social influence studies

• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by

  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Groups assumed to act rationally


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• A firm increases advertising

  Demand curve shifts right
• Demand curve shifting right

  Increases the equilibrium price and quantity
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Participants were 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates (actors/people in on the experiment)
• The aim was to investigate conformity and majority influence
• Asch's study procedure


  1. Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard

  2. They asked to state which of three lines was the same length as a stimulus line

  3. The real participant always answered last or second to last

  4. Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
• Factors affecting level of conformity


  • 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
  • Task Difficulty: An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
• Zimbardo's study participants were 24 American male undergraduate students
• The aim was 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
• Zimbardo's study procedure


  1. The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison

  2. American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study

  3. They were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner

  4. Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms

  5. Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number

  6. Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses

  7. No one was allowed to leave the simulated prison

  8. Guards worked eight hour shifts, while the others remained on call

  9. Prisoners were only allowed in the hallway which acted as their yard, and to the toilet

  10. No physical violence was permitted
• The amount of ethical issues with the study led to the formal recognition or ethical guidelines so that future studies were safer and less harmful to participants due to legally bound rules. This demonstrates the practical application of an increased understanding of the mechanisms of conformity and the variables which affect this.
• Weaknesses: Lacks ecological validity-The study suffered from demand characteristics. For example, the participants knew that they were participating in a study and therefore may have changed their behaviour, either to please the experimenter (a type of demand characteristic) or in response to being observed (participant reactivity, which acts as a confounding variable). The participants also knew that the study was not real so they claimed that they simply acted according to the expectations associated with their role rather than genuinely adopting it. This was seen particularly with qualitative data gathered from an interview with one guard, who said that he based his performance from the stereotypical guard role portrayed in the film Cool Hand Luke, thus further reducing the validity of the findings.
• Weaknesses: Lacks population validity-The sample only consisted of American male students and so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures. For example, collective cultures, such as China or Japan, may be more conformist to their prescribed social roles because such cultures value the needs of the group over the needs of the individual. This suggests that such findings may be culture-bound.
• Ethical issues: Lack of fully informed consent due to the deception required to (theoretically) avoid demand characteristics and participant reactivity. However, Zimbardo himself did not know what was going to happen, so could not inform the participants, meaning that there is possible justification for a breach of ethical guidelines.
• Ethical issues: Psychological harm-Participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment e.g. one prisoner had to be released due to excess distress and uncontrollable screaming and crying. One prisoner was released on the first day due to showing signs of psychological disturbance, with a further two being released on the third day. This study would be considered unethical according to modern ethical standards.
• Agentic state


  When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
• Autonomous state


  When a person believes they will be responsible for their own actions
• Agency theory is the idea that people can more easily obey when they are in the agentic state as they do not believe they will suffer the consequences of their actions.
• Milgram (1963) participants: Randomly selected participants-40 male adults
• Aim: To observe whether people would do harm to another person when instructed by a figure of authority
• Procedure


  1. Participant randomly assigned the role of teacher

  2. Confederates given the role of learner

  3. Learner (confederate) given a series of questions

  4. When the learner got the answer wrong, the participant was instructed to give an electric shock

  5. Shocks increased in intensity up to 300V, even when the learner was unconscious

  6. In reality, no real shocks were given, just an illusion of shocks
• Factors affecting obedience


  • Proximity - Participant was in the same room as the learner
  • Location - Participant was in a prestigious university lab setting
  • Uniform - Participant was given a lab coat, making them feel more authoritative
• Strengths: Debriefing-The participants were thoroughly and carefully debriefed on the real aims of the study in an attempt to deal with the ethical breach.
• Strengths: Real-life applications-This research opened our eyes to the problem of obedience and so may reduce future obedience in response to destructive authority figures.
• Strengths: High in internal validity-Qualitative data gathered by Milgram directly suggested that 70% of participants believed that the shocks were real.
• Strengths: Highly replicable-The procedure has been repeated all over the world, where consistent and similar obedience levels have been found.
• Strengths: External validity has been established by supporting studies-Hofling (1966) observed the behaviour of doctors and nurses in a natural experiment and found that 95% of nurses in a hospital obeyed a doctor (confederate) over the phone to increase the dosage of a patient's medicine to double what is advised.
• Weaknesses: Ethical issues-There was deception and so informed consent could not be obtained. There was psychological harm inflicted upon the participants.
• Weaknesses: Lack of internal validity-The experiment may have been about trust rather than about obedience because the experiment was held at Stanford University.
• Weaknesses: Lack of ecological validity-The tasks given to participants are not like those we would encounter in real life.
• An example of a study into minority influence is by Moscovici.
• Moscovici's study procedure


  1. Participants were in a group where there were two confederates (the minority) and four participants (the majority)

  2. Everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each with a different shade of blue

  3. They were each asked to say whether the slide was blue or green

  4. Confederates deliberately said they were green on two-thirds of the trials, thus producing a consistent minority view

  5. The number of times that the real participants reported that the slide was green was observed
• Consistency

  • Moscovici's study clearly demonstrates the role of consistency in minority influence. The majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is consistent in their views.