Social Influence Flashcards

Question

Situational Variables Affecting Obedience - milgram - proximity

Answer 1

Both the teacher and the learner were seated in the same room. Obedience levels fell to 40%, as the teacher was now able to experience Mr. Wallace’s anguish directly. In a more extreme variation, (the touch proximity variation) the teacher had to actually force the learner's arm down onto a metal plate to administer the shocks. The obedience rate was 30%. The proximity of the experimenter is also important. In the absent experimenter variation the experimenter left the room after giving his instructions and gave subsequent orders by telephone. The vast majority of participants missed out shocks or gave lower voltages than they were meant to. The obedience rate was 21%.

Answer 2

In the alternative setting variation the experiment was carried out in a rundown office in downtown Bridgeport Connecticut by an experimenter wearing casual clothes. All the other variations were carried out at Yale University. The obedience rate was 48%. Participants reported the location of Yale University gave them confidence in the integrity of the experimenter. The lower status of the rundown office changed participants’ perception of the legitimacy of the authority of the experimenter. The experimenter had a higher authority at Yale University than in the run-down office, which led to higher obedience rates.

Answer 3

Uniforms are visible symbols of authority. Uniforms can show that someone has power and status or that someone does not have power and status (e.g. prisoner’s uniform). Bickman asked confederates to order passersby to pick some litter off the street or move away from a bus stop. The confederates were dressed as either a guard, milkman or just in smart clothes. 90% of people obeyed the guard but only 50% obeyed the civilian. A person in a guard uniform is more likely to be obedied.

Answer 4

Milgram argued that people can obey horrific orders not because of their own personalities, but because of the situation they are in. He suggested that people following orders go from an autonomous state into an agentic state. This is called the agentic shift. Once in an agentic state people ‘unthinkingly’ carry out orders and perceive themselves as merely the instrument of an authority figure. They believe that the authority figure is responsible for their actions (diffusion of responsibility) and so they do not follow their own conscience or feel guilt for their actions. This state occurs because in people’s experience those in authority are usually trustworthy, orders seem reasonable at first before becoming more aggressive (gradual commitment), and people are psychologically protected from the consequences of their actions (buffers). One explanation for why people adopt an agentic state is to maintain a positive self-image. It does not matter what negative behaviour they show, because they are not responsible for their actions. Once a person has entered an agentic state they stay in it because they are concerned that breaking their commitment to the authority figure would seem arrogant and rude. Milgram thought that the agentic state had developed during human evolution and is necessary for hierarchies to function in society, which prevents chaos. We live in a society where we are constantly submitting to authority figures such as parents, teachers, the police and doctors and so obedience is essential.

Answer 5

Advantages: 1) Participants in Milgram’s experiment were less likely to shock Mr. Wallace when they were in the same room as him and could see the consequences of their actions (i.e. there were no buffers). This supports the idea of an agentic state. Being in close proximity to Mr. Wallace and seeing him in pain would have prevented some participants from going into an agentic state. Disadvantages: 1) Without buffers people should not go into an agentic state and obey an order to harm someone. However, Mandel reported the case of Major Wilhelm Trapp. In 1942, in the Polish village of Jozefow, Major Trapp was given orders to take a large group of Jewish people to the edge of the village and have them shot. Although the members of his battalion were given the chance to say no, and be assigned to other duties, few did, and the massacre went ahead. This occurred despite the victims being in close proximity to the soldiers.

Answer 6

Legitimate authority is another situational explanation of obedience it claims that we recognise our own and other people’s position in the social hierarchy and that we will obey those who have a higher position in the hierarchy than we do (e.g. they have legitimate authority). We will not obey those who have an equal or lower position in the social hierarchy than we do. Legitimate authority is increased by visible symbols of authority (e.g. uniform). Legitimate authority is dependent on setting, order, system and location (e.g. the military or a prison), especially if the commands are potentially harmful or destructive.

