Social Influence

• Social influence is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs or behavior are modified by the presence or action of others
• Four areas of social influence

  • Conformity
  • Compliance
  • Obedience
  • Minority influence
• Conformity


  A type of social influence defined as a change in belief or behavior in response to real or imagined social pressure. It is also known as majority influence.
• Compliance


  Instances where a person may agree in public with a group of people, but the person privately disagrees with the group's viewpoint or behavior. The individual changes their views, but it is a temporary change.
• Compliance


  • A person may laugh at a joke because their group of friends find it funny but deep down the person does not find the joke funny
• Internalisation


  Publicly changing behavior to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately. An internal (private) and external (public) change of behavior. This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs of the group become part of the individual's own belief system.
• Internalisation


  • Someone living with a vegetarian at university and then decides to also become one too because they agree with their friend's viewpoint / someone converting religions
• Identification


  Occurs when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society. For example, a policeman, teacher or politician. This type of conformity extends over several aspects of external behavior. However, there still be no changed to internal personal opinion.
• Identification


  • Zimbardo's prison study
• Jan and Norah have just finished their first year at university where they lived in a house with six other students. All the other students were very health conscious and ate only organic food.


  Jan had listened to their point of view and now she also eats only organic food. Norah was happy to eat organic food while in the house, but when she went home for the holidays she ate whatever her mother cooked. Both girls conformed, but for different reasons.
• Normative influence


  Where a person conforms to fit in with the group because they don't want to appear foolish or be left out. Normative social influence is usually associated with compliance, where a person changes their public behavior but not their private beliefs.
• Normative influence


  • A person may feel pressurised to smoke because the rest of their friends are
• Informational influence


  Where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, and look to others who they believe may have more information. This type of conformity occurs when a person is unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge and is associated with internalisation.
• Informational influence


  • If someone was to go to a posh restaurant for the first time, they may be confronted with several forks and not know which one to use, so they might look to a near by person to see what fork to use first
• Jenness carried out a study into conformity – in his experiment participants were asked to estimate how many beans they thought were in a jar. Each participant had to make an individual estimate, and then do the same as a group. He found that when the task was carried out in a social group, the participants would report estimates of roughly the same value (even though they had previously reported quite different estimates as individuals).
• The study was successful in showing majority influence, thus proving that individuals' behavior and beliefs can be influenced by a group.
• Asch wanted to investigate whether people would conform to the majority in situations where an answer was obvious.
• In Asch's study there were 5-7 participants per group. Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines. Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the standard line in length. In each group there was only one real participant the remaining 6 were confederates. The confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails.
• Real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers. Additionally, 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial.
• Asch's study


  • Lacks ecological validity as it was based on peoples' perception of lines, this does not reflect the complexity of real life conformity
  • There are sampling issues regarding this study as the study was only carried out on men thus the sample was gender bias and therefore the results cannot be applied to females. The sample therefore lacks population validity
  • There are ethical issues regarding Asch's study – Mention deception as participants were told the study was about perception of lines. As a result, they could not give informed consent. Furthermore, it is possible that the participants may have felt embarrassed when the true nature of the study was revealed. Thus could potentially put them through some form of psychological harm. However, Asch did debrief at the end.
• The bigger the majority group (number of confederates), the more people conformed, but only up to a certain point.
• With one other person (i.e., confederate) in the group conformity was 3%, with two others it increased to 13%, and with three or more it was 32% (or 1/3). However, conformity did not increase much after the group size was about 4/5.
• A person is more likely to conform when all members of the group agree and give the same answer.
• When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped. Asch (1951) found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity as much as 80%.
• When the (comparison) lines (e.g., A, B, C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased.
• When participants were allowed to answer in private (so the rest of the group does not know their response) conformity decreases.
• Social roles


  The part people play as members of a social group (e.g. student, teacher, policeman etc). There is considerable pressure to conform to the expectations of a social role. Conforming to a social role is called identification.
• Zimbardo wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life.
• Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, with the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily. Within hours of beginning the experiment some guards began to harass prisoners. They behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it. Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented.
• The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behavior too. They talked about prison issues a great deal of the time. They 'told tales' on each other to the guards. They started taking the prison rules very seriously, and some even began siding with the guards against prisoners who did not obey the rules.
• As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive. They demanded ever greater obedience from the prisoners.
• The prisoners were dependent on the guards for everything so tried to find ways to please the guards, such as telling tales on fellow prisoners.
• Zimbardo's study


  • Demand characteristics could explain the findings of the study. Most of the guards later claimed they were simply acting. Because the guards and prisoners were playing a role their behavior may not be influenced by the same factors which affect behavior in real life. This means the study's findings cannot be reasonably generalized to real life, such as prison settings. I.e the study has low ecological validity
  • The study may also lack population validity as the sample comprised US male students. The study's findings cannot be applied to female prisons or those from other countries. For example, America is an individualist culture (were people are generally less conforming) and the results maybe different in collectivist cultures (such as Asian countries)
  • A strength of the study is that it has altered the way US prisons are run. For example, juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners (due to the risk of violence against them)
  • The study has received many ethical criticisms, including lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself did not know what would happen in the experiment (it was unpredictable)
• Because the guards and prisoners were playing a role, their behavior may not be influenced by the same factors which affect behavior in real life. This means the study's findings cannot be reasonably generalized to real life, such as prison settings. I.e the study has low ecological validity.
• The study may also lack population validity as the sample comprised US male students. The study's findings cannot be applied to female prisons or those from other countries. For example, America is an individualist culture (were people are generally less conforming) and the results maybe different in collectivist cultures (such as Asian countries).
• Strengths of the study

  • It has altered the way US prisons are run. For example, juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners (due to the risk of violence against them).
• Ethical criticisms of the study

  • Lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself did not know what would happen in the experiment (it was unpredictable)
  • Prisoners did not consent to being "arrested" at home
  • Participants playing the role of prisoners were not protected from psychological harm, experiencing incidents of humiliation and distress
• However, in Zimbardo's defence the emotional distress experienced by the prisoners could not have been predicted from the outset. In addition Zimbardo did conduct debriefing sessions for several years afterwards and concluded they were no lasting negative effects.
• Another strength of the study

  • The harmful treatment of participant led to the formal recognition of ethical guidelines. Studies must now gain ethical approval before they are conducted. An ethics committee review whether the potential benefits of the research are justifiable in the light of possible risk of physical or psychological harm. They may request researchers make changes to the studies design or procedure, or in extreme cases deny approval of the study altogether.
• Obedience


  A type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure.