Social influence

• Informational social influence

  When people conform in order to be right
• Normative social influence


  When people conform in order to be liked
• Asch's research supports normative social influence, as people conformed in order to be right. Conformity fell when participants wrote down their answers, showing they wanted to be right in the environment
• Perrin and Spencer studied engineering students, less than 1% conformed, as more knowledge in the area means people are less likely to conform
• Lucas et al found people were more likely to conform when the maths questions were harder, as they wanted to be right, but could work out easy questions for themselves
• Zimbardo's research

  1. Advertised for students to volunteer

  2. Psychologically tested 24 participants

  3. Randomly assigned as prisoner or guard

  4. Prisoners arrested, stripped, given number and uniform

  5. Guards given number, wooden clubs, handcuffs, key and shades

  6. Study stopped after 6 days as guards became a threat to prisoners' psychological health

  7. 1 prisoner went on hunger strike
• Zimbardo's research findings


  • Guards harassed prisoners, made them do awful tasks
  • Tasks became more brutal over time
  • Both guards and prisoners adapted to their social roles very quickly
  • Had a strong influence on individuals' behaviour
• Milgram's study


  1. Wanted to know why so many Jews supported Hitler

  2. 40 male participants recruited through newspaper ad

  3. Offered $4.50 an hour

  4. Introduced to Mr Wallace (confederate) as learner, participant was teacher

  5. Wallace strapped into chair, shocked with 45 volts when got word pairs wrong

  6. Experimenter instructed participant to increase voltage when Wallace asked for help
• All participants went to 300 volts, 65% went up to 450 volts, 3 had uncontrollable seizures, 12.5% stopped at 300
• Prior to the study, psychology students predicted that 3% would go up to 450 volts
• Asch's research


  1. Tested conformity by showing a 'standard' line and asking participants to match it to one of three comparison lines

  2. Groups had 1 naive participant and 6-8 confederates

  3. 12/18 trials were critical, with confederates giving the wrong answer
• Naive participant gave correct answer 36.8% of the time, 75% conformed at least once
• Locus of control


  A concept created by Rotter, concerning whether people believe outcomes are due to internal or external factors
• Internal locus of control - things that happen to you are due to your own actions

  External locus of control - things that happen to you are due to external factors
• Continuum - locus of control varies from high external to high internal. Those with high internal are more likely to resist pressures, more likely to take action
• Holland found that those with an external locus of control were more likely to obey and go to the highest shock, compared to those with an internal locus of control
• Contradictory evidence - Twenge found that over time, people have become more internal in their locus of control but also more susceptible to social influence
• Proximity, location, and uniform were tested to see if they affected obedience (Milgram)
• Proximity - when teacher and learner were in adjoining rooms, obedience fell from 65% to 40%. When teacher had to force learner's hand onto 'electro-shock plate', obedience fell to 30%. When instructions given over phone, obedience fell to 20%
• Location - using a run-down building, obedience fell to 47.5%
• Uniform - originally wore a lab coat, but when wore 'ordinary person' clothes, obedience fell to 20%
• Authoritarian personality


  When people are especially obedient to authority, want strong leaders, formed in childhood due to harsh parenting, see everything as right or wrong
• Adorno found a strong correlation between scoring high on the F-scale (measuring authoritarian personality) and prejudice. Authoritarian personalities are very conscious of their own status and follow leaders
• Rank and Jacobson repeated Hoffing's study, but with a doctor they knew, with others which allowed discussion and was a known drug - only 1/18 obeyed
• Agentic state


  Acting as an 'agent' for someone else, who takes responsibility for their actions
• Autonomous state


  Taking responsibility for one's own actions, opposite of agentic state
• Agentic shift


  Moving from autonomous to agentic, when a person believes someone else is in charge
• Legitimacy of authority


  People in positions of authority, can be destructive (power used negatively) or constructive
• Hofling - a doctor rang 22 nurses and told them to inject patients as he was running late, 21/22 did, could be because of the unfamiliarity of the drug they were asked to give