behavior to meet the request (friend asks to go eat McDonals although you don’t like eating fast food and know its bad for you)
Acquiescence: the submission to the request without any resistance/objection even if the individual isn’t fully supportive of the idea⛓️‍💥

Question 15

What are the 3 main motivators for compliance/ methods used to get someone to comply?

Answer 15

• Accuracy
  -Affiliation
  -Maintaining a positive self concept

Question 16

How does accuracy get people to comply?

Answer 16

• people want to respond to make informed and correct decisions in situations of uncertainty. Using this technique can be effective on people that want to be correct ✅.

Techqniques:
Thats not all (Burger): making initial request and then improving it to make in sound more accurate and fair
Disrupt then reframe (Davis & Knowles): disrupting individual’s normal thought process with an unexpected/unusual statement then reframing it to clarify it and make is sound like the logical choice

Question 17

What role does affiliation in enhancing compliance?

Answer 17

Affiliation enhances compliance by highlighting the human need for connection, acceptance and belonging. Liking (attractive), brief casual convos, remembering names and similarity (also superficial) with the persuader can increase compliance.

Technique:
Door in the face technique: 🚪🤕Making a large unreasonable request at first (that will be rejected) followed by a smaller more reasonable one. After people reject the first one they feel obliged to reciprocate the requesters compromise and accept the smaller offer.

Question 18

How does maintaining a positive self concept increase compliance?

Answer 18

Idea that people want to maintain a positive self concept that alignes with their self image. When people perceive themselves positively they are more likely to comply.
Technique:
Foot in the door: 🚪 🦶getting people to agree to a small commitment making people begin to see themselves as the type of person that supports such action, getting them to comply with larger requests later.

Question 19

What is obedience?

Answer 19

A form of social influence where an individual follows a direct order from an authority figure. Compared to compliance and conformity (where individuals agree to request) obedience involves a hierarchical relationship with the expectation of following orders with not question - it is explicit and directive.

Question 20

What factors decrease obedience to authority?

Answer 20

1) perceived reduced authority - authority figure not physically present/in proximity
2( increase awareness of consequences- being close to victim
3) peer influence - seeing others not obede
4) situational context- lack of traditional authority markers (being in an ugly building)

Question 21

Quickly recap Milgram’s Original study 🔌

Answer 21

Method: Ppt recruited were either given role of teacher 👩‍🏫 or learner 🧑‍🎓. The learner was strapped to a chair in another room connected to a shock ⚡️ machine.
Task: teacher tested learner’s memory and when wrong administer electric shock which ranged from 15 to 450 volts. Experimenter in a lab coat encouraged teachers to continue administering shocks
Results;65% of ppt obeyed to administering 450 volts and many showed signs of stress (sweating and shaking) but continued following orders

Question 22

Explanations for why we obey

Answer 22

1) perception of power from authority
2)we are socialized to obey to authority figures (parents, teachers, law)
3) fear of consequences/punishment
4) desire to maintain order and social stability

Question 23

What are charismatic people?

Answer 23

Charismatic people/leaders have the ability to attract attention and admiration from others. These people are more likely to get people to obey even if requests are crazy.
Workers exposed to charismatic leader’s speech show 17% greater output

Question 24

When are charismatic leaders more likely to attract followers?

Answer 24

During periods of uncertainty, transition and lack of strong authority/institutions

Question 25

How does research on obedience and leadership help explain events like the Holocaust?

Answer 25

Shows how situational factors influence human behavior, making people act against personal morals and ethics.
Sheds light on influence of charismatic leaders, obedience to authority, group dynamics and conformity/deindividuation

Question 26

Explain Stanford prison experiment (Zimbardo, 1971) and its main criticisms

Answer 26

Method: participants we given role of guard or prisoner for a duration of 2 weeks. Guards were given uniforms, sunglasses and batons whereas prisoners were arrested from homes and stripped of belongings.
Results: Guards began abusing their power using psychological manipulation, humiliation and physical punishment. Prisoners because submissive, distressed and emotionally unstable

Criticisms:
- methodological flaws and demand characteristics: ppt behaved in ways they believed was expected of them rather than acting naturally - guards were given instructions on how to treat prisoners
- Ethical criticisms: prisoners showed severe psychological and physical distress, so much so that the study was called off before the 2 weeks
- Biased data collection: only extreme and dramatic behaviors were reported, there was a lack of systematic data collection
- Replicability and reliability: different studies conducted over the years have yielded very different results
-media and public perception: textbooks and media have an incorrect portrayal of the study downplaying its criticisms

Question 27

What is social constructionism?

Answer 27

It is a theory that examines how knowledge, meaning and social phenomena are maintained through social interactions rather than being inherent or naturally occurring. it is the idea that what we perceive as reality is actually shaped by shared beliefs, language and cultural practices within society. 🏘️🙋‍♀️

Question 28

Is reality observer dependent or independent?

Answer 28

observer independent- reality exists independently of human perception or beliefs. It is universal and observable. Aligns with realism (believe that things have an existence independent of perceptions/thoughts about them.) 🕵️‍♀️
Observer dependent - idea that reality depends on individual and collective human experience, perception and interpretations. Aligns with relativism (belief that reality can vary based on culture, language and social context) 🧚

Question 29

What is the reality of the natural world?

Answer 29

The natural world is objective (this means it can be measured and verified through empirical methods).
Positivist epistemology argues that knowledge is derived from observable phenomena that can be verified through empirical evidence and logic. 🧮 - includes replicability, falsifiability and universal laws

Question 30

What is the reality of the social world?

Answer 30

The social world is subjective (it has been collectively agreed upon). Examples include marrige 💍, money 💴, nations 🛂
Interpretivist epistemology: understanding knowledge that emphasizes the importance of interpreting and understanding subjective meaning, experiences and social context. It is interested in understanding how individuals and groups construct meaning and reality in their specific social and cultural context.

Question 31

What are brute facts?

Answer 31

Facts that exist independently of human belief, practice or institution. Examples include statements like water boils at 100 degrees or the Earth revolves around the sun.
Act as a proof of external realism-reality exists outside of human representations

Question 32

What are social facts? What are institutional facts?

Answer 32

Social facts are fact that exist because of a shared human belief, behavior or conventions. Examples include shaking hands when meeting someones 🤝, they aren’t necessarily ties to formal rules/system
Institutional facts: s specific type of social fact that exists within the framework of an institution - formalized system. They ofter require language to be created and represented. They can be changes through collective action. Examples may be someone being the president of a country or a bill of $20 being money. T

Question 33

What is the relationship between objects and their role in the social world?

Answer 33

Object vs function
- objects have certain properties that are independent of human observation. Rocks are hard no matter what humans think
-functions are entirely dependent on humans-function is observer relative. Humans choose that rocks be used to make walls.
Agentive function: when the purpose of an object, system or entity is directly tied with what the user wants it to be like. (a knife can cut because humans designed it so it could so that)

Question 34

What are the features of social reality?

Answer 34

• they can change
• social concepts are self referential meaning humans are both the creators and subjects of the concepts
  -they can be created by declarations. These can only take part when supported by constitutive rules (rules that establish what something is and how it functions in a specific context) Saying I do only has a meaning if it is happening in a church in front of a priest 💍
• it has causal properties and relationships with brute facts (social facts can create brute objects which are then used to reinforce social facts )
• language, interaction, communication are at the heart of social construction.

Question 35

What is methodology? What is best way to study observer dependent/independent phenomena?

Answer 35

It is concerned with studying the science of methods.
When phenomena is observer independent= quantitative
Observer dependent=qualitative
BUT it is incorrect to see one approach of research better than the other, they are simply different