The Influence of Others on Decisions and Actions

Question 1

what’s informational social influence?

Answer 1

when we conform because we think others have more information on what is true/accurate. It often leads to conversion.

Question 2

what’s normative social influence?

Answer 2

when we conform to the expectations of others = behavioural compliance in group contexts.

Question 3

what’s conversion?

Answer 3

internalisation of change in attitude/behaviour

Question 4

what’s compliance?

Answer 4

external change in attitude/behaviour (e.g., public agreement).

Question 5

sherif (1939): autokinetic experiment

Answer 5

• a small spot of light (projected onto a screen) in a dark room will appear to move even though it is still (i.e., it is a visual illusion).
• articipants were individually tested, their estimates of how far the light moved varied considerably
  -then tested in groups of three. Sherif manipulated the composition of the group by putting together two people whose estimate of the light movement when alone was very similar and one person whose estimate was very different. Each person in the group had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved.
• over numerous estimates (trials) of the movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate

Question 6

Asch (1952): Normative social influence - group influence on unambiguous judgments

Answer 6

Results:
- Average conformity was 33%
- 5% conformed on all trials
- 50% conformed on 6 or more trials
- 25% remained independent
- Compared to 0.7% errors in the control (Alone)

Some thought the group was right, while others knew they weren’t.
Independents were certain of what they saw

Question 7

Review of Asch (1952)

Answer 7

Asch’s experiments have been largely misunderstood:
Results could be interpreted as (i) low levels of public conformity (only 1/3 of time), (ii) almost no private persuasion

Group pressure was only enough for a public show of consensus, but participants were not actually persuaded (private response condition = 12.5% conformity).

decreasing pressure and uncertainty reduced conformity

Question 8

what social factors influence conformity?

Answer 8

• Group size: greater conformity with larger groups.
• Group unanimity:greater conformity when group is unanimous.
• Anonymity: conformity decreases when decisions can be made anonymously.

Question 9

what social factors influence conformity?

Answer 9

• High status (normative influence) and/or high expertise (informational influence) group members have more social influence.
• Explanations for behaviour: conform less when we understand the reasons for other people’s behaviors.
• Cultural norms :conformity is greater in interdependent cultures that focus on preservation of social harmony/social glue. Regardless most cultures still find it difficult to resist conforming to the group norm.

Question 10

what is relative informational influence? (influence of social identity)

Answer 10

• where social identity shapes individual behaviour to be consistent with salient group identity (Turner, 1991).
• Even in low ambiguity situations with no social sanctions people comply with group responses
• The more identification with group, the more influenced

Question 11

Milgram (1963): study on obedience

Answer 11

• ways in which authority can influence people
• near lethal fake electric shocks administered to confederate by P, confederate in a separate room
  15 to 450 volts on the machine:
  75V: Ugh!
  150V: Get me out of here! My heart’s starting to bother me! I refuse to go on! Let me out!
  180V: I can’t stand the pain!
  220V: Let me out! Let me out!
  270V: Agonised screams
  300V: Refuse to answer and agonised screams
  315V: Intensely agonised screams
  345V: Silence
  Throughout: if the participant was hesitating,the experimenter told him/her to go on.
• people predicted that a lower percentage would go through to the full 450V than those ps who actually did

Question 12

effects of free choice on Milgram’s study, could experiement be explained by aggression?

Answer 12

• Exp 11: participants chose own shock level
• Absence of authority instructions
• Should rapidly gravitate towards the maximum 450v if aggression based
• But only 3 participants went beyond 135v, only 1 went to 450v
• When free choice, administered levels of shocks are considerably lower

Question 13

what factors effect obedience?

Answer 13

1. closeness of learner
   a. unseen and unheard: 100% compliance
   b. pounding on the wall: 62.5%
   c. visible during experiment: 40%
2. proximity of shock
   equipment
   a. Holding hand to electrode: 30%
3. legitimacy of authority
   a. not run at Yale uni, run down basement in city: 48%

Question 14

Meta-Milgram (2014) Haslam, Loughnan & Perry

Answer 14

• re-analysed Milgram’s data from 21 conditions of his obedience study.
• obedience rate across 21 conditions was 43.6% (323/740 participants)

Question 15

what factors predicted the likelihood that teachers would continue to 450V?

