Social Influence Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are norms?
*Norms are shared beliefs among a group about what is considered appropriate behaviour
*Help provide stability and predictability in the social world
What are the 2 types of norms?
*Descriptive Norms: Reflect what most people do
*Prescriptive Norms: Reflect what people should do
Describe Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect experiment
Aim: To investigate how norms form and how they influence behaviour
Hypothesis- Norms emerge under uncertainty to guide behaviour
Autokinetic Effect:
*A visual illusion- A small stationary spot of light appears to move in a dark room
*The illusion is caused by small involuntary eye movements in the absence of reference points
Study Design:
*Day 1- Participants (alone) estimated the movement of the light over 100 trials (estimates varied significantly between individuals)
*Subsequent Days- Participants returned to the lab and completed the same task in groups of 2-3, calling out their estimates aloud
Findings:
*Participants judgments converged to a group mean over time
*Even without direct pressure, participants’ estimates aligned with others
*When tested a year later, individuals maintained their groups estimate, showing internalization of the group norm
Conclusion: Norms are formed under uncertainty and can become internalized through group exposure
Describes Lewin’s Group discussion vs lecture study
Context: Promoting the use of offal (e.g. hearts) among US housewives during war time rationing
Study Design:
1) There were 2 groups of housewives
2) Group 1- Received a lecture on the nutritional and wartime value of offal
3) Group 2- Engaged in a group discussion about it
Findings:
*Lecture Group- Only 3% showed behaviour change
*Discussion Group- 32% changed behaviour and increased offal use
Conclusion: Forming a group consensus through discussion is more effective for behavioral change than passive information delivery
Describe Asch’s (1952) line judgement experiment
Aim: To investigate whether people would still conform if the task involved clear, unambiguous stimuli
Hypothesis- With objective and clear tasks, individuals should make judgments independently of the group
Procedure:
1) Participants consisted of 7-9 male college students
2) The real participant sat in position 6, the others were confederates instructed to give wrong answers on 12 out of 18 trials
3) They were told the experiment was about visual perception
4) They were asked to match a standard line (X) with 1 of the 3 comparison lines (A, B, C), one of which was clearly correct
Study Design:
*Participants gave their answers aloud in turn
*Initially, confederate gave the correct answers to create trust
*On critical trials, confederates unanimously gave incorrect answers
Findings:
*24% of participants never conformed
*33% average conformity across all participants
*50% conformed on 6 or more of the 12 trials
*5% conformed on all 12 trials
*In control condition (no confederates), 99% gave the correct answer, with shows the task was unambiguous
What are the 2 reasons for conformity?
1)Most participants reported that they knew the group was wrong, but:
*They felt uncertain/self-doubt
*Didn’t want to stand out or be ridiculed
*Feared social disapproval and being the odd one out
2) Evidence from Variations
*When participants gave answers privately, conformity dropped to 12.5%
*When 16 real participants watched 1 confederate give a wrong answer, they laughed at him, showing fear of being different was justified
What are the explanations of conformity?
Normative and informational social influence
What is normative social influence?
*Driven by the desire to be liked (social approval)
*People conformed to fit in, even if they disagreed with the group
*This resulted in compliance, which is outward agreement without internal acceptance
What is informational social influence?
*Driven by the desire to be right
*Some participants doubted their own perceptions
*Individuals seek guidance when they are uncertain or lack confidence due to ambiguity or lack of clear guidelines
*This led to conversion/internalisation, where they accepted the groups opinion as correct
What are the situational factors affecting conformity?
*Size of the majority
*Unanimity
How does size of majority affect conformity?
*Asch found that conformity increased with group size but only up to 3-5 people
*Milgram et al. (1969) conducted a study in a busy New York street to see how many confederates needed to look up at a window to get passersby to look
*He found that more passersby conformed up to 5 confederates, then plateaued
How does unanimity affect conformity?
*If the group wasn’t unanimous, conformity dropped
*When 1 confederate gave the correct answer, conformity fell to 5.5%
*When 1 confederate gave a different wrong answer, conformity fell to 8%
*Dissent breaks the illusion that everyone agrees and opens up alternatives
Describe Allen and Levine’s study on competence of support
Procedure:
1) They replicated Asch’s study with 3 conditions
2) No supporter
3) Supporter with thick glasses (visually impaired)
4) Competent supporter (no glasses)
Results:
*Both support conditions reduced conformity
*Even “incompetent” dissenter reduced conformity, having someone disagree was enough
Which people are most likely to conform?
*Age: Younger individuals conform more than older ones
*Gender: Women conform slightly more than men, but gender tasks are important (e.g men conformed more on “feminine” tasks)
*Culture: Conformity is more common and valued in collectivist cultures
*Time: Later replications show lower conformity than in the 1950’s, suggests conformity may have declined over time
What did Jetten and Hornsey (2012) find?
