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 were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
  • Confederates would give 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
• Factors affecting level of conformity in Asch's study

  • Size of majority/Group size
  • Unanimity of majority
  • Task difficulty
• Size of majority/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
• Zimbardo's study


  • 24 American male undergraduate students
  • Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment, and specifically, to investigate why 'good people do bad things'
  • Procedure: Basement of Stanford University converted into a simulated prison, participants randomly assigned roles of guard or prisoner
• 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, morally good/right, and legitimate
• Situational factors


  Factors in the situation that can influence obedience, such as the presence of an authority figure
• Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
• Situational factors affecting obedience

  • Appearance of the authority figure
  • Location/surroundings
  • Proximity (and the role of buffers)
• Uniform

  A person is more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy
• Experimenter wearing a lab coat

  Obedience was much higher compared to normal clothes
• Milgram admitted that many participants could see through the deception of the experimenter wearing a lab coat
• Prestigious location

  A person is more likely to obey someone in a location linked to higher status and legitimacy
• Study conducted at a prestigious university (Yale)


  Obedience was greater than in a rundown office
• Proximity


  A person is more likely to obey when they are less able to see the negative consequences of their actions and are in closer proximity to the authority figure
• Experimenter in the same room as participant

  Obedience was higher (62.5%) compared to being in a different room and speaking over the phone (20.5% obedience)
• 70% of participants believed that the electric shocks were real
• 100% of females in Sheridan and King's study administered real electric shocks to puppies
• Milgram's variations, particularly the removal of a uniform as a situational variable, may have lacked validity
• Proximity

  Obedience was higher when the experimenter was in the same room (62.5%), reduced to 40% in separate rooms, and further reduced to 30% in the touch proximity condition
• Location


  Obedience was higher when the study was conducted at a prestigious university
• Uniform


  Obedience was higher when the experimenter wore a lab coat compared to normal clothes
• Authoritarian personality

  Belief that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs
• 1. scale

  Measure of authoritarian personality traits, where participants rate their agreement with statements
• Reaction formation


  When a child with harsh, disciplinarian parents displaces their anger onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• The F-scale is susceptible to acquiescence bias, where respondents always respond in the same direction
• Fascist-like views can be found across the whole political spectrum, which the Authoritarian Personality does not account for
• The Authoritarian Personality has little ecological validity because it cannot explain many real-life examples of mass obedience