Week 7

Question 1

Group norms

Answer 1

Shared beliefs, values and define attitudes and behaviour

Collective rules and standards of conduct

Question 2

Norms

Answer 2

Descriptive- what people do and think
Prescriptive- what people ought to do and think
Explicit and implicit

Question 3

Deviances (unintentional)

Answer 3

Tail of the distribution (random variation placing one just beyond the threshold of what is normal)
Norm shifting (not realizing that norms have changed)
Ignorance (not noticing or understanding the norm)
Inability (not having the ability to follow the norm)
Duress (being forced to break the norm)
Compulsion (not being able to help oneself; feeling compelled to break the norm)

Question 4

Deviances (intentional)

Answer 4

Principled disagreement (refusing to follow a norm you deem wrong)
Disdain (feeling that you’re above the norm)
Spite (wanting to upset the mainstream)
Desire for originality (wanting to be at odds with a norm)
Self-interest (getting rewards for breaking the norm)

Question 5

Impostors: The shape-shifters

Answer 5

Impostors who, in laying claim to an identity to which they don’t belong, cross impermeable boundaries (e.g., of sex, race, ethnicity, nobility).

Question 6

Impostors: The corner-cutters

Answer 6

Impostors who, in laying claim to an identity to which they don’t belong, cross permeable boundaries.
For these people legitimate entry into the group is possible, but impostor-ism is an easier path.

Question 7

Impostors: The Trojan horses

Answer 7

An impostor who passes as a member of the outgroup in order to cause it damage.
Includes spies.

Question 8

Impostors: The closet dwellers

Answer 8

Impostors who pass as a member of the outgroup in order to avoid stigma or persecution

Question 9

Impostors: History thieves

Answer 9

History thieves are those who misrepresent their past in order to position themselves in a community defined by history. Much history theft surrounds major military conflicts (e.g., people pretending to be Vietnam veterans, or Sept 11 survivors).

Question 10

Why do people resent impostors?

Answer 10

To feel par of a certain group

Question 11

Why are impostors seen to be damaging?

Answer 11

Gay people pretending to be straight were seen to be damaging because they were expressing shame regarding their minority group membership.
Straight people pretending to be gay were seen to be damaging because they were blurring the distinctiveness of gay people relative to straights.

Question 12

Research using Asch’s paradigm

Answer 12

In Asch’s original study, people gave the same (wrong) answer as the others on 33% of the trials. 76% of participants conformed at least once during the experiment.

Conformity is even greater …

(1) when the group of people is large
(2) for women than for men
(3) in collectivist (as opposed to individualist) countries

Question 13

Normative influence

Answer 13

The person maintains their private view, but conforms in public to avoid ridicule or social censure.

Question 14

Sherif’s (1936) Autokinetic Study

Answer 14

People participated either alone or in groups of 2 and 3.
Considerable variation in estimates when alone.
When in groups, estimates varied wildly at first. But very quickly, the estimates started to converge … they were using each other as a source of information.

Emergence of a group norm

When they were again tested on their own, the group norm had an enduring effect on their judgements

Question 15

The power of one

Answer 15

one person can reduce the effect of conformity- the tipping point and snowball effects

Question 16

snowball effect

Answer 16

when the tipping point has been achieved- challenges conformity

Question 17

sisphus effect

Answer 17

when the tipping point has not been achieved- doesn’t challenge conformity

Question 18

Pros And Cons Of Conformity

Answer 18

Positive aspects of conformity
· gives us a guide to behave when we’re uncertain what the norms are
· can allow for group harmony
· can be used for good (e.g., pressure to recycle)
· probably has an adaptive evolutionary function
Negative aspects of conformity
· becomes dysfunctional when it involves making a wrong or amoral decision
· can lead to stagnant, inflexible decision-making in groups (see “groupthink”)

Question 19

Cultural differences

Answer 19

‘Tight’ cultures enforce rules and little tolerance of diviance
‘Loose’ cultures have few strongly enfored rules and greater tolerance of deviance

Question 20

group think

Answer 20

A mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt proper, rational decision-making procedures.

Question 21

Bay of Pigs Fiasco

Answer 21

Illusion of invulnerability
“It seemed that, with John Kennedy leading us and with all the talent he had assembled, nothing could stop us. We believed that if we faced up to the nation’s problems and applied bold, new ideas with common sense and hard work, we would overcome whatever challenged us.”
Illusion of unanimity
“No strong voice of opposition was raised in any of the key meetings, and no realistic alternatives were presented.”
“Had one senior advisor opposed the adventure, I believe that Kennedy would have cancelled it. No one spoke against it.”
“Our meetings took place in a curious atmosphere of assumed consensus

Question 22

Dissent can be discouraged through at least four mechanisms:

Answer 22

Fear of damaging reputation
Active pressure from “mind guards”
Use of humour
Direct abuse

Question 23

Fear of damaging reputation

Answer 23

“In the months after the Bay of Pigs I bitterly reproached myself for having kept so silent during those crucial discussions in the Cabinet Room, though my feelings of guilt were tempered by the knowledge that a course of objection would have accomplished little save to gain me a name as a nuisance. I can only explain my failure to do more than raise a few timid questions by reporting that one’s impulse to blow the whistle on this nonsense was simply undone by the circumstances of the discussion.”

Question 24

Use of humour

Answer 24

Admiral to lieutenant after losing air contact with Japanese aircraft carriers, immediately before Pearl Harbour:
(Joking and laughing) “What, you don’t know where the carriers are? Do you mean to say they could be rounding Honolulu and you wouldn’t know it?”
Having relegated the Japanese threat to the category of laughing matters, the admiral was making it clear, though in an indirect way, that he’d be inclined to laugh derisively at anyone who thought otherwise

Question 25

Direct abuse

Answer 25

Beyers Naude became editor of the journal Pro Veritate, which was devoted to exposing the truth about apartheid’s evil. Broederbonders gave “friendly warnings” to Naude about his involvement with the journal. He was harassed by police raids on his home and office, interceptions of his mail, phone taps, revocation of his passport, and secret service surveillance. The Afrikaaners so detested him that at his own mother’s funeral his kin locked arms to prevent him from standing at her graveside