social influence

• Social Influence


  Efforts by one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behaviours of one or more others
• Conformity


  A type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behaviour in order to adhere to social norms
• Asch's (1950s) Research on Conformity


  1. Participants were asked to indicate which of three lines matched a standard line in length

  2. During the critical trials, participants had to give their answers after a unanimous group gave the wrong answer

  3. 76% conformed at least once to the group's false judgment

  4. Overall, they agreed with the errors 37% of the time

  5. Later research found that an ally (someone who disagreed with the group) and the ability to make responses privately both reduced conformity
• Factors that affect conformity

  • Cohesiveness - The degree of attraction felt by an individual toward an influencing group. As cohesiveness increases, conformity increases
  • Group size - As group size increases, conformity increases
  • Status - Senior group members often feel less pressure to conform
  • Unanimity - the bigger the unanimous majority the more pressure to conform
  • Descriptive norms - describe what people do under different circumstances i.e. what is typical
  • Injunctive norms - tell us what is approved or disapproved behaviour under different circumstances
  • Normative Focus Theory - Predicts that people are more likely to conform to descriptive and injunctive norms when they are salient to them. i.e. norms will influence us if they are personally relevant
• Normative social influence


  Social influences stemming from our desire to be liked or accepted by others. In order to get others to like us we want to appear similar and conform to social norms
• Informational social influence


  Social influence based on the desire to possess accurate social perceptions. We want to have a correct understanding of our social world. This is an especially strong source of conformity when the task is important and difficulty and uncertainty are high
• Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971)

  1. Aimed to determine whether participants would come to behave like real guards and real prisoners if placed in those roles

  2. The participants quickly assumed the established norms of these roles, with the guards exercising complete control, treating the prisoners harshly, harassing and physically punishing them

  3. A visiting psychologist deemed the study unethical and found that the prisoners showed signs of psychological distress

  4. Zimbardo had to end the prison simulation early, finding that the extreme behaviour exhibited by the guards was due to the situation rather than personality traits
• Why some people do not conform

  • Valuing individuality and control - People's need to be distinguishable from others in some respects and maintain control over their lives
  • Power - Powerful people less dependent on others for social resources
  • Presence of dissenters - The presence of a dissenter can provide support for non-conformity
  • Strong personal convictions and high self esteem - Persons with the above may be less influenced by the need for social approval and resist conformity
• Compliance

  A type of social influence involving direct requests from one person to another
• Principles that underlie compliance

  • Friendship/Liking - we are more likely to comply if a friend or someone we like makes a request as opposed to a stranger or someone we do not like
  • Commitment/Consistency - if we have made a commitment to a position or action, we tend to comply with requests for actions that are consistent with the position or action as opposed to requests that are inconsistent
  • Scarcity - we tend to comply with a request if it involves outcomes or objects that are relatively scarce
  • Reciprocity - we are more likely to comply if the request comes from someone who has done a favor for us in the past
  • Social Validation - we are more likely to comply if we believe that similar others are behaving in the same way
  • Authority - we are more likely to comply if the request comes from an authority figure (it can be someone with real authority or someone who "appears" to have authority)
• Tactics for Compliance


  1. Ingratiation - Requesters first induce target to like them

  2. Incidental similarity - Requesters call attention to small/ surprising similarities between them and ourselves, creating a feeling of affiliation

  3. Foot-in-the-door Technique - Requesters begin with a small request and then, when it is granted, escalate to a larger one

  4. Lowball Procedure - An offer or deal is changed to make it less attractive to the target person after this person has accepted it

  5. Door-in-the-face Technique - Requesters begin with a large request and then, when this is refused, retreat to a smaller one

  6. That's Not All Technique - Requesters offer additional benefits to target persons before they have decided whether to comply with or reject specific requests

  7. Playing Hard to Get - Suggesting that a person or object is scarce and hard to obtain

  8. Deadline Technique - Target persons are told that they have only limited time to take advantage of some offer or to obtain some item

  9. Four walls technique - Question customer in such a way that gets answers consistent with the idea that they need to own object
• Obedience


  Form of social influence in which one person simply orders one or more others to perform some action(s). The compliance of the person is due to the perceived authority of the asker. The request is perceived as a command
• Stanley Milgram's Obedience Studies (1963, 1965a, 1974)


  Basic study procedure: Teacher and learner (learner always confederate), Participants told to deliver increasing levels of shock to a "learner" each time he made an error on a learning task, Watch learner being strapped into chair - learner expresses concern over his "heart condition", Teacher is placed into another room with experimenter, Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts, labels "slight shock" to "XXX", Teacher asked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes, Learner protests more and more as shock increases, Experimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher hesitates, 65% obeyed to the fullest extent (proceeded to the end of the series, to the final 450-volt level)
• Explanations for Milgram's Results


  • Numerous successful replications with variety of groups shows that Milgram's subjects weren't "abnormal", Authority of Yale and value of science, Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of responsibility, Proximity of learner and experimenter, New situation and no model of how to behave
• Although 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, there are still ethical issues with Milgram's study
• Why does destructive obedience occur?

  • Authority assumes responsibility, Authority's status is evident and reminds people of social norms to obey, Authority's commands involve gradual escalation (the foot-in-the-door compliance technique), Participants have little time for reflection or systematic processing
• Resisting the effects of destructive obedience

  • Increase participants' responsibility for any harm done to others, Indicate that total submission to authority is inappropriate, Provide disobedient models, Question authority's expertise and motives, Increase awareness of the power of the situation, Share the results of research studies on obedience
• Emotional Contagion


  When our feelings and emotions are influenced by those of others unintentionally. When we observe emotions in other we tend to match their feelings
• Symbolic Social Influence


  The influence of others even when they are not there. The mental representations of others or our relationships with them influence our behaviour
• Modelling


  Learning through observing the actions of others or using them as a guide to own behaviour in situations where there are no clear rules for how we should behave
• Required Reading: Social Psychology by Robert A. Baron & Nyla R. Branscombe, Chapter Eight: Social Influence: Changing Others' Behaviour