L22 Social Influence

• What three things can conformity be due to?

  Acceptance, compliance, obedience
• Informational influence = a change of attitude/ behaviour because other people’s behaviour provides information about what is the correct thing to do.
• Normative influence = when people provide information about what is the appropriate thing to do
• Sherif: autokinetic effect (stationary small light appears to move in a dark room)

  • three participants in the same room, took turns in reporting their estimate.
  • Their judgments converged over time.
• Risky shift phenomenon = groups make more risks than individuals
• group polarization = normative views become more extreme over time
• group think = extreme polarization that involves deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment due to group isolation and an excessive desire to achieve/ maintain consensus