Social influence Flashcards
(113 cards)
1
Q
Who were the participants in Asch’s study?
A
123 American male volunteer.
2
Q
What were Asch’s participants told the study was on?
A
Visual perception
3
Q
What was the Aim of Asch’s study?
A
To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers.
4
Q
What was the procedure of Asch’s study?
A
- Individuals seated around a table in groups of 6-8 confederates.
- Asked which comparison line was the same length as the stimulus line, with an obvious answer.
- Turns were taken, with the participant always answering near the end.
- for the first 6/18 trials, the confeds gave correct answers, and in the following 12 ‘critical’ trials they gave identical wrong answers.
5
Q
Was there a control group in Asch’s study? What was it?
A
36 participants tested individually on 20 trials to test the accuracy of individual judgements.
6
Q
What were the findings of Asch’s study?
A
- The naïve participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
- 5% gave the wrong answer for all 12 trials.
7
Q
What was the error rate of Asch’s control group?
A
0.04% , showing how obvious the correct answers were.
8
Q
What did the post-experiment interviews find the three main reasons for conformity were?
A
- conforming publicly to avoid disapproval, but not changing privately.
- Participants believed their own perceptions were wrong.
- Doubts concerning own views so conformed.
9
Q
What were Asch’s conclusions?
A
As most conformed publicly but not privately, it suggests they were motivated by normative social influence (conforming to avoid disapproval).
10
Q
What is undermining evidence for Asch’s study?
A
Research took place during the period of McCarthyism, a strong anti-communist period where people were likely to conform. Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated in the UK with science and engineering students and found that in only 1/396 trials did the majority unanimously give the wrong answer.
11
Q
What is a weakness of Asch’s study to do with gender?
A
Asch only tested American males, and research has found that women may be more conformist.
12
Q
What are the three variations of Asch’s study?
A
- Task difficulty
- Group Size
- Unanimity
13
Q
What were the findings of Asch’s group size variation?
A
- Very little conformity with only one confederate.
- 31.8% conformity with three confederates.
- After that, increasing confederates led to little difference.
14
Q
What were the findings of Asch’s task difficulty study?
A
With a negligible difference between the lines conformity increased due to informational social influence.
15
Q
What were the findings of Asch’s Unanimity variation?
A
The presence of a dissenting confederate giving a different wrong answer increase conformity to 9%, and when they gave a different correct answer it was 5%.
16
Q
What was Lucas Et Als. research?
A
- Found that when participants were given easy and hard maths problems, and found greater conformity to the other (fake) answers when the Q was hard. Participants with maths ability conformed less - suggesting issue is more complex.
17
Q
What is the supporting evidence for the task difficulty variation?
A
Lucas et. al
18
Q
What is a weakness of all of Asch’s variations?
A
They had to speak their answer aloud in a group of strangers, so would have wanted to impress leading to higher conformity, so findings lack external validity.
19
Q
What is a weakness of all of Asch’s variations? (MR)
A
Unrealistic situation lacking mundane realism - trivial task, high disagreement, un-diverse group.
20
Q
What is compliance?
A
We outwardly agree but privately disagree. Change only lasts as long as group monitors us.
21
Q
What is identification?
A
Where we value the group, but don’t necessarily agree with everything they say. Agreement is public and sometimes private.
22
Q
What is internalisation?
A
Where we agree privately and publicly because we accept the view as correct.
23
Q
What is Normative social influence?
A
Where we agree in order to gain approval.
24
Q
What is informational social influence?
A
Where we agree because we think the majority are correct and we want to be right.
25
What is undermining evidence for NSI?
People less concerned by being liked will be less influence by NSI.
26
What is undermining evidence for ISI?
Not everyone effected in the same way - those more confident in ability e.g. students will conform less.
27
What is supporting evidence for NSI?
When asked, participants said they gave a clearly wrong answer because they felt self-conscious. When participants could write down their answers, conformity fell to 12.5%
28
What are social roles?
The parts people play as members of various social groups e.g. parent, child.
29
What was Zimbardo's aim?
Why prison guards act brutally, is it down to personality or circumstance?
30
What was Zimbardo's procedure?
Mock prison experiment in the basement of Stanford Prison and assigned 21(tested as emotionally stable) men the role of prisoner or guard. Uniform was enforced, right to withdraw was made 'applying for parole' and guards were reminded of their power.
31
What were Zimbardo's results?
Guards were quickly violent and aggressive. Played prisoners off against each other, with everyone shaming those on hunger strike. Woke prisoners at night to disorientate them.
