Social Influence

• Explanations for conformity

  Normative and informational social influence
• Normative social influence

  Conforming in order to fit in and gain approval from a group
• informational social influence


  Conforming because you are uncertain about what to do in a situation
• Types of conformity

  Compliance, internalisation, identification
• Compliance


  Agreeing in public with a group's views or behaviour but privately disagreeing
• Identification


  Taking on the views of a group you admire or want to join
• Internalisation

  Behaving like a group of people because you've actually accepted their viewpoint
• Conformity

  A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure
• Asch's variables affecting conformity

  Group size, task difficulty, unanimity
• Group size

  A majority of 3 was enough to create conformity, so as numbers increased conformity increased - conformity levels plateaued after 3
• Task difficulty


  as task difficulty increases conformity increases
• Unanimity


  Having an ally who disagrees with the majority decreased conformity levels
• Agentic state


  Acting as an agent for an authority figure
• Agentic shift

  Shift from autonomy to agency
• Legitimacy of authority

  we are more likely to obey a person with a higher position or status in a social hierarchy
• Social role


  The behaviours expected of someone in a certain position in a group
• Situational hypothesis

  Behaviour is due to our environment and roles
• Dispositional hypothesis


  Behaviour is due to our personality
• Authoritarian personality


  Having extreme respect for authority, likely to look down on people of lower status in society, black and white thinking
• Minority influence


  When a minority changes the views of a majority
• Mil gram aim

  To investigate obedience to an authority figure
• Milgram Participants

  Naive ppt - teacher

  Confederate - learner

  Experimenter
• Milgram Procedure

  40 men answered a newspaper advert volunteering to take part in the experiment

  
  

  The learner had to remember word pairs that the teacher read to them and if they got them wrong, they received a shock, starting at 45 volts and increasing in 15 volt increments up to 450

  
  

  Prods were used to encourage ppts continue if the asked advice or wanted to leave such as 'please continue
• Mil gram Results

  There were signs of tension in ppts, and one had a seizure

  
  

  All ppts went up to 300V

  
  

  After 300V, 14 ppts disobeyed the experimenter

  
  

  26 ppts obeyed all the way up to 450V
• Milgram 2 positive evaluations

  - high internal validity —> all ppts believed the situation to be true

  
  

  - ethical - all ppts were thoroughly debriefed
• Milgram 2 negative evaluations

  - uninformed consent - ppts were told they were in a study of memory, not obedience

  
  

  - low ecological validity - the task didn't reflect obedience in real life
• Milgram's situational variables


  Proximity, uniform, location
• Proximity

  If the naive ppt could see the learner, they were less obedient as they were more aware of the harm they were causing
• Uniform

  Obedience levels rose when the experimenter was wearing a grey lab coat
• Location

  The experiment was at Yale university, which is very prestigious and has more legitimate authority - obedience levels increased
• Where does Adorno believe the authoritarian personality comes from?

  Overly strict parenting, conditional love, very harsh punishments if you don't live up to their standards
• F-scale questionnaire


  Proposed by Adorno to measure an individuals degree of authoritarian personality
• Is Adorno's theory a dispositional or situational explanation for obedience?

  Dispositional
• Why are people with an authoritarian personality hostile towards other ethnic groups?

  Their hostility towards their parents is displaced onto minority groups
• Moscovici Aim

  To examine the effect of a consistent minority on the majority
• Moscovici Participants

  4 naive ppts and 2 confederates
• Moscovici Procedure

  Groups of naive ppts and confederates were asked to estimate the colour of 36 slides

  
  

  All slides were blue but filters were added

  
  

  The 2 confederates said the slides were green on all trials in the hearing of the naive ppts

  
  

  In another condition, the minority varied the consistency of their answers
• Moscovici Results

  On 8% of the trials, the naive ppts agreed that the slides were green

  
  

  32% said the slide were green at least once in the consistent condition

  
  

  In the inconsistent condition, only 1.25% gave green responses
• Moscovici Conclusion

  A minority can change the views of a majority even when absent as long as they are consistent
• Who's experiment was Moscovici's a re-run of?

  Asch's lines study