Psychology - social influence

• Social influence


  How people's beliefs and behaviours are affected by people around them
• Examples of social influence

  • Conformity
  • Obedience
  • Resistance to social influence
  • Minority influence
  • Social change
• Conformity

  Doing what the group does
• Obedience


  Doing what an authority figure tells you to do
• Types of conformity (Kelman 1958)


  • Compliance (weakest)
  • Identification
  • Internalisation (strongest)
• Compliance


  Publicly changing behaviour and beliefs to fit group, but privately not accepting them
• Identification


  Publicly and privately changing behaviour and beliefs to fit group, but only as long as associated with group
• Internalisation


  Publicly and privately changing behaviour and beliefs to fit group, and maintaining them permanently
• Solomon Asch: Conformity experiments


  1. Participants told they were in visual perception study

  2. Participants put in groups with 7-9 confederates

  3. 18 trials where participants asked to identify closest line

  4. In 12 critical trials, confederates gave same wrong answer

  5. Participant always asked to answer last or second to last
• Across critical trials, participants conformed to incorrect group consensus 32% of the time
• 75% of participants conformed to at least one incorrect answer
• 5% of participants conformed to every incorrect answer
• Control group error rate was just 0.04%
• Distortion of perception


  A few subjects actually came to perceive the majority estimates as correct
• Distortion of judgement


  Most conforming subjects were aware of mistake but did not trust own judgement
• Distortion of action


  Subjects aware majority was wrong but gave wrong answer to avoid standing out
• Variables affecting conformity

  • Unanimity
  • Group size
  • Difficulty of task
• Conformity declined from 32% to 5.5% when one 'partner' gave correct answer
• Increasing group size increased conformity up to 3 confederates, but adding more beyond that did not increase it further
• Making the task more difficult increased conformity
• Other variables affecting conformity

  • Mood
  • Gender
  • Culture
• Informational social influence


  Desire to be correct motivates conformity to group information
• Normative social influence


  Desire to be accepted by group motivates conformity
• Conformity to social roles


  Conforming to expected behaviours in different social situations
• Stanford prison study (Zimbardo)

  1. Basement converted to fake prison

  2. 21 male students randomly assigned as 'guards' or 'prisoners'

  3. Guards became increasingly sadistic, prisoners increasingly submissive

  4. Experiment stopped after 6 days instead of 2 weeks
• Participants expressed shock at how out-of-character their behaviour had become
• Not all participants conformed to same extent, suggesting individual dispositions also play role</b>
• Obedience


  Complying with orders of an authority figure
• Milgram's obedience experiments


  1. 40 male participants told they were in study on punishment and learning

  2. Participant assigned 'teacher' role, instructed to give electric shocks to 'learner'

  3. Shocks increased in power with each wrong answer

  4. Learner protested and went silent, but experimenter instructed participant to continue
• 65% of participants administered shocks up to maximum 450 volts
• 100% of participants administered shocks up to 300 volts
• Most participants displayed physical signs of discomfort, 3 had seizures
• Shocks reached 150 volts, the learner began to protest. These protests (pre-recorded and played via a tape recorder) increased in intensity with the increasing voltage. At 315 volts, the learner screamed in pain. After 330 volts, the learner went silent.
• If the participant asked to stop the experiment

  1. The experimenter would reply with one of four successive verbal prods:

  2. "Please continue" or "please go on"

  3. "The experiment requires that you continue"

  4. "It is absolutely essential that you continue"

  5. "You have no other choice, you must go on"
• 26 out of 40 participants (65%) administered shocks all the way up to the maximum of 450 volts.
• 40 out of 40 participants (100%) administered shocks up to 300 volts.
• Most participants displayed physical symptoms of discomfort at what they were doing such as sweating, twitching, and nervously laughing. 3 participants suffered seizures from the stress of what they were doing.
• Milgram's study was in part motivated by a desire to understand why Nazi soldiers in World War 2 acted how they did. For example, shortly before Milgram's study, Adolf Eichmann – a senior Nazi officer responsible for deporting Jews to ghettos and concentration camps – defended his actions at trial by repeatedly saying "I was only following orders".
• Milgram wanted to know if the German people had a uniquely obedient disposition that explained their behaviour. The study suggests not: American people will also obey the demands of an authority figure even if it means going against their moral compass.
• Proximity


  • Obedience declined if the participant was physically closer to the learner
  • Obedience fell to 40% from 65% when the participant and the learner were in the same room
  • Obedience was just 30% when the participant teacher had to actually hold the learner's arm onto a shock plate