Chapter 8: Social Influence Flashcards
(36 cards)
Social Influence
The many ways people affect one another, including changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior resulting from the comments, actions, or even the mere presence of others
Conformity
Changing one’s beliefs or behavior to more closely align with those of others, in response to explicit or implicit pressure (real or imagined) to do so
Compliance
Responding favorably to an explicit request from another person
Obedience
In a unequal power relationship, submitting to the demands of the person in authority
Automatic mimicry
Perhaps the most subtle form of conformity is our tendency to mindlessly imitate other people’s behavior and movements
Chartrand & Bargh 1999
Participants and confederates took turns describing various photographs from popular magazines for two 10-minute sessions (with a new confederate in each session) while being filmed.
The confederate in one session frequently rubbed his or her face; the confederate in the other session continuously shook his or her foot.
Results: The participants tended to mimic (conform to) the behavior exhibited by the confederate.
Reasons for mimicry
- William James provided this explanation: arguing that merely thinking about a behavior makes performing that behavior more likely.
- We reflexively mimic others is to facilitate smooth, gratifying interaction and, in so doing, foster social connection.
Sherif’s Experiment
Sherif put individual participants in a darkened room alone, presented them with a stationary point of light on trial after trial, and had them estimate how far the light “moved” each time. Some, on average, estimated very little while others estimated a good amount more.
Next, participants were brought into the room together and asked them call out their estimates.
Results: He found that people’s estimates tended to converge over time. Those who guess a considerable amount soon lowered their estimates; those who guess lower raised their guesses.
Implications: Individual judgments quickly fused into a group norm.
Informational social influence
The reliance on other people’s comments and actions is an indication of what’s likely to be correct, proper, or effective.
This is often more pronounced when we’re uncertain about what is factually correct or when we’re in unfamiliar circumstances and unsure how to behave
Asch’s Conformity Experiment
One participant with seven other Confederates who were instructed to respond incorrectly about the three lines and which line matched with the one line displayed which was obvious.
Findings: Three-quarters of the participants conformed to the group’s incorrect answer at least once.
Normative social influence
The influence of other people that comes from the desire to avoid being criticized, disapproved of, or shunned
Displayed in Asch’s study
Factors affecting conformity pressure
Group size
Group unanimity
Anonymity
Expertise and status
Culture
How does group size affect conformity pressure?
People are more likely to conform to a bigger group
Increase in conformity as the size of the group increases, but only to a group size of three or four; after that the amount of conformity levels off
How does group unanimity affect conformity pressure?
Having one person deviate from the norm in the room allows for someone else to do so, even if they don’t agree
It just liberates other people to make atypical remarks that are of value
So not as much conformity pressure
How does anonymity affect conformity pressure?
It eliminates normative social influence since when nobody else is aware of your judgment, there is no need to fear the group’s disapproval.
Internalization
The private acceptance of the position advanced by the majority
How do expertise and status affect conformity pressure?
We grant greater status to those with expertise, and we often assume that those with high status are experts.
Experts though primarily affect informational social influence since we take their opinions more seriously as sources of information.
Status mainly affects normative social influence since they can do more hurt to our social standing than lower-status individuals can.
How does culture affect conformity pressure?
Interdependent (collectivistic) cultures are more likely to be susceptible to both informational social influence and normative social influence than independent cultures.
Foot-in-the-door technique
It starts with a small request to which nearly everyone complies, thereby allowing the person making the request to get a foot in the door. This person then follows up with a larger request involving the real behavior of interest. The idea is that the target person’s initial agreement to the small request will lead to a change in self-image as someone who does this sort of thing or who contributes to such causes. This person then has a reason for agreeing to the subsequent, larger request.
Freedman & Fraser 1966
Aim: display the foot-in-the-door technique
Procedure: Investigators knocked on doors in a residential neighborhood and asked one group of
homeowners if they would be willing to have a large billboard sign bearing the slogan “Drive Carefully” installed in their front
yard for one week. They were shown a picture of the sign. It was large and unattractive, so not surprisingly, only 17 percent agreed to the request. Another group of residents was approached with a much smaller request–to
display in a window of their home a 3-inch-s quare sign bearing the phrase “Be a Safe Driver. Virtually all of them agreed with the request. Two weeks later, when this group was asked to display the billboard in their yard, a staggering 76 percent of the homeowners agreed to do so.
What is norm-based compliance?
The tendency to act as those around us do can be harnessed to achieve compliance with explicit requests or implicit suggestions.
This simple technique of informing people about social norms is likely to be most effective when the information is surprising.
Pluralistic ignorance
The tendency for people to act in ways that conflict with their true beliefs or preferences because they think they are not widely shared by others.
Prentice and Miller 1993 Study
Aim: pluralistic ignorance on a college campus; the discrepancy between private attitudes and public norms about alcohol use at Princeton University
Procedures: Princeton
undergraduates were asked how comfortable they felt about campus drinking habits as well as how comfortable with drinking they thought both their friends and the average undergraduate were.
Results: University students believe drinking alcohol is more popular among their peers than it really is. Because of this belief, they censor their reservations about drinking, thus furthering the illusion that alcohol is so popular.
They would indicate that they were less at ease with drinking than they supposed most students were.
Descriptive norms
Simply descriptions of what is typically done in a given context.
