Social Influence

• Conformity

  where a person yields to group pressures and changes their behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from others
• Types of conformity (Kelman)

  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• Internalisation

  Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (permanent, the strongest type of conformity, often occurs as a result of informational social influence), private and public change, persists in the absence of group members
• Identification

  Temporary/short term change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of a group, public change, not all opinions will change privately (middle level of conformity)
• Compliance

  Following other people's ideas/going along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval, publicly agree but privately disagree, stops when group pressure is removed (temporary, lowest/weakest level of conformity, often occurs as a result in normative social influence)
• Informational social influence

  When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others to have the right answer in a situation because they have more information, by copying or obeying them; cognitive process, permanent change to behaviour, new to an environment
• 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, emotional process, going along with social norms, temporary
• Asch's study investigated conformity and majority influence
• Asch's study

  • Participants were 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6, consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates
  • Participants were presented with 4 lines and asked to state which of 3 comparison lines was the same length as a stimulus line
  • Confederates gave 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
• variations in Asch's study: Group size


  An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group. There was low conformity when confederates were less than 3 - any more than 3 and the conformity rose by 30%. Conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four so this is considered the optimal group size. This shows that the majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence, but an overwhelming majority is not needed in all instances to bring about conformity.
• variations in Asch's study: Unanimity of majority

  An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous, as opposed to them all giving different answers. When joined by another participant or confederate who gave the correct answer, conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%. If different answers are given, it falls from 32% to 9%. The more unanimous the group is, the more confidence the participant will have that they are all correct, and therefore the participant’s answer is more likely to be incorrect.
• variations in Ash's study: Task difficulty

  An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult. Asch altered the comparison lines making them more similar in length so it was harder to judge the correct answer; conformity increased. When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity. This suggests that ISI is a major mechanism for conformity when the situation is ambiguous.
• Zimbardo's study investigated how readily people would conform to social roles in a simulated environment
• Zimbardo's study


  • 24 American male undergraduate students were randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners in a simulated prison made in the basement of Stanford University
  • Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses while prisoners were issued a uniform and number that they had to be referred to by
  • Prisoners were only allowed in the hallway which acted as their yard, and to the toilet. The guards were allowed to control such behaviour, in order to emphasise their complete power over the prisoners
  • Students volunteered whilst getting paid to take part in the study
• Agentic state


  When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is, in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate (legally based or law abiding), which affects how likely people are to obey them
• LoA- In Milgram's study, the experimenter was seen as a legitimate authority figure due to being a scientist, which increased obedience
• situational factors

  the appearance of the authority figure, the location/ surroundings and proximity
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is, in terms of being morally good/right, and legally based or law abiding
• Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
• Expert authority


  When the authority figure is seen as legitimate because they are knowledgeable and responsible, like a scientist
• The study suffered from demand characteristics and lacked ecological validity
• The sample only consisted of American male students, so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures
• There was a lack of fully informed consent due to the deception required
• Participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment
• This study would be deemed unacceptable according to modern ethical standards
• Procedure


  1. Participant given role of 'teacher', confederate given role of 'learner'

  2. Participant had to ask confederate a series of questions

  3. Whenever confederate got answer wrong, participant had to give electric shock

  4. Shocks incremented by 15 volts, up to 450V where 330V was marked as 'lethal'

  5. Participants thought shocks were real, when in fact there were no real shocks administered
• Proximity


  • Participants obeyed more when experimenter was in the same room (62.5%) vs separate room (40%) vs touch proximity (30%)
• Location


  • Participants obeyed more when study was conducted at prestigious university vs rundown office
• Uniform


  • Participants obeyed more when experimenter wore lab coat vs normal clothes
• Authoritarian personality


  Belief that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs
• Fixed cognitive style


  Tendency to adopt absolutist/'black and white' thinking, preventing any grey areas emerging from uncertainty
• Reaction formation


  When a child with overly harsh and disciplinarian parents displaces their anger with their parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• The F-scale used to measure authoritarian personality is susceptible to acquiescence bias
• 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
• On a surface level, the child would idolise their parents, but on an unconscious level, they would fear and despise them, and so arises the need to displace such anger
• The child would be more likely to target their displaced anger on those who seem weak and unable to defend themselves, such as minority groups
• Reaction formation


  The process where the child displaces their anger onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• Reaction formation is often seen in current politics