Lecture 5 - Social Influence

Question 1

What is social influence?

Answer 1

“Process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p.236)

Question 2

What do social norms imply?

Answer 2

The presence of other people, which guide our behaviour e.g. recycling

Question 3

What are social norms?

Answer 3

“rules and standards that are understood by members of a group and that guide and/or constrain social behaviour without the force of laws. These norms emerge out of interaction with others; they may or may not be stated explicitly, and any sanctions for deviating from them come from social networks, not the legal system” (Cialdini & Trost, 1998, p. 152)

Question 4

What are sanctions

Answer 4

Social approval/disapproval

Question 5

What did Asch (1951) show about conformity?

Answer 5

People change behaviour/opinions in ways consistent with norms

Rational process - people construct norm from others’ behaviour to determine appropriate behaviour

Question 6

What happens in an ambiguous context?

Answer 6

Uncertainty makes you use the group as a frame of reference and converge to the group norm

Question 7

What happens in an unambiguous context?

Answer 7

Act independently of group norms

Question 8

Describe Sherif’s (1936) autokinetic study

Answer 8

Social norms emerge to guide behaviour in conditions of uncertainty

Autokinetic effect (point of light appears to move) – in the absence of physical objects in a dark room, light appears to move even though it doesn’t actually

Participants asked how much light moved

Question 9

What happened when participants were tested alone?

Answer 9

Most participants adopted own norm in range of 1 to 10 inches (varied)

Question 10

What happened when judgements were made in groups of 2/3

Answer 10

Judgements alone or in groups of 2/3 – call out estimates in front of other people

Use judgments of others as frame of reference

Converge away from individual to common standard: group norm (participants used each other’s estimates as a frame of reference and converged onto a group mean)

Question 11

What do the results show about norms?

Answer 11

Norm internalised and used as a frame of reference in subsequent judgements

Using other people’s behaviours as a frame of reference to guide own actions (more likely in ambiguous contexts)

Question 12

What is informational social influence (Deutch and Gerard, 1955)?

Answer 12

Ambiguous/uncertain situations

Need to feel confident our perceptions/beliefs/feelings are correct

Influence to accept info from another as evidence about reality

True cognitive change (both public and private attitudes/behaviours change)

Sherif’s study = informational influence

Ambiguous -> uncertainty -> use others’ estimates as information to resolve subjective uncertainty

Question 13

What is normative influence (Deutsch and Gerard, 1955)?

Answer 13

Need for social approval and acceptance

Avoid disapproval

Surface compliance (change in public attitudes/behaviours but no true cognitive change)

Asch’s study = normative influence

Unambiguous -> go along with the group (especially when under surveillance)

Question 14

What was the procedure of Asch’s conformity studies?

Answer 14

Visual discrimination tasks

7-9 people

Which line length (A, B or C) is the same as target line (not an ambiguous task)

One naïve participant, rest confederates (instructed to unanimously give wrong answer in subsequent trials)

Question 15

What was the average conformity in Asch’s experiments?

Answer 15

33%

Question 16

Why did people conform?

Answer 16

Self-doubt, self-conscious, fear of social disapproval

When judgements were anonymous, conformity dropped to 12.5%

Question 17

What is minority influence?

Answer 17

“Social influence processes whereby numerical or power minorities change the attitudes of the majority” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014, p.256)

Question 18

What are some examples of minority influence?

Answer 18

Right to vote, environmental protection and climate change

Question 19

What makes minorities more effective?

Answer 19

If they are consistent, not rigid, and committed

Question 20

What processes does majority influence use to exert social influence?

Answer 20

Majority influence produces public compliance via social comparison (NSI) – people concentrate on what others say to know how to fit in – surface change

Question 21

What processes does minority influence use to exert social influence?

Answer 21

Minority influence produces indirect, private change in opinion; conversion effect as a consequence of active consideration of minority point of view

Question 22

How did Milgram (1963) describe obedience to authority?

Answer 22

“One of social psychology’s most dramatic research programmes”

Question 23

What is obedience?

Answer 23

Following the demands of someone who is higher in the social hierarchy than oneself (authority figure/has power over us)

Question 24

What was the purpose of Milgram’s studies of obedience?

Answer 24

To investigate when/why people obey

Question 25

What was the procedure for Milgram's obedience experiments?

Answer 25

Electric shocks to confederate in mock learning study (experimenter = authority figure) People socialised to respect authority of the state Participants believed they were in an experiment about learning/memory ‘Teacher’ (participant) and ‘learner’ (confederate) – real participant believed randomly assigned Incorrect answer = shock (increase by 15 volts) – measure number of shocks participant willing to administer (no shocks actually given) 150V = say shocks becoming painful 300V = stop responding Teacher instructed to increase the intensity of the shock one step on the generator on each error (generator had descriptive labels e.g. ‘slight’, ‘shock’)

Question 26

What did the experimenter tell the participant when they hesitated throughout the experiment?

Answer 26

‘Please continue’ ‘The experiment requires you to continue’ ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’ ‘You have no choice, you must go on’

Question 27

What is an agentic state?

Answer 27

Mentally absolve of own responsibility and transfer responsibility to person giving order

Question 28

What did a panel of experts predict was the furthest somebody would go in the experiment?

Answer 28

Predicted only 10% would exceed 180V and no one would obey to final 450V

Question 29

What was the actual result of Milgram's (1963) obedience study

Answer 29

80% went past 150V, 62.5% went all the way to 450V

Question 30

How did Milgram investigate which factors influenced obedience?

Answer 30

Milgram conducted 18 experiments and varied parameters to systematically investigate which factors influence obedience

Question 31

How does gradual change and commitment influence obedience?

Answer 31

Participants committed to course of action (experiment starts with mild, trivial shocks and gradually increases, and difficult to change mind through experiment)

Question 32

How does immediacy of the victim affect obedience?

Answer 32

How close/obvious victim is to participant As immediacy increased, obedience decreased When victim unseen/unheard, 65% provided 450V When victim in same room, 40% provided 450V When force hand onto electrode, 30% provided 450V Doesn’t drop to 0 – immediacy prevents dehumanisation of victim

Question 33

How does immediacy of authority figure influence obedience?

Answer 33

Obedience decreased when experimenter not in room and directions given by telephone (to 20.5%)

Question 34

How does the legitimacy of the authority figure influence obedience?

Answer 34

Lab coated experimenter/Yale University – reduction when the experiment was conducted in an industrial testing to 48% (people abdicate personal responsibility for their actions)

Question 35

What are some potential ethical issues in Milgram's experiments?

Answer 35

Is research important? (objectivity?) – does the information gained outweigh the risk to participants? (short term risk vs long term risk) Is the participant free to terminate the experiment? Does the participant freely consent to take part? (fully informed consent vs deception)

Question 36

What did post study interviews reveal about participants' views on the experiment?

Answer 36

Approx. 80% said they were glad to have taken part Post study interviews suggested participants were not harmed