32
When did Zimbardo have to end the study?
At 6 days instead of 14.
33
What was Zimbardo's conclusion?
Social roles strongly influence people's behaviour, and the roles were easily taken on.
34
What is the undermining evidence from the BBC prison study?
Richer and Haslam - Found that prisoners eventually took control of the mock experiment due to 'social identity theory', which suggests that because the prisoners could identify with a group, unlike the guards, they could rebel against the guards.
35
What is the supporting evidence from Abu Ghraib?
A prison in Iran where prisoners were abused by guards, which Zimbardo argued was due to the guards assigned power, suggesting his study, which shows the same effects, has high external validity.
36
What are the ethical issues with Zimbardo's study?
Lack of informed consent, no protection from hard, right to withdraw made difficult.
37
How does Legitimacy of Authority work?
- identified as legitimate authority figure due to: location (office -> status), uniform (status), proximity (power to punish).
- People obey to fill their duty to the social hierarchy.
- If commands are potentially harmful, they have to be made within an institutional structure e.g. army.
38
How does Agentic State Theory work?
- Start in autonomous state.
- perceive legitimate authority figure and enter agentic state (see themselves as agent of the authority figure) so increased chance of obedience (agentic shift).
- Occurs in hierarchical social systems.
- People may enter agentic state to maintain positive self-image.
- Binding factors keep people in agentic state e.g. fear of losing job.
39
What happened at My Lai? (real world application of both theories)
War crime where 504 civilians killed by soldiers, with women gang-raped. Only one soldier found guilty, said he was just doing orders. - high external validity.
40
What is undermining evidence for the Agentic State?
Research suggests that Nazi behaviour cannot be explained by AS as there were no direct orders for many actions. Doesn't explain obedience in every situation.
41
What is supporting evidence for legitimacy of authority?
Explains cultural differences in obedience, as studies show differences between countries e.g. Milgram.
42
What is a dispositional explanation?
Any explanation of behaviour which highlights the individual's personality.
43
What is the authoritarian personality?
The type of personality which is particularly suspectable to obeying those in authority
44
What was the procedure of Adorno et als. study (1950)?
- Study of 2000 middle-class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups.
- The F-Scale (potential-for-fascism-scale) was used to measure the authoritarian personality.
45
What is an example of an item on the F-Scale?
- 'Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn'
46
What were Adorno et als. findings?
- People who scored high on the F-Scale identified with the strong, conscious of status, and showed deference to those with status.
- Authoritarian people had a certain cognitive style with no 'fuzziness' (black and white thinking)
- Correlation between authoritarian personality and prejudice.
47
What is the two mark definition of the authoritarian personality?
A collection of dispositions/traits that develop from strict parenting, such as being conformist, conventional and dogmatic. Such people have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
48
What findings of Elms and Milgram's (1966) key study supported the Authoritarian personality?
- Higher levels of authoritarianism among participants classified as obedient (compared with defiant).
- Obedient participants less close to fathers and describe them negatively supporting the strict upbringing part.
- Admire the authority figure (in Milgram) and don't admire the learner supports that they have extreme respect for authority and are intolerant to those who are 'inferior' to them
49
What was Elm's and Milgram's study (1966)?
Follow up on Milgram's shock experiment, selecting 20 obedient participants to answer various open ended questions.
50
What were Elm's and Milgram's findings which undermined the authoritarian personality?
- They found that it doesn't always occur that obedient people have a strict upbringing like the theory says.
51
What are the five key characteristics of the authoritarian personality?
- extreme submissiveness to authority.
- Black and white thinking.
- Uncomfortable with uncertainty.
- view society as weak with need for strong leaders.
- Anyone 'other' is responsible for societies ills.
52
What is the supportive evidence for the dispositional explanation of obedience?
Elms and Milgram (expand) found that the authoritarian personality was more likely to obey.
53
What is a weakness of the supporting evidence for the dispositional explanation of obedience? (PB)
F-scale measures the tendency towards extreme right ideology, which is politically biased as there is also left-wing authoritarianism. Both have similarities, and therefore study does not explain obedience across the spectrum.
54
What is a weakness of the dispositional explanation of obedience?
Does not account for obedience across an entire population (Nazi Germany) as it is unlikely they all had the authoritarian personality. Milgram's findings in his variations may therefore make more sense (state findings and why dispositional cannot explain). Therefore socio-psychological explanation is probably more logical.
55
What is social support?
The presence of people who resist pressure to conform or obey.
