Social Influence

• Compliance


  Agreeing with the group externally but keeping personal opinions, a temporary change in behavior
• Identification


  Behaving with the group, private values change only when with the group as membership is valued
• Internalization


  Personal opinions genuinely change to match the group, a permanent change
• Informational social influence (ISI)


  Looking to the majority for guidance on how to behave correctly, results in internalization and is permanent
• Normative social influence (NSI)


  Wanting to appear normal and be approved by the majority, results in compliance and a superficial temporary action
• Asch 1951 study found participants gave the incorrect response on 32% of trials when interviewed, providing evidence for NSI
• Jenness 1932 study found individuals' second private guesses moved closer to the group's guesses, providing evidence for ISI
• Variables affecting conformity


  • Group size (conformity increases with more confederates)
  • Presence of a dissenting voice (conformity drops if one confederate gives a correct response)
  • Task difficulty (conformity increases on more difficult tasks)
• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment found previously stable students quickly conformed to socially defined roles of prisoners and guards
• Agentic state of mind


  The individual believes they don't have responsibility for their behavior as they are just following orders of an authority figure
• Autonomous state of mind


  The individual feels their actions are free from control
• Legitimacy of authority


  Individuals accept that people higher up in a social hierarchy should be obeyed, there is a sense of duty to them
• Milgram 1963 study found 65% of participants were willing to deliver the maximum 450 volt shock to the learner when instructed by the authority figure
• Variations of Milgram's study found obedience dropped when the authority figure lacked legitimacy (e.g. not in a lab coat)
• Factors affecting obedience


  • Proximity to victim (obedience drops when victim is in the same room)
  • Location (obedience increases in a more legitimate setting)
  • Uniform of authority figure (obedience drops without a uniform)
• Adorno argued high levels of authoritarianism were linked to personality disorders, disagreeing with Milgram's view that we are all capable of extreme obedience
• Locus of control


  An individual's belief about what controls the events in their life, ranging from internal to external
• Studies found those with an internal locus of control were more likely to resist pressure to conform or obey
• Minority influence


  • Requires consistency, flexibility, and commitment from the minority group to change majority opinion
  • Starts a slow process but can speed up through the snowball effect as more of the majority convert
• Governments can quickly drive social change by changing and enforcing laws due to their legitimacy of authority
• Social change on issues like climate change and smoking bans has occurred through informational social influence and legal changes
• The three types of conformity are: compliance, identification and internalisation.
• Compliance is when you agree with the group externally but keep personal opinions and is a temporary change in behaviour.
• Identification is when behaviour and private values change only when with the group, as membership is valued.
• Internalisation is when your personal opinions genuinely change to match the group and this is a permanent change.
• The 2 explanations of conformity are: normative social influence and informational social influence.
• Informational social influence is if the correct behaviour is uncertain, we look to the majority for guidance on how to behave because we want to be correct. This results in internalisation and is permanent.
• Normative social influence is when the individual wants to appear normal and be one of the majority so they are approved, not rejected. This is temporary and results in compliance.
• Asch (1951) found that his participants were deceived and asked to take part in a visual perception task with 7-9 confederates. On 12/18 critical trials the confederates gave the wrong answers.
• Results from Asch’s experiment- conformity was 32%, 0.04% in control group, 75% conformed at least once and 5% all 12 times.
• The three variables in Asch’s study were: group size, unanimity and task difficulty.
• Asch’s confederates not actors, potential for demand characteristics from participants if aims were guessed. Only men were used in Asch’s study and so it may have suffered from beta bias.
• Authoritarian Personality- Adorno argued high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder linked to personality, disagreeing with Milgram who suggested we are all capable of extreme obedience.
• Adorno (1950)- studied personality with questionaires. Questions revealed unconscious feelings towards minority groups and developed the F Scale.
• People who scored highly on the F Scale showed high respect for people with higher social status, had fixed stereotypes for other groups. Identified with strong people and disliked weak people.
• Adorno suggested these people had their personality shaped early in life by strict authoritarian parenting with harsh physical punishments. Anger from this experience was displaced (Freud) onto others, mainly minority groups.
• Authoritarian Personality- Elmes and Milgram (1966)-

  Interviews of participants who had taken part in the first 4 Milgram studies showed those that had shocked to the full 450V scored higher on the F scale than those who failed to continue.
• The link between authoritarian personalities and following orders is correlational. It could be a third factor, such as lower income or poor education that results in both behaviours.
• The original F scale lacks internal validity. All the questions were written in one direction, meaning that agreeing to all questions will label someone as authoritarian. This is known as response bias.
• Authoritarian personality can be seen as a left wing theory and inherently biased, as it identifies many individuals with a conservative political viewpoint as having a psychological disorder.