Chapter 8 Flashcards
Americans generally romanticize not
conforming
Examples of other people’s behavior influencing an individuals decisions/behavior
- Heaven’s Gate
- Freedom Riders
- My Lai Massacres of Vietnam
Conformity
A change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people
Informational Social Influence
-Desire to gain information
Conform because we see others as a source of information to guide our behavior
-Believe they are “more” correct at interpreting the situation
-Can backfire, particularly when threat is involved
-Women are own harshest critics regarding weight they
think that they are heavier than reality
Sherif’s Autokinetic Research
-Individuals presented with a dot of light in a darkened room
-Told it was a perception experiment and asked how much the dot moved
Disparate individual judgments converged onto an agreed upon estimate when judging with others
-Participants in Sherif’s study truly believed the group’s estimate
Private Acceptance
Conforming to other people’s behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right
Public Compliance
Conforming to other people’s behavior publicly without necessarily believing in what we are doing or saying
Sherif’s participants continued providing estimates closer to the group’s up to a year later
Generating Private Acceptance
Reducing electricity use
Hotel towel reuse
Drinking on college campuses
Eyewitness Identification Study
-Faces presented for half second
-When led to believe it was for the development police department techniques and highly important
Conformed to wrong answers 51% of the time
Versus 35% of low-importance conditions
Contagion
The rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd
Mass Psychogenic Illness
The occurrence, in a group of people, of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause
When is Informational Social Influence most likely to produce conformity?
- When the situation is ambiguous.
- When the situation is a crisis.
- When other people are experts.
Normative Social Influence
-Wanting to be liked or accepted
-Influence leading us to conform in order to be liked and accepted
-Will not necessarily lead to private acceptance of those beliefs and behaviors.
-Crandall (1988) found that sororities each develop their own group norms regarding eating disorders.
Throughout the year, new members conformed to their respective sororities group norms
-Men are increasingly under pressure to have an “ideal” body–
–Six pack
–Media influential in promoting this
–Increased steroid and/or enhancement use
Social Norms
- The implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members–
- -We don’t do that
- -We do that
- Deviant members can be excluded or bullied
Asch’s Line Judgment Research Solomon Asch (1951, 1956)
- Placed college students in room with six confederates
- Answered second to last
- Solomon Asch had participants guess which line in the right box is the same length as the line on the left. Almost everyone easily gets this right—when alone.
- Overall agreed with group on 37% of the critical trials
- 76% of participants agreed with the majority on at least one of the critical trials
- When a single confederate answered incorrectly with actual participants, the participants–
- -Were initially stunned
- -Laughed at confederate’s choices
When it is important to people to be accurate
Conform less to the obviously wrong answers of the group.
But they still conform part of the time (33%)
some people will find it difficult to risk social disapproval, even from strangers when
- When the group is wrong
- the right answer is obvious
- there are strong incentives to be accurate
When individuals attempt to resist
- Attempts are made to “bring them back into the fold”–
- -Teasing or long discussions
- If attempts fail, negative comments will be made and others
Schacter’s “Johnny Rocco” Study
- Case study of a juvenile delinquent
- Groups of 8-10 participants vote on what to do with Johnny
- Scale ranging from 1- “loving” treatment to 7- “punishment” treatment
- 3 confederates–
- -A deviate
- -A slider
- -A mode
- The groups did not like the deviant
Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life
- Fashion
- Fads
- Body image
- Women’s body image–
- -Most cultures consider plumpness attractive
- -Western & American cultures are currently emphasizing thinness
Social Impact Theory
- The idea that conforming to social influence depends on–
- -The strength of the group’s importance,
- -Its immediacy,
- -The number of people in the group.
Size of the group
After four or five members, additional members have minimal effect
Importance of the group
-friendship, love, and respect, creates more influence
-Highly cohesive groups often make less-than-rational decisions
Attempting to avoid conflict or upsetting one another
Role of Allies
- Asch (1955) had 1 of 7 confederates provide the correct answer
- Conformity dropped to 6 percent from 32 percent
- Most common Supreme Court Ruling is 9-0
