Social influence

• Conformity


  A type of social influence where a person yields to group pressures and changes their behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group
• Types of conformity (Kelman)


  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• Internalisation


  Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (the strongest type of conformity, often occurs as a result of informational social influence)
• Identification


  Temporary/short term change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of a group (middle level)
• Compliance


  Following other people's ideas/going along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval (lowest/weakest level of conformity)
• Informational social influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them, to have the right answer in a situation
• Normative social influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group; when a person's need to be accepted or have approval from a group drives compliance
• NSI and ISI may not be completely exclusive, as suggested by Deutsch and Gerrard's 'Two Process Model'
• It may be more beneficial to look at NSI and ISI as complementary, as opposed to mutually exclusive mechanisms
• Asch's study


  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; 1 true participant and 5 confederates
  • Participants and confederates presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
  • Confederates gave the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
  • Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
• 36.8% conformed, 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once
• In a control trial, only 1% of responses given by participants were incorrect
• Group size


  An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
• Unanimity of majority


  An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer, as opposed to them all giving different answers
• Task difficulty


  An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
• When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity
• This suggests that informational social influence is a major mechanism for conformity when the situation is ambiguous and the individual does not have enough of their own knowledge or information to make an informed decision independently
• Zimbardo's study


  • 24 American male undergraduate students
  • Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment
  • Procedure: Basement of Stanford University converted into simulated prison, participants randomly assigned roles of guard or prisoner
  • Findings: Identification occurred very fast, guards began to harass and torment prisoners, prisoners became submissive and defended the guards
• Agentic state


  When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
• Agentic shift


  When a person shifts from an autonomous state (where they believe they will take responsibility for their own actions) to an agentic state
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate
• In Milgram's study, the participants saw the experimenter as legitimate as they knew he was a scientist and therefore likely to be knowledgeable and responsible
• Agentic state


  When people believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure, rather than taking personal responsibility for their actions
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate (i.e. legally based or law abiding)
• Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
• Expert authority

  When the authority figure is seen as legitimate because they are a knowledgeable and responsible expert, like a scientist
• The study suffered from demand characteristics and lacked ecological validity
• The sample only consisted of American male students, so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures
• There was a lack of fully informed consent due to the deception required
• Participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment
• Proximity


  Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room (62.5%) compared to being in a different room (20.5%)
• Location


  Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university, as the prestige demands obedience and increases trust in the researchers
• Uniform


  Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat, as it gave them higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy
• Debriefing was thorough and careful, and a follow-up study found most participants were glad to have been part of the study and felt they learned something
• The research has real-life applications in highlighting the problem of obedience to destructive authority figures
• The findings have been highly replicated, increasing reliability
• External validity has been established by supporting studies like Hofling et al (1966)
• There were serious ethical issues including deception, psychological harm, and the socially sensitive nature of the findings
• There were issues with internal and ecological validity
• Authoritarian personality


  Belief that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs. Characterized by a 'fixed' cognitive style and tendency to adopt absolutist/'black and white' thinking.