Social Influence redo

• Expert authority


  When the authority figure is seen as legitimate because they are a knowledgeable and responsible expert, like a scientist
• Fixed cognitive style

  Tendency to adopt absolutist/'black and white' thinking and not challenge stereotypes
• Adorno's psychodynamic theory


  A person's personality traits and attitudes as an adult stemmed from childhood influences such as that of one's parents
• Scapegoating


  Child with overly harsh and disciplinarian parents displaces their anger with their parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• The Authoritarian Personality may not be able to explain all cases of obedience across the whole political spectrum, according to Christie and Jahoda
• Atgis (1998) conducted a meta-analysis of studies considering locus of control and likeliness to conform, finding that those who scored highest on the eternal locus of control were more easily persuaded and more likely to conform
• Consistency


  The majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is consistent in their views
• Diachronic consistency


  When the group remains consistent over time – they do not change their views over time
• Synchronic consistency


  When the group is consistent between all the members of the group – everyone in the group has the same views, and therefore agree with and support each other
• Commitment


  The majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is committed, because when the minority have so much passion and confidence in their point of view, it suggests to the majority that their view must somehow be valid, and it encourages them to explore why
• Flexibility


  The majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is flexible. Being too consistent can suggest that the minority is inflexible, uncompromising and irrational, making their argument less appealing to the majority. However, if they appear flexible, compromising and rational, they are less likely to be seen as extremists and attention seekers
• Martin et al (2003) demonstrated that there is a greater degree of internalisation of a minority view, compared to a majority view
• When the minority begins to be successful in their attempts to influence the majority, it triggers a snowball effect as the new idea spreads and builds up over time in the majority, to eventually be adopted as the majority opinion
• Social change, as argued by Nemeth (1986) is a slow process and produced fragile effects, as the majority are not exposed to the main issue at hand and so this main issue is not resolved
• Mackie suggests that the role of minority influence is very limited because we are more likely to change our own views if the majority view is different to our own
• Types of conformity


  Compliance

  Identification

  Internalisation
• Types of social influence

  Informational social influence (ISI)

  Normative social influence (NSI)
• Compliance


  Lowest form of conformity

  Often result of NSI

  Results in external change in behaviour
• Identification


  Results in temporary external and private change of behaviour and beliefs
• Internalisation


  Strongest form of conformity

  Often result of ISI

  Results in permanent external and private change in beliefs and behaviour
• Normative social influence


  When people conform to fit in a group and be liked
• Informational social influence


  When people conform in order to be right
• Deutsch and Gerrard: Two Process Model


  Claimed ISI and NSI were not completely exclusive
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - Baseline test


  123 American men

  Placed into groups of of confederates

  Line judgement task
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - baseline results


  People conformed 36.8% of the time

  75% conformed at least once

  25% never conformed
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - Variables


  Group size

  Unanimity

  Task Difficulty
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - Group size


  Conformity increased with group size up to a point, where it then levelled out
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - Unanimity


  Conformity decreased with presence of dissenter
• Asch: Factors affecting conformity - Task Difficulty


  As task got more difficult, conformity increased

  An example of informative social influence
• Dissenter


  Someone who disagrees with majority
• Asch: Limitations


  Low mundane realism

  Artificial stimuli

  Potential demand characteristics

  Low population validity
• Asch: Strengths


  Controlled observation

  Research support - Lucas - gave participants 'hard' and 'easy' maths questions, participants conformed more on the harder questions, showing informational social influence
• Zimbardo: Conformity to social roles - Procedure 


  24 American students

  Randomly assigned 'Guard' or 'Prisoner'

  Placed in 'Prison' built in Stanford University basement
• Zimbardo: Conformity to social roles - Results

  Guards showed physical, emotional and psychological abuse towards prisoners

  Prisoners became institutionalised and broke down

  Experiment ended after 6 days instead of 14
• Zimbardo: limitations


  Participant observation

  Unethical

  • No informed consent
  • No right to withdraw
• Zimbardo: strengths


  Practical applications - improving prison standards

  • Abu Ghraib prison case study
• Milgram: Factors affecting obedience - Baseline test

  40 American men

  All assigned 'Teacher' role with confederate being 'Learner'

  Teacher asked to shock learner if question was answered wrong

  Shocks increased in increments of 15V up to 450V
• Milgram: Factors affecting obedience - Prods

  1. Please continue

  2. The experiment requires you to continue

  3. It is absolutely essential that you continue

  4. You have no other choice but to continue
• Milgram: Factors affecting obedience - Baseline results

  65% went all the way to 450V

  100% went all the way to 300V

  All participants showed signs of distress
• Milgram: Factors affecting obedience - Variables

  Location

  Proximity

  Uniform