6. SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Question 1

What defines group membership in social psychology?

Answer 1

Norms: attitudes and behaviours that define group membership and differentiate between groups.

Question 2

What is social influence?

Answer 2

The process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people.

Question 3

What is compliance?

Answer 3

A superficial, public change in behaviour in response to requests, coercion or group pressure.

Question 4

What is obedience?

Answer 4

Compliance with another’s authority.

Question 5

What did Milgram’s (1974) obedience study involve?

Answer 5

A teacher (participant) gave electric shocks to a learner (confederate) for errors in recalling word pairs.

Question 6

What is the ‘agentic state’ in Milgram’s theory?

Answer 6

A state of unquestioning obedience where personal responsibility is transferred to the authority figure.

Question 7

What are some factors that influence obedience?

Answer 7

Sunk cost fallacy, foot-in-the-door technique, immediacy of victim and authority, presence of peers.

Question 8

What obedience rate occurred when the victim was unseen?

Answer 8

100% obedience.

Question 9

What obedience rate occurred when the victim was in the same room?

Answer 9

40% obedience.

Question 10

What obedience rate occurred when the teacher held the victim’s hand down?

Answer 10

30% obedience.

Question 11

What happened to obedience when instructions were given by phone?

Answer 11

Obedience dropped to 20.5%.

Question 12

What was the obedience rate with no orders?

Answer 12

2.5%.

Question 13

What was the obedience rate with two obedient peers present?

Answer 13

92.5%.

Question 14

What was the obedience rate with two disobedient peers?

Answer 14

10%.

Question 15

What is conformity?

Answer 15

A deep-seated, enduring change in behaviour and attitudes due to group pressure.

Question 16

What is the convergence effect (Sherif, 1936)?

Answer 16

The tendency to perceive middle positions as more correct due to group norms.

Question 17

What did Allport (1924) find about group influence?

Answer 17

People give less extreme judgements in groups than alone.

Question 18

What was the design of Asch’s (1951) conformity experiment?

Answer 18

1 naïve participant among confederates gave judgments on 18 line trials, with confederates giving incorrect answers on 12 trials.

Question 19

What percentage of Asch’s participants never conformed? .

Answer 19

25%

Question 20

What percentage conformed on all 12 erroneous trials in Asch’s study?

Answer 20

5%.

Question 21

What was the overall conformity rate in Asch’s study?

Answer 21

33%.

Question 22

Why did participants conform in Asch’s study?

Answer 22

Due to uncertainty, anxiety, and the desire to fit in or avoid standing out.

Question 23

What did neuroimaging show about conformity?

Answer 23

Stronger amygdala response to nonconformity (Berns et al., 2005).

Question 24

What happened when participants responded privately in Asch-type studies?

Answer 24

Conformity dropped to 12.5%.

Question 25

What did Deutsch and Gerard (1955) manipulate in their study?

Answer 25

Response format (private vs. public) and stimulus presence (certainty vs. uncertainty).

Question 26

How does expertise affect conformity?

Answer 26

Lack of familiarity increases conformity (Sistruck & McDavid, 1971).

Question 27

What did Bond and Smith (1996) find about culture and conformity?

Answer 27

Collectivist cultures conform more than individualist cultures.

Question 28

How does group size affect conformity (Asch, 1952)?

Answer 28

Larger unanimous groups increase conformity.

Question 29

What is informational influence?

Answer 29

Accepting information from others as evidence about reality, especially in uncertain situations.

Question 30

What is normative influence?

Answer 30

Conforming to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Question 31

What is the inhibitory norm model of eating?

Answer 31

People eat less in front of others to avoid appearing excessive (Herman et al., 2003).

Question 32

What is referent informational influence?

Answer 32

Pressure to conform to norms of a group one identifies with (Roth et al., 2001).

Question 33

What is minority influence?

Answer 33

A process where a small group can create social change despite being outnumbered.

Question 34

What are the three social influence modalities (Moscovici & Faucheux, 1972)?

Answer 34

Conformity, normalisation, and innovation.

Question 35

What is needed for effective minority influence?

Answer 35

Consistency, commitment, and autonomy.

Question 36

What did Moscovici, Lage & Naffrechoux (1969) find?

Answer 36

Consistent minorities influenced more than inconsistent ones in a colour judgment task.

Question 37

What is Conversion Theory (Moscovici, 1980)?

Answer 37

Majorities influence via public compliance; minorities influence via private conversion.

Question 38

What is the conversion effect?

Answer 38

A sudden internal attitude change in the majority due to minority influence.

Question 39

What did Moscovici & Personnaz (1980) find in their after-image study?

Answer 39

Minority influence led to after-images consistent with internalised views.

Question 40

What is Nemeth’s (1986) convergent-divergent theory?

Answer 40

Majority influence leads to narrow thinking; minority influence fosters creative, divergent thinking.