Answer 7

Advantages: 1) Hofling found that nurses would obey a dangerous order from a doctor because they were in a hospital location. Nurses received a phone call from an unknown doctor (who was really an actor) called Dr. Smith. He asked her to administer 20 milligrams of a drug called Astroten (really just a sugar pill) to a patient. This broke hospital rules as it was twice the maximum dose (as indicated on the bottle), the instructions were given over the phone, the doctor was unknown, and the medicine was not on the stock list. 95% of nurses carried out these instructions, despite the potential danger, because doctors have legitimate authority. 2) Bickman asked confederates to order passersby to pick some litter off the street or move away from a bus stop. The confederates were dressed as either a guard, milkman or just in smart clothes. 90% of people obeyed the guard but only 50% obeyed the civilian. A person in a guard uniform is more likely to be perceived as a legitimate authority figure. Disadvantages: 1) Legitimate authority does not explain why some people are able to resist the order of authority figures. 35% of people in Milgram’s study refused to obey the experimenter, even though he had legitimate authority in that situation.

Answer 8

Adorno proposed a dispositional explanation of obedience. Dispositional explanations of behaviour claim that individuals’ personality characteristics determine their behaviour, not situational influences in the environment. Adorno argued that authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures. Authoritarian personalities have a collection of traits which make them more obedient. These include; - servile towards people of perceived higher status, - hostile towards people of lower status (scapegoating), - preoccupied with power, - inflexible in their beliefs and values, - conformist and conventional (e.g. rule following), - likely to categorise people as ‘us’ or ‘them’, - dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity). Adorno thought that people developed these personalities due to receiving extremely strict/rigid parenting, usually involving physical punishment. This creates feelings of hostility which are displaced onto weaker others who cannot fight back and are therefore safe. They cannot take out their anger on their parents because they fear them, so instead they repress their anger and act in a submissive way towards them. They then extend this submissive behaviour to all authority figures. Adorno developed a questionnaire to measure authoritarian personalities called the F (Fascism) scale. Participants are asked to rate how much they agree with statements such as ‘obedience and respect for authority are important virtues children should learn’ and ‘rules are there to follow, not to be changed’.

Answer 9

Advantages: 1) Miller found that people who scored high on the F Scale were more likely to obey an order to hold onto some electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem, compared to people who scored low on the F Scale. 2) Altemeyer ordered participants to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when they made a mistake on a learning task. There was a significant correlation between those willing to shock themselves and high scores on the F Scale. Disadvantages: 1) Situational variables may be more important than dispositional ones. Milgram has conducted several variations of his original experiments with vastly different results. Obedience was 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise (e.g. no screams or requests to leave). However, the obedience rate was 0% when there were two authority figures who disagreed with each other (one wanted the teacher to continue, the other wanted them to stop). 2) Dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies, because authoritarian personalities are not common. Far fewer than 65% of people have authoritarian personalities, so it cannot be the only explanation for the level of obedience found in the original Milgram study. 3) It is possible that rather than authoritarian personality causing obedience, a lack of education causes an authoritarian personality AND obedience. Middendorp and Meleon have found that less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality and Milgram found that participants with lower levels of education were more obedient.

Answer 10

The pressure to conform and/or obey can exert powerful influences over peoples’ behaviour. For example, in Milgram’s study 65% of people obeyed and Asch found that 75% of people conformed at least once. However, in both of these studies some people managed to resist the pressure to conform (non-conformity) or obey (disobedience). For example, 35% of people in Milgram’s study refused to obey and 25% of the participants in Asch’s study did not conform on a single trial.

Answer 11

Social support is a situational explanation of resistance to social influence. It argues that when one person refuses to conform/obey it makes it far more likely that other people will also resist social influence and refuse to conform/obey. People are more likely to not conform if they have an ally who resists social influence and refuses to conform. This is because the ally refusing to conform breaks the unanimity of the group and groups are far more influential if they are unanimous. When unanimity is broken people start to think that there are other, equally legitimate, ways of thinking or responding. The presence of an ally gives them an independent assessment of reality and makes them feel more confident in their decision and better able to stand up to the majority. People are also more likely to defy an authority figure if they see a disobedient role model refusing to obey. This is because when a person rejects the instructions of an authority figure it challenges that authority figure’s legitimate authority.

Answer 12

Advantages: 1) Milgram asked participants to deliver electric shocks to a confederate, Mr. Wallace, when he got a question wrong. The shocks were not real, but the participants believed they were. 65% of participants shocked Mr. Wallace up to 450 volts. However, when there was another confederate who acted as a disobedient role model and refused to shock Mr. Wallace, only 10% of the participants delivered electric shocks up to 450 volts. 2) Asch asked participants to say which of three ‘test lines’ was the same as the ‘standard line’. The participants were in a group with confederates who purposefully gave the same wrong answer, even though the correct answer was obvious. In 33% of the trials the participants conformed to the group and gave the wrong answer (the chance of making a genuine mistake on this task was only 1%). However, conformity dropped to 5% when one confederate acted as an ally to the participant and gave the right answer. Disadvantages: 1) In both of the original versions of the studies outlined above some participants were able to resist social influence and refuse to conform/obey, even though they had no social support. This means that social support is not a complete explanation of resistance to social influence, other factors, such as personality traits, also play a part in allowing people to refuse to conform/obey.

