Social influence

• Soloman Asch (1951) Opinions and Social Pressure

  Research into Conformity
• Asch's Conformity Study


  1. 123 true participants with 6-8 confederates to sway their decisions

  2. They had to see lines and chose which one matched the original
• 36.8% of the critical trials the naive participants conformed
• 75% of participants conformed at least once in a critical trial
• 25% of participants never conformed at all
• Asch's Conformity Study


  • Lack of mundane realism
  • Ethical issues with deception
  • High reliability
  • Gender and culture bias
• Types of Conformity


  • Internalisation (deep)
  • Identification (moderate)
  • Compliance (superficial)
• Informational Social Influence (ISI)


  Agreeing with or going along with what others say because you believe they are correct
• Normative Social Influence (NSI)

  Agreeing in order to keep peace and be accepted by the group
• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE)

  • 24 men in the basement of Stanford prison randomly allocated either guard or prisoner
  • Lasted only 6 days instead of 14 due to ethical concerns
  • The participants took on the role they were given very fast- prisoners rioting and submissive, guards abusive and dominant
• Zimbardo's SPE


  • High internal validity
  • Ethical issues
  • Lacked mundane realism
  • Lacks external validity
• Milgram's Original basic (1963) study of obedience


  • 40 males aged 20-50 in America
  • True participants were assigned teacher and confederates were the learners and observer
  • 65% of participants gave 450v to a silent and unresponsive learner
  • 100% of participants obeyed to 300 volts
  • 35% of participants dissented/stopped between 300 – 375 volts
• Milgram's Obedience Study


  Giving over responsibility will make participants obey instruction
• Proximity


  When the learner and teacher were in touch proximity, the obedience rate dropped to 30%. When they were in the same room, it dropped to 40%.
• Location


  When it was in a run down place, obedience dropped to 47.5%
• Uniform


  The obedience rate dropped to 20% when the observer was in normal clothes
• Legitimacy of authority


  If someone views a person as superior to them they are more likely to obey
• Agency and autonomy


  Go from the autonomous state (free will) to the agentic state where you see yourself as an agent of someone else as they have responsibility
• Authoritarian personality


  • Hostile towards ethnic groups, had no time for weakness and was a servant towards authority
  • Had a cognitive style where there was no 'fuzziness' between categories of people, they had fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups
  • Have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority and have extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it
• Social support


  When you have an ally in social situations you are more likely to resist conformity
• Locus of Control (LOC)

  Those with a high internal LOC feel more responsible for their actions, those with high external LOC are more likely to rely on others in situations
• In one of Asch's variations, introducing a dissenter who gave the correct answer decreased conformity from 32% to just 5%
• Minority Influence


  • Consistency - Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same belief, both over time and between all individuals that form the minority
  • Commitment - Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example, by making personal sacrifices
  • Flexibility - Minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise
• Minority Influence and Social Change

  • The BLM movement
  • Civil rights
  • Women's suffrage
• Augmentation principle


  Commitment shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest and can create social change
• Asch's conformity research showed the importance of dissent. When there is just one other person who goes against the majority it encourages others to also break the power of the majority. Therefore, dissent has the potential to create social change.