Social influence

• compliance

  • where a person agrees with views in public but they privately disagree with the viewpoint
• internalisation

  • publicly and privately changing behaviour
• identification

  • a person changes their public and private behaviour, but only in the presence of a group
• normative social influence

  • when a person conforms because they want to be accepted within a group
• informational social influence:

  • when a person conforms because they want to be right
• Factors affecting conformity - group size

  • the bigger the majority group, the more likely people were to conform
• factors affecting conformity: group unanimaty

  • a person is more likely to conform when there is a unanimous agreement between the majority of the group
• factors affecting conformity: task difficulty

  • the more difficult the task, the more likely people were to conform
• factors affecting conformity: answering in private

  • there was less conformity when participants were asked questions in private
• dispositional factors affecting obedience

  • authoritarian personality
• situational factors affecting obedience

  • proximity to authoritative figure
  • location
  • uniform
• Resistance to social influence: social support

  • the presence of a dissident who went against the majority decision decreased conformity rates and causes more people to go with the minority decision
• Resistance to social influence: Locus of control

  • internal locus of control: people have control over the behaviour and the things that happen to them
  • External locus of control: people believe their behaviour and the things that happen to them are out of their control and a cause of external influences
• Minority influence

  • occurs when a small group of people influence the opinion of a much larger group
• Minority influence: consistency

  • staying consistent and not changing viewpoints
  • e.g. saying you've had this view for a number of years
• Minority influence: commitment

  • having confidence and dedication to the minority viewpoint
  • E.g. offering to speak about it in front of a large group of people
• Minority influence: flexibility

  • appearing flexible and willing to understand other viewpoints
  • e.g. saying you are open to change and other ideas
• Social change: snowball effect

  • when a whole society adapts to a new belief or behaviour
  • Snowball effect: more and more minority views lead to increased change from the majority to the minority
• Autonomous state

  • people direct their own actions and take responsibility for them
• agentic state

  • People allow others to direct their actions and take no responsibility for their actions
  • act as an "agent" for other peoples will
• Authoritarian Personality

  • people with a particular set of dispositions are are more likely to display obedience and submission towards authoritative figures