Answer 13

Minority influence occurs very persuasive small groups, or even individuals, can change the way the majority behaves and thinks. This is known as minority influence. Moscovici considered minority influence to lead to conversion. Conversion is when individuals change their private beliefs and views because of minority influence. Minority groups are most likely to be convincing when they are; - Committed - Commitment is shown when members of the minority demonstrate their dedication to their belief, perhaps by making sacrifices (augmentation principle), taking risks or being inconvenienced in some way. This shows that the minority is not acting out of self- interest. - Consistent – Consistency occurs when a minority repeatedly gives the same message over time. This makes a majority reassess their belief and consider the issue more carefully. - Flexible - Flexibility/being non-dogmatic is when a minority show they are willing to listen to other viewpoints, negotiate and compromise. The majority will then listen to the minority point of view/take their argument more seriously.

Answer 14

Minority influence initially has a small effect but then spreads as more and more people consider the issue being raised and are converted to the minority viewpoint. Eventually it reaches a tipping point, where the minority becomes the majority.

Answer 15

Minority influence is a slow process and may even be unconscious. Sometimes the individual is not even aware of where the new idea originated from,

Answer 16

Advantages: 1) Moscovici told 172 female participants that they were taking part in a colour perception task. The naïve participants were placed in groups of six and were shown 36 slides, which were varying shades of blue. Two of the six participants were confederates. The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide. In the consistent condition the confederates said the slide was green in all 36 trials. In the inconsistent condition the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue. In the consistent condition participants were swayed by the minority 8.2% of the time. In the inconsistent condition the participants only went along with the minority 1.25% of the time. This shows that a consistent minority is more effective than an inconsistent minority. Disadvantages: 1) the samples of studies into minority influence are gender biased. For example, Moscovici only used women. As a result, we cannot conclude that male participants would respond to minority influence in the same way. Research often suggests that women are more likely to conform than men, therefore further research is needed to determine the effect of minority influence on male participants. 2) The samples of studies into minority influence are also culturally biased because all of the participants were from America. As a result, the findings cannot be generalised to other populations. We cannot conclude that participants from other cultures would respond to minority influence in the same way. 3) Most of the studies into minority influence are based on experiments conducted in laboratories. This raises the question of ecological validity. The participants in laboratory experiments are usually a collection of students who do not know each other, and will probably never meet again. 4) Studies into minority influence have been criticised for deceiving participants. In Moscovici’s study participants were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test. This also means that Moscovici did not gain participants informed consent. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Moscovici’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results. If participants were aware of the true aim of the experiment, they might have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently.

Answer 17

Social Change Social change refers to the change that occurs in a society and not at an individual level. For example, equal rights for homosexual couples, increases in recycling rates, the smoking ban for public places, and women gaining the vote. Social change occurs when the minority view challenges the majority view and is eventually accepted by the majority Minority groups bring about social change by being; - Committed - Commitment is shown when members of the minority demonstrate their dedication to their belief, perhaps by making sacrifices (augmentation principle) or being inconvenienced in some way. This shows that the minority is not acting out of self-interest. - Consistent – Consistency occurs when a minority repeatedly gives the same message. This makes a majority reassess their belief and consider the issue more carefully. - Flexible - Flexibility/being non-dogmatic is when a minority show they are willing to listen to other viewpoints. The majority will then listen to the minority point of view/take their argument more seriously. snowball effect socio-crypto amnesia Once the majority has accepted the minority viewpoint people may conform to this viewpoint due to normative social influence (compliance) and/or informational social influence (internalisation). Governments/lawmakers can bring about social change through power and through the process of obedience. For example, changing the law to allow gay marriage could mean that people may be more accepting of homosexual rights because changes in the law make a behaviour a social norm which others then adopt. Dictators can also bring about social change through obedience. This leads to groups of people changing their behaviour because of the fear of punishment/consequences of not obeying.

Social Influence Flashcards

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