Answer 15

• legitimacy of experimenter
• non-directiveness of experimenter
• inconsistency of experimenter
• distance between teacher and experimenter
• group pressure on teacher to disobey
• proximity of teacher and learner
• in-directiveness of teacher and learner
• intimacy of teacher and learner

Question 16

individual differences on why people conform

Answer 16

• Low Self-esteem
• High need for social support or approval
• Need for self-control
• Low IQ
• High Anxiety
• Feelings of Self-Blame and
• insecurity in the group
• Feelings of inferiority
• Feeling of relatively low status in the group
• Generally Authoritarian personality
• Women (slightly higher in
  social interaction; likely desire to maintain group harmony)

However, situational factors are likely more important (Twitter versus Instagram/FB)

Question 17

Burgers (2009) Replication of Milgram

Answer 17

• 70 participants – 20-81 years old
  Thorough screening process:
  People who had taken 2 (or more) psychology courses were excluded.
  People with history of mental health conditions excluded
  People who passed these 2 checks had in-person interview with clinical psychologist.
• Experiment terminated at 150V
• Critical point – 79% of Milgram’s subjects who delivered 150V continued to the end.
• Random assignment to base condition OR modeled refusal condition

Base condition resembled Milgram’s Exp.5.
- Confederate is the learner and reveals heart condition.
Script based on Milgram’s original … “you must continue”
- After 150V, learner yells “get me out of here”
- Experiment ended if participant goes to read the next question.

Modeled refusal condition
- Similar to base condition with these minor exceptions:
- 2 confederates – 1 learner role & 1 first teacher role
- Participant is assigned to second teacher role.
- Experimenter instructs that (confederate) first teacher will go first.
- After 90v first teacher expresses doubt and eventually refuses to continue (and leaves room).
- Experimenter asks participant to take over.

Question 18

Results of Burger (2009)

Answer 18

Base condition:
- 70% participants in base condition went to continue past 150v
This was not significantly different from Milgram’s original – 82.5%

Modeled refusal condition:
- 63.3% participants in modeled refusal condition went to continue past 150v.
- This was unexpected - it was not significantly different from rates in base condition!

• No significant differences in obedience rates between the conditions for men and women.
  66.7% men & 72.7% women went to continue past 150V in base condition.
• Mixed and inconsistent results on personality:
  a. No difference in empathetic concern between stoppers and continuers in either condition
  b. In base condition, stoppers higher in desire for control, but this was not replicated in modeled refusal condition.

Question 19

what is groupthink?

Answer 19

• When group decision making goes wrong
  Janis (1972) “A mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt rational decision-making procedures.”
• (Faulty) decisions are characterized by little scrutiny and social pressure to reach consensus
• Members stick to their chosen course of action and refuse to seriously consider alternatives.

Question 20

what 4 US foreign policy decisions with unfavourable outcomes did Janis (1972) develop his theory based on?

Answer 20

• Pearl Harbor
• Escalation of Korean war by crossing 38th parallel into North Korea
• Bay of Pigs invasion
• Escalation of Vietnam war during 1964-1967

Question 21

what is the groupthink model?

Answer 21

Antecedents
- excessive group cohesiveness
- insulation of group from external information and influence
- lack of impartial leadership and norms encouraging proper procedures
- ideological homogeneity of membership
- high stress from external threat and task complexity
↓
symptoms
- feelings of invulnerability and unanimity
- unquestioning belief that the group must be right
- tendency to ignore or discredit information contrary to the group’s position
- direct pressure exerted on dissidents to bring them into line
stereotyping of outgoing members
↓
poor decision making

Question 22

evidence for groupthink

Answer 22

Case studies – coding and analysing real-word examples for antecedents and symptoms of groupthink.

Experimental studi
- Lab or quasi-naturalistic groups
- Cohesiveness is manipulated.
- Directive leadership is manipulated.
- Procedural directions for effective decision making are manipulated.

Question 23

how to avoid groupthink (Janis and Mann, 1977)

Answer 23

1. Awareness of causes and consequences of group think
2. Leader should be neutral when assigning a decision-making task to a group (& encourage open inquiry)
3. Leader give high priority to airing objections and doubts (accepting of criticism)
4. Groups should consider unpopular alternatives (devil’s advocate positions assigned to influential group members)
5. Potential solutions should be discussed with expert non-group members.

Question 24

what is group polarization?

Answer 24

• Discussion can encourage groups to be more extreme in their resulting decisions.
• This can make the decisions “riskier” but only for groups that value risk-taking.
• Real life implications – people can become less tolerant to opposing views.

Question 25

Why does Group Polarization occur?

Answer 25

• Persuasive arguments theory: Greater exposure to more novel arguments supporting one’s own opinions.

Social comparison theory:
- Bandwagon effect – we take a more extreme view to differentiate ourselves from others.
- Pluralistic ignorance – group discussion can liberate people to be true to their beliefs.

• Social identity theory: group memberships leads to conformity to group norms, which minimises variability within the group.
• Processing Effort: impact of others’ opinions higher under conditions of low ability and motivation (Sieber & Ziegler, 2019).

Question 26

Can we avoid group polarisation?

Answer 26

• Establishing ground rules & Leader influence (Kerr & Tindale, 2004)
• Importance of critical thinking! (Facione, 2020)
• Learning to disagree productively and intellectual humility (Leary, 2022).
• Pre-mortem/assume you are wrong or will fail
• Anonymous inputs