Social Influence

• Compliance


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


  Behaving according to group membership, private values change only when with the group
• 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
• Normative social influence (NSI)

  Wanting to appear normal and be approved by the majority, results in compliance
• Asch (1951) found 32% of participants conformed to the incorrect responses of the group
• Jenness (1932) found individuals' second private guesses moved closer to the group's guess, 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 the correct response)
  • Task difficulty (conformity increases on more difficult tasks)
• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment found participants quickly conformed to their assigned social roles as prisoners and guards
• Agentic state


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


  Individuals accept that those higher up in the social hierarchy should be obeyed
• Milgram (1963) found 65% of participants were willing to deliver the maximum 450 volt shock when instructed by an authority figure
• Situational variables affecting obedience

  • Proximity to victim (obedience drops when teacher has to physically touch the learner)
  • Location (obedience increases in a more legitimate setting)
  • Uniform of authority figure (obedience drops without the uniform)
• Adorno argued that individuals with high levels of authoritarianism were more likely to obey in Milgram's study
• Resistance to social influence

  • Social support (seeing others resist)
  • Locus of control (internal locus of control correlates with greater resistance)
• Minority influence


  Minorities attempt to change majority opinion through informational social influence, a slow process that can speed up through the snowball effect
• Factors enabling minority influence

  • Consistency (repeating the same message over time)
  • Flexibility (appearing open-minded)
  • Commitment (being willing to suffer for their views)
• Social change often occurs through a snowball effect as the minority view becomes more acceptable and the majority slowly converts
• Minorities are more influential when they are part of the in-group rather than an out-group
• Governments can drive social change quickly by changing and enforcing laws due to their legitimacy of authority
• Social influence


  A type of conformity where an individual's behaviour or beliefs are influenced by real or imagined group pressure
• Compliance


  Going along with others in public, but privately not changing personal opinions and/or behaviours - a superficial change
• Identification


  The individual adopts the behaviours or beliefs of a group because there is something they value
• Internalisation


  When a person genuinely accepts the group norms, resulting in private and public change of beliefs - this is usually permanent
• Asch's study showed a significant degree of conformity, with about 75% of participants conforming at least once, 5% conforming every time, and the overall conformity rate in the critical trials being 32%
• Asch's results support normative social influence, as participants conformed for social approval and to avoid rejection or being seen as an outcast
• Factors affecting conformity in Asch's study

  • Group size - conformity increased with larger groups
  • Unanimity - conformity decreased when there was a dissenter in the group
  • Task difficulty - more ambiguous tasks increased conformity
• Informational social influence


  The need to be correct, driven by the belief that others have more knowledge or correct information, leading to internalisation and permanent change
• Normative social influence


  Driven by the desire to be liked, leading to compliance and superficial, temporary change
• Asch's experiment involved groups of 1-10 male college students, with one actual participant and the rest confederates
• Zimbardo's experiment investigated if prisoner aggression was created by situational or dispositional factors
• In Zimbardo's experiment, all participants conformed to social roles quickly, with prisoners and guards conforming within 2 days, and the experiment being terminated due to prisoner mental health concerns
• Obedience


  A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order, usually influenced by an authoritarian figure
• After the Holocaust, Milgram decided to research why Hitler's orders had been followed by the German people
• Agentic state


  The idea that an individual believes they don't have responsibility for their behaviour as they are acting on behalf of an authority figure
• Legitimacy of authority


  The idea that individuals accept that other individuals who are higher up in the social hierarchy should be obeyed
• Milgram's study supports the agentic state, as participants went along with harming the learner because the experimenter took responsibility