56
What are the steps for the social support theory for conformity?
- social support breaks unanimity.
- raises possibility that there are other legitimate responses.
-The ally acts as a model, making the individual confident to follow their own conscience and give their own answer.
57
What are the steps of social support in terms of obedience?
- Dissenter breaks the unanimity of the group.
- this frees the individual from their own conscience.
- This demonstrates that disobedience is possible (challenging the LAT) making it easier to disobey.
58
What does Locus of Control refer to?
The sense we have about what directs events in our lives.
59
What do people with an internal locus of control believe?
They are mostly responsible for what happens to them e.g. if they do well in an exam it is due to their own hard work.
60
What do people with an external locus of control believe?
Things are mainly a matter of luck e.g. if they failed a test it is because the questions were hard.
61
What are the three reasons why people with internal locus of control are more likely to resist social influence?
- They take personal responsibility so base their actions on their own beliefs, resisting pressure from others.
- They are achievement oriented and more leaders than followers.
- They have less need for social approval, trusting their own beliefs and decisions.
62
What is undermining evidence for resisting obedience for LOC?
Twenge et al. analysed data from American obedience studies and found that people become more resistant to obedience over time, but also more external.
63
What is supporting evidence for resisting obedience for LOC?
Holland repeated Milgram's baseline, measuring whether people were ILOC or ELOC and found that 37% internals didn't continue to highest shock, and only 23% ELOC did.
64
What is a weakness of LOC for resisting both conformity and obedience?
Rotter (1982) suggested that the role of LOC only has an impact in new/unfamiliar situations. This means that it only explains C or O in new situations.
65
What is a real world application for resisting conformity? (social support)
Albrecht et al. (2006) evaluated a program from the USA which aimed to help pregnant teens resist pressure to smoke. Teens got an older 'buddy' for social support and those who had were significantly more likely to resist than those who didn't.
66
What is the supporting evidence for resisting conformity? (social support)
Asch's unanimity variation
67
What is supporting evidence for resisting obedience? (social support)
Milgram conducted a variation where there were two confederates who refused and withdrew in the same room as the teacher, and obedience dropped from 65% to 10%.
68
What is synchronic consistency?
Agreement between people in the minority group?
69
How does consistency aid minority influence?
Beliefs are kept the same between people in the group and over time, which is effective because it draws attention to the minority view, making people consider it.
70
How does flexibility aid minority influence?
relentless consistency would seem unreasonable, so being flexible shows that the group can compromise.
71
How does commitment aid minority influence?
Dedicating commitment to the position means making personal sacrifices. Shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest. Augmentation principle - where risk is involved in putting an argument forward it is taken more seriously.
72
What is Diachronic consistency?
Consistency over time
73
What is minority influence?
Where a minority persuades others to adopt their beliefs, behaviours or attitudes.
74
What is the process of minority influence?
- Where a minority persuades others to adopt their beliefs, behaviours or attitudes.
- Leads to internalisation or conversion where private and public attitudes change.
- Main processes to make this happen are flexibility, commitment and consistency.
- This leads to deeper processing, and a majority switch to the minority view.
- the minority view gradually becomes the majority view, through the snowball effect.
75
What was the aim of Moscovici et als. study?
To investigate the role of a consistent minority upon the opinions of a majority in an unambiguous situation.
76
What was the setup of Moscovici's study?
- female participants in 32 groups of six (two confeds).
- participants told it is an investigation into perception.
- each group shown 36 slides, with varying intensity of colour.
- participants told to judge the colour of each slide.
77
What was the procedure of Moscovici's consistent condition?
Confederates answers wrongly that all the slides were green.
78
What was the procedure of Moscovici's inconsistent condition?
The confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.
79
What was the procedure of Moscovici's control condition?
- just six participants no confederates.
- all said the slides were all blue.
80
How were answers given in all of Moscovici's conditions?
Verbally to the rest of the group (like in Asch's)
81
What were the findings in Moscovici's consistent condition?
- 8.24% agreement with the minority.
- 32% agreed with minority at least once.
82
What was Moscovici's follow up task for the participants?
Sort 16 coloured discs into blue or green, with ten quite ambiguous tiles. This meant participants had to establish a threshold.
83
What were the findings for Moscovici's follow up task for the participants?
Those who had been in the consistent condition judged more of the discs as green. Effect even stronger for those who hadn't gone along with the minority previously.
84
What did Moscovici conclude from his study?
