Week 7 - Lecture 7 - Social Influence

Question 1

What is social influence?

Answer 1

• Process whereby attitudes and behaviours are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people;
• Efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions or behaviours of one or more others;

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

A means of social influence used to reach goals or attain social or personal gains;

compliance more superficial - changing behaviour rather than attitudes

Question 3

what are the types of social influence?

Answer 3

compliance, conformity, obedience

Question 4

factors influencing compliance in an individual

Answer 4

group strength
group size
immediacy
similarity

Question 5

what is similarity in compliance and how does similarity influence compliance?

Answer 5

sharing something in common with the person making the request - more likely to comply is request comes from someone similar to us

Question 6

what is group strength in compliance and how does group strength influence compliance?

Answer 6

importance of group affiliation –> compliance with social pressure

if a group is important to us, we want them to like us and therefore comply with their request

Question 7

what is group size in compliance and how does group size influence compliance?

Answer 7

increasing the number of people present increases the likelihood of compliance

Question 8

what is immediacy in compliance and how does immediacy influence compliance?

Answer 8

being in the immediate presence of a group - physical presence makes it more difficult to say no

Question 9

what are the techniques used to gain compliance?

Answer 9

foot-in-the-door technique
door-in-the-face technique
low-balling
norm of reciprocity

Question 10

what is the foot-in-the-door technique?

Answer 10

• Small request –accepted – followed by the ‘real’ one – large;
• Multiple request technique to gain compliance, in which the goal request is preceded by a smaller request that is bound to be accepted.

Question 11

example showing how the foot-in-the-door technique can be used to gain compliance

Answer 11

Freedman and Fraser (1966)

• Small request: to put up a small sign or to sign a petition;
• Large request: to install in their front lawn a very large sign which said “Drive Carefully.“
• control group had no small request first.
• 20% of people in control group allowed the sign, 55% in experimental group agreed to put up a sign

Question 12

critique of the foot-in-the-door technique

Answer 12

However, FITD not as robust as assumed; the time between 2 requests is crucial and the sex of the experimenter might affect the results (Beaman et al., 1983)

Question 13

what is the door-in-the-face technique?

Answer 13

• Huge request –rejected –followed by the ‘real’ one;
• Multiple request technique to gain compliance, in which the focal request is preceded by a larger request that is bound to be refused;

Question 14

Example of how door-in-the-face technique can be used to gain compliance

Answer 14

Cialdini et al. (1975) – Unpaid student counsellors field trip
experiment.

• asked to be unpaid counsellors to juvenile delinquents for 2 years, then asked instead to be a chaperone to them for 2 hours on the trip to the zoo.
• rejections and acceptance - 50% said yes, control (small request only) - 16.7% said yes
• 3rd - exposure control, given choice to decide between the 2. 25% said they’d go to zoo.
• giving people control may contribute to more success than just asking small request

Question 15

what is the low-ball technique?

Answer 15

A persuader gets you to commit to some action and then, before you actually perform the behaviour, they increase the ‘cost’ of that same behaviour;

Question 16

example of how low-balling can be used to gain compliance

Answer 16

• Cialdini et al. (1978) –7am start experiment
• asked to commit experiment and then told after they had committed to start at 7am

Question 17

evidence for whether the foot-in-the-door technique or the low-ball technique is more effective in gaining compliance

Answer 17

Joule, 1987

• Students were requested to stop smoking for 18 hours for 30 French francs. The researchers used either FITD or LB technique;
• 7 conditions
• Lowball technique first offered 50 francs but then revealed they’d have to stop smoking and for only 30 francs, but they had already committed
• foot in the door first filled in questionnaire but then told the actual request
• Results: the low-ball technique was more effective than the foot-in-the-door technique;
  (why? In the lowball technique they are already invested in process whereas FITD technique they are not)

Question 18

what is the norm of reciprocity?

Answer 18

• ‘Doing a favour’ for a person before asking them to do something for you;
• The persuader relies on the accepted convention that people will treat others as they are treated themselves;

Question 19

example of how norm of reciprocity can be used to influence compliance?

Answer 19

Regan’s (1971) raffle tickets study;

• confederate gave people waiting soft drinks before asking them for a favour (buying raffle tickets)
• more likely to buy tickets if they were first given a soft drink

Question 20

How are power and compliance linked?

Answer 20

Compliance is not only linked to the perceived power exhibited by the source of influence.

Question 21

what is power?

