Social Influence

• Conformity - choosing a course of action that is favoured by the majority of other group members, or is considered socially acceptable
• Compliance - Going along with others to gain their approval or avoid their disapproval

  • known as social comparison concentrating on what other do so you can adjust your own actions to fit in with them
  • PUBLIC NOT PRIVATE
• Internalisation - going along with others because you have accepted their point of view because it is consistent with your own

  • known as validation process, examining your own beliefs to see if they are right
  • PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
• Identification - going along with others because you have accepted their point of view but only because of a desire to be like them

  • has elements of both internalisation and compliance
  • PUBLIC NOT PRIVATE
• Asch 1956

  • 123 male american undergraduates
  • 5 - 7 participants tested per group
  • Participants had to say out loud which comparison line matched the standard line in length
  • Each group had only one true participant
  • Confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 of 18 trials
• Results of Aschs study into conformity

  • 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial
  • True participants conformed on 32% of the clinical trials where confederates gave the wrong answer
• Methodological issues with Aschs study

  • all male + american (ethnocentric and androcentric) - can’t be generalised to wider population
  • didnt give valid informed consent - real participant was not told everyone else were confederates
  • psychological harm
• Mori + Arai (2010)

  • 104 Japanese undergraduates were put in same- sex groups (had to say aloud which of the three comparison lines matched a stimulus lines)
  • Participants wore sunglasses to prevent glare, the third participant in each group which wore different glasses which changed what they saw
  • minority of women conformed to the wrong answers
• Aschs variations

  • group size - an individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
  • task difficulty - when we are uncertain, we look to others for confirmation. Eg. Asch altered the lines to make them more similar, it was more difficult to judge so conformity increased.