chapter 2

• Social influence


  Ways in which people produce changes in others – in their behavior, attitudes, or beliefs
• Persuasion


  Change with respect to attitudes
• Compliance


  Change in overt behavior, generally by a specific request, get people to do what you want them to do
• Conformity


  Change induced by general rules concerning what behavior is appropriate or required
• Obedience


  Change induced by direct orders or commands from others
• Enron's disaster


  • Result of social influence – obedience to top management; compliance with "mind your own business"…but by promoting, offering raises, bonuses
• Conformity •Refers to pressures to behave in ways consistent with rules indicating how we should or ought to behave. These rules are known as social norms, rules indicating how individuals are expected to behave in specific situations.

  e.g. in a queue (pick’n pay), when a new checkout line suddenly opens…who goes first – people in the front line or the back of the existing line should go first…UNCERTAIN social norms…

  e.g. leaving a tip for the waiter before leaving the restaurant…

  Why conformity – imagine in a country where traffic rules are taken lightly…might create chaos…
• Balancing public conformity and private acceptance

  As much as we overtly conform to public or social pressure, it is balanced by private views (don't actually change our private views)
• Autokinetic phenomenon


  When placed in completely dark room and exposed to a single, stationery point of light, most people perceive the light as moving about. Because there are no clear cues to distance or location.
• Autokinetic phenomenon in a group


  1. When you place people in the dark room and ask them to report what they perceive the light to be doing, they influence one another and soon converge on a particular amount of movement; this constitutes a group norm

  2. When you put one person in the dark room, afterwards, he continues to give estimates consistent with the group norm
• Reason for conformity


  We tend to behave in an appropriate manner – as per social norms; as well as – to be accepted by others; and to be liked by them
• Cohesiveness


  • The extent to which we are attracted to a particular social group and want to belong to it
• Group size


  • The greater the size of the group, the greater our tendency to conform…"do as they do" tendency
• Descriptive social norms


  Describe what most people do in a given situation – what is seen as effective and adaptive in that situation
• Injunctive norms


  Ought to be done…what is approved or disapproved in a given situation. E.g. strong injunctive norm against cheating on exams; no speed on highways
• Injunctive norms are usually disobeyed – (speed; cheat on exams…)
• When are injunctive norms obeyed?

  When found Salient (relevant or significant) to the people involved at the time the behavior occurs (known as normative focus theory – norms will influence behavior only to the extent that they are focal for the people involved at the time the behavior occurs – when it applies to the people involved…)
• Situational norms


  Lower voice in library; raise voice in stadium…
• Situational norms


  • Participants who were informed that they would be visiting a library; they were given 10 words to read from a computer screen – they lowered their voice reading; those who were told they would visit "rail way" station did not follow a "lower your voice" norm
• The situational norm is automatic normative behavior
• Normative social influence


  Social influence based on the desire to be liked or accepted by other people
• Informational social influence


  Social influence based on the desire to be correct (i.e., to possess accurate perceptions of the social world)
• Conformity


  • Helps us to predict social relations
  • Has negative effects:
• Negative effects of conformity

  • Limits on opportunities and career aspirations of men and women (social expectations)
  • Personal freedom of choice reduced
• Need for individualism


  Desire to be distinguishable from others in some respects, but also want to be like others - especially others we like - and don't want to be exactly like these people
• Desire for personal freedom
• Usually people seeking social change emphasize on individual preferences and freedom
• Norms can increase conformity, but also can reduce it as well
• Opposing majority opinions


  • Need to be consistent
  • Avoid rigidity or being dogmatic
  • Maintain a degree of flexibility
• Avoid situations in which the pressure to go along might overwhelm your personal values
• Friendship or liking


  Comply to friend's requests or to those you like
• Commitment or consistency


  Consistent with the position we maintain
• Scarcity


  Objects or outcomes that are scarce or not abundant, especially water and electricity
• Reciprocity


  Pay back social validation
• Authority


  Request made by legitimate authority
• Ingratiation tactics


  • Flattery - praising others
  • Self-promotion - inform others of past accomplishments
  • Incidental similarity - calling attention to small and slightly surprising similarities between them and us
• Foot-in-the-door


  Start with a small request and then, when this is granted, escalate to a larger one (the one they actually desired all along)
• Foot-in-the-door


  • Free samples of food in a restaurant or supermarkets
• Lowball procedure


  Gain compliance in which an offer or deal is changed to make it less attractive to the target person after this person has accepted it
• Lowball procedure


  • Ask people to donate R5 that goes to "orphans" and get a free coffee in a local coffee zone, then call them that the free coffee does not exist any more