Answer 21

the capacity to influence others whilst resisting their attempts to influence

Question 22

Moscovici link to power

Answer 22

Moscovici - came up with the distinction between power and influence.

• Power is about obtaining compliance and submission through domination.
• If you have power you don’t need influence

Question 23

French and Rave (1959, 1993) types of power

Answer 23

reward power
coercive power
informational power
expert power
legitimate power
referent power

Question 24

reward power

Answer 24

ability to give us something for compliance

Question 25

coercive power

Answer 25

ability to threaten or punish for non-compliance

Question 26

informational power

Answer 26

someone treated as source of information to us

Question 27

expert power

Answer 27

someone perceived as expert

Question 28

legitimate power

Answer 28

person is in position of power, e.g. police officer

Question 29

referent power

Answer 29

admire/are attracted to source of power

Question 30

what is conformity?
- how does it happen?

Answer 30

• Happens through social pressure – the norms of the majority;
• Does not refer to effects of other people on internal concepts like attitudes or beliefs;

Question 31

Allport (1954) findings on conformity

Answer 31

In groups, people tend to give less extreme and more conservative judgments

Question 32

characteristics of people who tend to conform

Answer 32

Individual characteristics:
– Lower self-esteem;
– High anxiety;
– Lower IQ;
– More of an authoritarian personality;
– High need for social support or approval;
– Needforself-control;
– Inferiority complex;

Group characteristics:
– Feelings of insecurities in a group;
– (perceived) Low status in a group;

Question 33

factors influencing conformity:

Answer 33

• individual and group factors
• situational/contextual factors

Question 34

situational/contextual factors influencing conformity

Answer 34

culture (collectivist vs individualist)
group size
group unanimity

Question 35

how does group unanimity influence conformity?

Answer 35

more unanimous - higher conformity

Question 36

example of research into conformity

Answer 36

Asch (1951, 1952, 1956) - Line Judgement Experiment;

• Aim: Extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform;
• Procedure: Lab experiment, 50 male students, using a line judgment task, naive participant in a room with seven confederates;
• Results: Experimental Group –75% conformed at least once, ~ 50% conformed in 6 or more trials, 25% never conformed; Control Group –99% chose the correct line;
• due to informational and normative influence

Question 37

normative influence

Answer 37

conform to fit into the group

Conforming to obtain the rewards that come from being accepted by other people while at the same time avoiding their rejection;

• Conform to gain social approval and avoid social disapproval;
• Under surveillance by group;
• Group perceived to hold reward or coercive power;
• Creates surface compliance; change their answer but not beliefs

Question 38

informational influence

Answer 38

believe the group is better informed than they are

Following the opinions or behaviour of other people because we believe that they have accurate knowledge and that what they are doing is right;

• Accept information from others as true;
• Need to be right;
• Occurs in ambiguous situations;

Question 39

how does group size influence conformity

Answer 39

bigger the group - higher the conformity

Question 40

reasons why people conform

Answer 40

• Demand characteristics
• Doubt own judgement
• Desire to be indistinguishable
• Size of majority and unanimity
• Fear of ridicule
• Task difficulty
• Private vs public answers
• Collectivist vs Individualistic cultures

Question 41

what is obedience

Answer 41

• Form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual;
• Usually an authority figure;
• It is assumed that without such an order the person
  would not have acted in this way;
• Obedience involves a hierarchy of power/status;
• Person giving order has a higher status than the
  person receiving order;

Question 42

factors influencing obedience

Answer 42

– Social proximity of ‘victim’ (victim’s emotional distance)
– Social proximity and the legitimacy of the person giving the order (authority figure) (whether the authority is institutionalised)
– Diffusion of responsibility
– Group Pressure (disobedient fellow ppt?)
– Persuasion

Question 43

study on obedience

Answer 43

• 1963, 1965, 1974;
• “Effects of punishment on learning”
• Electric shocks for incorrect answers ranging from 15 to 450 volts in 15-volt increments;
• 65% of the participants in this version of the experiment (exp. nr 5) continued to administer shocks all the way to the end.

Question 44

Example of how closeness of authority influences obedience

Answer 44

Milgram: obedience dropped to 20% when given through phone

Question 45

Would the result of Milgrams study still be the case today?

Answer 45

• “Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?” (Burger, 2009);
• Obedience rates in the 2006 replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram found 45 years earlier;

Question 46

how does the presence of others influence obedience?

Answer 46

Norman Triplett’s study (1898); (cyclists cycled faster in a group than when they were on their own)
* Social facilitation – presence of others improves
performance of simple tasks;

• Then why do some people perform worse when others
  are present?
• Robert Zajonc proposed that it’s due to arousal – arousal enhances whatever response tendency is dominant.
• increased arousal improves performance in easy tasks in which the dominant response is the correct one
• increased arousal decreased performance in complex tasks for which the correct response is not dominant

Hunt and Hilary (1973) - perform an easy maze. the presence of other decreased time, alone = impaired time to complete the maze.

Question 47

social facilitation

Answer 47

presence of others improves performance of simple tasks;

Question 48

Audience influence on obedience

Answer 48

• People respond to the presence of others;
• Even a supportive crowd/audience may affect performance negatively;
• The effect of other people increases with their number and a larger
  audience may influence even automatic behaviours (e.g. speaking) [self-
  conscious and arousal play a part].
• Being in a crowd intensifies both: positive and negative reactions. Physical proximity influences our perception.

Question 49

why do other people cause our arousal levels to increase?

Answer 49

evaluation apprehension - anxiety regarding being evaluated

distraction - the conflict between paying attention to others and paying attention to the task overloads our cognitive system causing arousal

mere presence - even without evaluation or distraction, the mere presence of others affects our arousal

Question 50

minority influence

Answer 50

Numeric or power minorities change the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of the majority;

Question 51

evidence from historical realities of minority influence

Answer 51

– Suffragettes Movement (founded in 1897)
– Civil Rights Movement (1896-1970) - Rosa Parks, MLK;
– Anti-war protests – e.g. Vietnam;

Question 52

determinants of minority influence

Answer 52

– Consistency
– Self-confidence
– Defection from the majority

Question 53

consistency in minority influence

Answer 53

sticking to one’s position, persistence

Question 54

self-confidence in minority influence

Answer 54

consistency and persistence convert self-confidence

Question 55

defection from the majority in minority influence

Answer 55

destroying the illusion of unanimity

Question 56

definitions of leadership

Answer 56

• “the behavioral process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals” (Barrow, 1977, p. 232);
• “the behavior of an individual when he [she] is directing the activities of a group towards a shared goal” (Hemphill & Coons, 1957);
• “leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2001, p. 3);
• Leadership has been studied from different perspectives, the most popular approaches include trait, skills, style, situational, and relational approach.

Question 57

the role of leaders

Answer 57

• Leaders are critical to social movements:
  – they inspire commitment,
  – mobilize resources,
  – create and recognize
  opportunities,
  – devise strategies,
  – framedemands,
  – influence outcomes.

Question 58

approaches to study leadership

Answer 58

• personality traits (the Great Person Theory)
• situation
• behaviour (autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire)

Question 59

leadership theories

Answer 59

• Fiedler’s contingency theory (1964)
• Path-goal theory (House, 1996)
• Transactional leadership (Burns, 1978)
• Leader-member exchange theory (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995)
• transformational leadership (Bass, 1985)

Question 60

leader vs manager

Answer 60

• manager: planning, organising, scheduling, budgeting, staffing and recruiting
• leader: provide vision, determine direction of an organisation, goals, provide resources and support to get the job done.
• “too many teams are over-managed and under-led” (Martens, 1987)

Question 61

is a leader born or made?

Answer 61

prescribed vs emergent leaders

Question 62

prescribed leader

Answer 62

appointed to position, usually by a person in authority

Question 63

emergent leader

Answer 63

emerge from group and take charge, usually more effective as they have the respect and support of the group members

Question 64

leadership styles

Answer 64

democratic vs autocratic leadership

Question 65

democratic leadership

Answer 65

leader offers guidance to members, allows group to participate in decisions but leader has final say, often most effective style as members are generally more engaged and motivated.

Question 66

autocratic leadership

Answer 66

provide clear explanations for what needs to be done, clear division between leader and followers, make decisions with little input from group, best used when there is little time to make a decision or when leader is much more knowledgable than group members

Question 67

types of leaders

Answer 67

task-orientated
person-orientated

Question 68

task-orientated leaders

Answer 68

focus on working to get task done and meeting objectives, focus on providing technical instruction and how to correct errors after mistakes.

Question 69

person-orientated leaders

Answer 69

focus on developing lines of communication, maintaining social interactions and ensuring all group members are involved, focus on giving positive feedback after good performances and encouragement after mistakes

Question 70

approaches to studying leadership

Answer 70

trait
behavioural
situational
transformational