Social Impact Theory

• What are the three rules or laws in Bibb Latane's Social Impact Theory?

  • Social force
  • Psychological law
  • Multiplication vs division of impact
• What are the three factors that determine the likelihood of obeying authority according to Latane?

  1. Strength: How important the person is to you (e.g., age, authority, status).
  2. Immediacy: How recent and close the influence is (e.g., a boss standing next to you vs. an email from last week).
  3. Numbers: The number of sources and targets in the social situation.
• What is the concept of "multiplication vs division of impact" in Social Impact Theory?

  It refers to how the impact of a source (e.g., a speaker) is divided among multiple targets (e.g., an audience). The more targets there are, the less influence each individual feels, leading to diffusion of responsibility.
• What is "diffusion of responsibility" in the context of Social Impact Theory?

  It is the phenomenon (fact) where personal responsibility decreases as the number of people in a group increases. The more people there are, the less each individual feels accountable for taking action or being influenced.
• What did Sedikides + Jackson (1990) study demonstrate about social impact?

  It showed that strength (authority of the confederate), immediacy (time since instruction), and division of impact (group size) affect obedience.
• What was the key finding of Sedikides + Jackson (1990) regarding group size?

  Larger groups showed more disobedience, demonstrating the division of impact.
• How did the strength aspect influence obedience in Sedikides + Jackson (1990)?

  Visitors were more likely to obey a confederate dressed as a zookeeper (high authority) than one dressed casually (low authority).
• How did the immediacy aspect influence obedience in Sedikides + Jackson (1990)?


  As time passed, visitors ignored the instruction more, showing that less immediate instructions have less impact.
• What is the Psychological Law?

  The idea that the first source of influence has the most dramatic impact on people, but additional sources generate less and less social force over time.
• How does the Psychological Law apply to authority figures?

  For example, one teacher giving an order creates a lot of social force. However, adding a second or third teacher to repeat the order doesn't double or triple the impact. Bringing in the entire staff won't be much more effective.
• Why does the Psychological Law occur?

  Because people adapt to repeated influences, and the initial impact is the strongest. Additional sources of influence diminish in effectiveness as they become less novel or surprising.
• What is an example of the Psychological Law in everyday life?

  If a parent tells a child to clean their room, the first request has the most impact. If the child resists, bringing in another parent or sibling to repeat the request won't have the same level of influence.
• How does legitimacy of authority affect obedience?

  People are more likely to obey authority figures they perceive as legitimate (e.g., teachers, police officers). Milgram's experiment showed high obedience when participants viewed the experimenter as a legitimate authority.
• How does immediacy of authority influence obedience?

  Authority figures who are physically close have a stronger influence. In Milgram's Variation #7, obedience dropped when the experimenter gave instructions over the phone instead of being present in the room.
• Why is concentration of influence important for obedience?

  Authority is more effective when it comes from a single, focused source. In Milgram's Variation #13, obedience decreased when the authority figure was replaced by an ordinary person, showing that perceived strength of authority matters.