Social Influence Flashcards
(45 cards)
Give an introduction to this topic
Our behaviour and mental processes get influneced by other people all the time. They get influenced because we want to feel like and accepted by other people. We want to fit it and form part of the group. Sometimes we get influenced so much that we can hide how we think or behave to meet the approval of others and society.
Define social influence
The process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people,for example: family,friends,media or religion.
What does this topic focus on?
Social influence in terms of conformity (majority and minority influence )and obedience to authority. (the 2 types of social influence)
Define conformity and give an example
Conformity occurs when attitudes or behaviour change because of pressure exerted by other individuals, especially group pressure.. This an lea to a transformation in beliefs, thoughts or personality.
Ex: all your friends buy a smartphone, and you never felt the need for one, yet you feel compelled to buy it.
Or for example you and your friends go and see a movie, you didn’t enjoy it but everyone thought it was brilliant. You might be tempted to conform because you want to fit within the group
When you get influenced by other people, which one changes fist: attitudes or behaviour?
Behaviour
Name the 2 types of conformity
Majority and minority
Explain the experiment that Solomon Asch conducted to explain how a majority can influence a minority.
Solomon Asch, showed participants 3 lines and asked them to say which one was the same length as the other.
However all the participants except for one were collaborating with the researcher (confederates)
Although it was evident which line was the same length as the other, the confederates answered wrongly on purpose
The genuine participant had to gis his or her answer at the end, after all the confederates.
The participant found themselves in a conflict on whether to answer what they really thought or whether to agree with the majority of the group.
The results were that 37% conformed on all trials, and at least 75% yielded to group pressure at least once.
Mention 2 limitations of the Solomon Asch experiment
Asch’s work raises ethical issues ,because the genuine participant was not informed about consent,and they were misled about the key aspects of the experiment
2) Asch used an insiginificant task in which people’s real beleifes were not challenged.
What did Abrams argue about conformity?
Abrams et al, argued that conformity would increase if people pertaining to the same social group ex: psychology students.
In fact studies have shown that conformity did increase to 58% with the same social group
However when the participants were not from the same social group, conformity decreased to 8%. ex: history students
What did Bond and Smith argue about conformity?
He argued that conformity is higher in collectivistic cultures like Asia and Africa
BUT
lower in individualistic cultures like Europe and North America
Why does conformity occur?
Normative influence (behaviour changes)
Informational influence(attitude changes)
Explain normative influence and give an example
1) Individuals conform because they want to be liked and respected by others but this does not change their private opinion.
2)It is more common when individuals need to make public statements or need to be face-to-face with others.
3)Dominant when the individual’s opinion is strongly against the majorities.
Your friends tell you that your favourite pair of shoes are not fashionable, therefore you remove them but you still like them so the group thinks you are cool.
Explain informational influence and give an example
1) here conformity occurs because you think that other individual’s knowledge and judgement is far superior to yours, this might change your private opinion.
2) Stronger when participants make private responses and communicate them indirectly with others.
3)Dominant when the individual’s opinion is only slightly different than the majority’s
For example: your friends tells you that your favourite shoes are not fashionable anymore ,you had no idea so you thank them for letting you know.
Give 3 conclusions regarding solomon Asch’s experiment
1) Asch was frustrated at the results because he expected that the participants were morally obliged to say the truth
However other augments say that we should praise the participants and not criticise them why?
1) Because we should not exaggerate the conformity showed, because about 70 percent of the participants went against the majority of the group in at least one of the trials.
2) Participants were faced with strong conflict: i want to say the correct answer but i want to be liked by the rest of the group.
3) Most gae a mixture of correct ad incorrect answers to balance out their respect of group cohesion and avoid ridicule, and to show perceptual accuracy at the same time.
Who was the researcher who came up with minority influence?
Moscovici
Give characteristics that minority could possess when they influence a majority
Extrovert
Confidence
persuasive
Good at manipulation
Courage
Explain an intro regarding minority influence
According to moscovisici Asch had put to much emphasis on how majorities influence minorities.
minorities can also influence majorities.
Minority influence is a form of social influence which is brought about when a minority has a consistent position in a group .
It is only produced after a period of time and it produces private acceptance by the majority. Research has shown that minority opinion is not necessarily weaker but the question is why do some people conform to minority opinion and thus resist group pressure? (and kind of like why would a single individual put themselves out there and resist group pressure?)
What is Mosco vici’s theory called?
Dual process theory
What 2 aspects did Moscovisci come up with in his dual process theory?
Compliance and Conversion
What does compliance focus on?
Normative Influence
What does conversion focus on?
Informational influence
Explain compliance
in asch’s experiment
when the participants publicly conformed with the majority’s views but privately reject them.
This is a a rapid process which occurs without much thinking
Explain conversion
Explains how a majority can influence a minority.
It involves persuading the majority that the minority’s views are correct
Can be achieved through consistency flexibility and commitment.
Generally more time consuming/
Occurs after cognitive coflict and lots of thought.
Often achieves bith public and private agreement.
Usually in society do we go with the majority or the minority?
Majority
Because it is easier to go with the rest of the group and privately disagree.