*Textbook Bias: Textbooks often focus on how people conform, they underemphasize non conformers
*Participants Explanations: Many say they didn’t want to be embarrassed or ruin the study, these are deliberate, thoughtful choices, not blind conformity
*Unrealistic Conditions: The line task had obvious answers, no real consequences and time pressure, real life situations are more complex and ambiguous
*People Who Resist Conformity: People who were confident in their own judgement, more concerned about being right than liked
*Resistance is more likely to occur when the belief reflects a moral principles or is core to personal identity
What does minority influence do?
*Influence majority views
*Without minority influence there would be no social change (e.g. suffragettes, anti-slavery movement, civil rights movements)
According to Moscovici what does minority influence depend on?
*Consistency in their message
*Persistence over time
*Confidence in delivery
Describe Moscovici, Lage and Naffrechoux (1969) blue green study
*It was a modified version of Asch’ setup, Asch was focused on majority, Moscovici focused on minority
Study Design:
1) Participants consisted of 6 per session, 4 real participants and 2 confederates (minority)
2) They were asked to identify the colour of 36 blue slides, each slightly varying in shades (colour perception)
3) There were 3 conditions
4) Consistent Minority- Confederates always called the blue slides green
5) Inconsistent Minority- Confederates called 24 slides blue, 12 green
6) Control- No confederates
Findings:
*Consistent Minority: 8.4% responses were “green” (they adopted the incorrect minority answer)
*Inconsistent Minority: Only 1.25%-2% of responses were “green”
*Control Group: No “green” responses
What is latent perceptual influence?
*Even participants who didn’t conform publicly shows changes in perception during a later private colour test
*They were more likely to identify ambiguous blue/green slides as green
*This effect was stronger among those who had resisted conformity during the public trials
*This indicates a subconscious delayed shift in perception caused by exposure to a confident minority
What is the process of minority influence?
Theory of Conversion:
1) Majority influence is thoughtless and passive, which leads to compliance
2) Minority influence is thoughtful, requiring active cognitive engagement
3) This leads to conversion: Indirect private and latent change in opinions or perceptions
4) Arises from cognitive conflict and the need to resolve differing views
5) Restructures how people think about the issue
Minority Dissent and Creativity (Nemeth):
1) Stimulates novel thinking
2) Encourages active information processing
3) Helps people break out their habitual thinking patterns
What are common criticisms of minority influence studies?
*Ecological Validity: Tasks often involve visual perception, which doesn’t reflect real world issues (e.g. Climate change, politics, etc.)
*Operationalization Issues: Majority/minority defined by numbers, but real influence is shaped by values, not group size
*Focus on Perception, Not Behaviour: Studies often measure judgment/opinion, not actual behavioural change, which doesn’t show impact of real decisions and actions
What inspired Milgram to study obedience to authority?
*Inspired by atrocities during WWII, specifically under Nazi Germany
*He wanted to understand why ordinary people commit harmful acts under orders
Describe Milgram’s (1963) electric shock experiment
Study Design:
1) Participants consisted of only men who believed the study investigated the effect of punishment on learning
2) 3 Roles- Teacher (real participant), learner (confederate behind a wall) and experimenter (present in the room, dressed professionally)
3) The teacher read word pairs to the learner
4) On each mistake, the teacher had to deliver a shock, increasing 15V per error
5) Shock generator labelled from 15 to 450 volts, with extreme warnings
6) All learner responses were pre recorded
Key Responses:
*At 300V, learners banged on the wall
*In experiment 5, the learner screamed, demanded to stop, and claimed to have a heart condition
*If the participant hesitated the experiments used 4 standardized prompts
1)Please continue
2) The experiment requires that you continue
3) It is absolutely essential that you continue
4) You have no other choice, you must go on
Findings:
*Of 30 participants, 63% (25 ppt’s) continued all the way to 450V
*Most participants believed they were genuinely delivering shocks
*Questionnaire: Average rating of pain was 13.4/14)
*Interviews: Participants described the shocks as “extremely painful”
*Displayed physical signs of distress: sweating, trembling, stuttering, nervous laughter
What are the factors affecting obedience the Milgram identified after his 18 variations?
*Victims Distance: Greater proximity to the learner = less obedience
*If the learner was unseen/unheard = more likely to obey
*Proximity and Legitimacy of Authority: Experimenter absent or less formal = less obedience
*Peer Pressure: Obedience depended on how other confederates behaved
*Gender: No significant difference in obedience between men and women
*Real World Relevance: Hofling et al. conducted a study, he found that 21/22 nurses obeyed a phone order from an unknown doctor to administer a drug overdose, against protocol
