Social Influence Flashcards
(110 cards)
Social influence definition
The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours
Compliance definition
Publicly agreeing with a group or others to gain approval/avoid embarrassment or disapproval, while privately disagreeing. Temporary change of view.
Identification definition
A change in an individual’s behaviour and internal beliefs to that of a specific group, but only in the presence of that group. Short term.
Internalisation definition
A complete change in an individual’s behaviour and internal beliefs to conform with a group. These changes exist outside of the presence of the group and are permanent. Strongest type of conformity.
Informational social influence (ISI) definition
When an individual conforms because they want to be right and assume others are. usually leads to internalisation
EVIDENCE for ISI (president)
Fein et al - ask participants to vote for a US president. participants copied the candidate they saw others voting for bc they wanted to be correct
Normative social influence (NSI) definition
When an individual conforms because they want to be liked and accepted, driving compliance. Often occurs because someone wants to avoid embarrassment/discomfort of disagreeing with majority.
evaluation for NSI (bullying)
Evidence supporting link between NSI and bullying; real world application. Garandeau et al found a boy can be manipulated by a bully into bullying someone else to avoid disapproval
evaluation for ISI (maths)
Evidence supporting; Lucas et al (2006) found that when presented with difficult maths problems to solve, participants were more likely to conform to the majority answer
Evaluation for roles of ISI and NSI (complementary)
It may be beneficial to look at NSI and ISI as complementary not mutually exclusive. Deutsch and Gerrard’s Dual-Processing model (1955). Can be hard to separate as in many real world conformity situations they probably operate together.
Deutsch and Gerrards Dual-Processing Model reasons
Argues there were two main reasons people conform - the need to be liked and the need to be right
Limitation of NSI (McGhee)
NSI doesn’t’ predict conformity in every case. People who are very concerned with being liked called nAffilliators, have strong need for affiliation (relatability). McGhee and Teevan (1967)found nAffiliators more likely to conform. Shows NSI underlies conformity for some people more than others. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES.
evaluation for NSI (evidence)
Asch (1951). giving answers privately meant no normative group pressure, showing at least some conformity is due to desire not to be rejected by a group for disagreeing
Schultz et al (2008)
Found that messages in hotel rooms that suggested other guests use less towels was most successful messaging in encouraging them to use less.
Asch (1951) baseline procedure
123 american men, each in group with 5-7 confederates. They saw four lines - a, b, c, and x. One clearly matched x (unambiguously) while others were clearly wrong. On each trial they were last or next to last to give answer out loud, but confederates gave the same incorrect answer each time
Asch (1951) BASELINE FINDINGS
On avg, genuine participants conformed about 1/3 of the time. There were individual differences - 25% never conformed.
Asch three variables + what was he investigating
Whether variables would lead to increase or decrease in conformity. Group size, unamity, task difficulty
Asch group size variable procedure and findings
Varied no of confederates from 1 to 15. Found curvilinear relationship - conformity increased with group size up to a point, levelled off at 7 but with 3 confederates was higher than 1. Showed people are very sensitive as just 1/2 confeds was enough to sway opinion
Asch Unamity variable procedure and findings
Introduced a confederate who disagreed with others (A DISSENTER), either giving right or other wrong answer. The participant conformed less with a dissenter, with conformity rate decreasing to less than 1/4 than when unanimous. Suggests that influence of majority depends on unanimosity, and conformity is less likely when there are cracks in majority view.
Asch task difficulty variable procedure and findings
Increased difficulty by making stimulus and comparison lines more similar, making it harder to see differences between lines. Found conformity increased - may be ISI as it was unclear what the right answer is so they look to others for guidance
Asch limitation (artificial)
Participants knew it was a study and may have gone along with expectations - demand characteristics. Trivial task with no reason not to conform. Groups didn’t resemble groups experienced in everyday life. Do not general use to real-world situations, especially when there are important consequences to conformity.
Asch limitation (participants)
Participants all American men. Can’t be applied to women (other research shows tend to be more conformist). US is individualistic and results may not be applied to collectivist cultures where conformity rates will be different. Tells us little about women and other cultures.
Asch support (research)
Research evidence to support task difficulty. Lucaset al (2006) found conformity higher with hard maths questions than easier ones when answered aloud.
Asch research support (lucas) counterpoint
Lucas et al found conformity is more complex than asch suggested - confidence was also a variable. Asch did not research roles of individual factors and differences and how they interact with other variables but Lucas showed they can influence conformity.