Although the consistent condition of 8.42% seems a small figure, it is significantly higher than the inconsistent condition figure of 1.25% and so suggests that although minority influence is relatively small, consistency is the important variable.
85
What were Moscovici's findings for the inconsistent condition?
1.25% agreed with the inconsistent minority.
86
How does the process of minority influence work? (step by step)
Minority influence -> Consistency + commitment + flexibility -> deeper processing -> internalisation -> snowball effect.
87
What is supporting evidence for conversion in the theory of minority influence?
in Moscovici's variation where people could write down answers, minority agreement was higher, making it appear the majority were converted to the minority view.
88
What is a weakness of Moscovici supporting evidence?
task was artificial - far removed from real life with limited consequences, so lacking external validity.
89
What is the supporting evidence for consistency?
Moscovici found that consistent minority opinion was much more influential, supporting its importance.
90
What is a weakness of the supporting evidence for minority influence?
real life minority influence is much more complicated as the majority has more power and might be hostile to the minority, suggesting the theory has limited real-world applications.
91
What is the definition of social change?
When whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs or ways of doing things.
92
What is the definition of social influence?
The process by which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and behaviours. This includes conformity, obedience and minority influence.
93
How is minority influence different to social change?
It only persuades individuals or groups to change their attitudes rather than whole societies.
94
What is the process of social change through minority influence?
Draw attention to the issue -> Be consistent and flexible -> creation of cognitive conflict -> deeper processing -> show commitment (augmentation principle) -> snowball effect -> social crypto amnesia.
95
What is commitment and the augmentation principle?
Minority demonstrates commitment by making sacrifices. Augmentation principle = if people are following a cause despite barriers e.g. getting arrested it shows they are not acting out of self-interest.
96
What is social crypto amnesia?
People remember that change has occurred but not the process of how it happened.
97
What is a weakness of the supporting evidence for social change?
Explain it draws strongly on Moscovici's study - then a weakness of said study.
98
What is undermining evidence for social change?
Moscovici argues that minority influence causes individuals to think more deeply about an issue than majority influence. However research has found that we may have deeper processing caused by the majority because we want to think that others think like us, so when they believe something different we think about their argument.
99
What is a weakness of social change?
Occurs very slowly e.g. decades for attitude to smoking to shift.
100
What is undermining evidence for social change? (deviant)
Minorities are most seen as 'deviant' in the eyes of society, so the majority do not want to align with them. For example, people are less likely to act in an environmentally friendly way because they do not want to be associated with crazy 'tree huggers'.
101
What are the two ways social change can occur through the majority or ___?
- Through conformity (either to the majority or through NSI).
- Obedience; gradual commitment leading to a snowball effect.
102
What is supporting evidence for social change through majorities or obedience?
Researchers investigated if social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption. They hung messages on the front doors of houses in California every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. They found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group.
103
What is a weakness of the supporting evidence for social change through majorities or obedience?
Draws on Milgram. Choose a weakness.
104
What is supporting evidence for social change through majorities or obedience?
Social campaigns based on NSI might have unintended consequences. For those individuals who already engage in the constructive behaviour being advocated (e.g. drinking less than the norm), a normative message can be a spur to engaging in more destructive behaviour. This can be a boomerang effect. Opposite social change to intended.
105
What is supporting evidence for social change through majorities or obedience?
Milgram's study - supports the role of gradual commitment in making people continue to obey, which could then lead to social change.
106
What was the aim of Milgram's research?
To investigate whether the German people were a more obedient group or not.
107
Who were the participants in Milgram's study?
40 American men
108
What were the quantitative results of Milgram's experiment?
Every participant delivered shocks up to 300V. 5 of the participants stopped at 300V, but 65% continue up to 450V e.g. Were fully obedient.
109
What were the qualitative results of Milgram's experiment?
they sweated, trembled, stuttered, bit their lips, groaned, and dug their nails into their hands. Three even had full blown uncontrollable seizures.
110
What was Milgram's conclusion?
Milgram concluded that German people are not 'different', as the Americans were willing to follow orders that would harm other people. He decided this could be impacted by further factors, so investigated these.
111
What was the location variation of Milgram's study?
Conducted study in run down building instead of prestigious Yale university. Obedience fell to 47.5%.
112
What was the uniform variation of Milgram's study?
Role of experimenter was taken over by someone in everyday clothes. Obedience dropped to 20%.
113
What was the proximity variation of Milgram's study?
Teacher and learner were in the same room, and obedience dropped from 65% to 40%. Another variation instructions were given by telephone, and obedience dropped to 20.5%.
