Social Influence

• Conformity

  • Compliance - Shallow, temporary behaviour change to fit in
  • Identification - Intermediate, behaviour and private values change when with the group
  • Internalization - Deep, permanent change in personal opinions to match the group
• Normative social influence (NSI)

  Driven by the desire to be liked and avoid rejection, a superficial and temporary change in behaviour
• Informational social influence (ISI)

  Driven by a desire to be correct, a permanent change in behaviour and personal opinions
• Ash's 1951 study

  1. Groups of 8-10 male college students

  2. Asked to complete a line judgment task

  3. Confederates intentionally answered incorrectly

  4. Observed if real participant would conform
• The overall conformity rate in the critical trials was 32%, with 75% conforming at least once and 5% conforming all 12 times
• Ash varied the number of Confederates

  1. 3% conformity with 1 Confederate

  2. 33% with 3 Confederates

  3. No large increase with more
• A small unanimous group has strong social pressure
• Ash had 1 Confederate give the correct response, breaking the group's unanimity

  Conformity rate dropped to 5.5%
• Ash made the task more ambiguous

  Increased conformity, arguably due to ISI
• Ash's original study supports NSI, as 75% conformed at least once despite the correct answer being unambiguous
• When participants could privately write down responses, the conformity rate dropped to 12.5%
• Increased ambiguity and uncertainty led to more reliance on the judgments of others, supporting the ISI explanation
• It can be difficult to separate the influence of NSI and ISI when participants self-report their reasons for conforming
• Ash's study has high internal validity but lacks temporal validity, as high conformity rates may have been due to cultural conditions in Cold War America
• A meta-analysis found higher rates of conformity in collectivist cultures that prioritize consensus over individualistic societies
• Ash's task lacks mundane realism, as matching line lengths is a simple, highly controlled task unlike real-life social interactions
• Conformity and social roles

  The Stanford Prison Experiment created a fake prison environment where participants quickly adapted their behaviour to their assigned roles
• The experiment was cancelled early due to fears for the prisoners' mental health, as the guards exhibited extremely abusive behaviour
• The initial setup was well-controlled, with participants carefully selected and roles randomly allocated
• A replication challenged Zimbardo's conclusions, showing participants do not inevitably conform to their assigned roles
• Zimbardo's dual role as investigator and superintendent may have led to experimenter bias, with his presence influencing participant behaviour
• Zimbardo's decision to continue the experiment despite the prisoners' emotional breakdown demonstrates the need for ethical controls
• Obedience

  The belief that one is not responsible for their actions as they are acting as an agent of an authority figure, allowing them to commit acts they morally oppose
• Agentic state

  The movement from an autonomous state feeling personally responsible to an agentic state where the individual believes they don't have responsibility for their behaviour
• Legitimacy of authority

  Individuals learn to obey people above them in the social hierarchy, communicated through visible symbols like uniforms and settings like police stations
• Milgram's 1963 study

  1. 40 male volunteers given the role of 'teacher'

  2. Told to deliver electric shocks to a 'learner' when they answered incorrectly

  3. 100% obeyed to 300 volts, 65% to the full 450 volts
• Milgram's research supports the agentic state and legitimacy of authority, as manipulating these variables influenced obedience
• Milgram's study is criticized for methodological flaws, such as the task lacking mundane realism and the Yale University setting lacking ecological validity
• 35% resisted the authority figure, suggesting situational factors and dispositional explanations like authoritarian personality also play a role
• Milgram's findings have been replicated reliably across 8 countries, with a non-US obedience rate of 65.9%
• Milgram's study is also criticized ethically for causing distress and using deception
• Hofling's 1966 study

  21 out of 22 real nurses obeyed a phone call order to give double the maximum dose of an unfamiliar drug
• This field study had high ecological validity and mundane realism, with a familiar task in a real hospital setting
• Sheridan and King's 1972 study

  Participants gave real shocks to a puppy when ordered, with 54% of males and 100% of females giving the highest shock level
• This showed obedience without demand characteristics, as people are highly obedient even when seeing the suffering caused
• Bickman's 1974 study

  Passersby were asked to pay for a parking meter, with an 89% obedience rate when the researcher was dressed as a guard, compared to 33% with no uniform
• This suggests uniforms provide a visible symbol of legitimate authority
• Milgram study and variations are criticized ethically for causing distress, deception, methodologically for lacking ecological validity, mundane realism, and for demand characteristics (participants guessing the shocks are not real and playing along)
• 21 out of 22 real nurses obeyed Dr Smith's phone call order to give double the maximum dose of an unfamiliar drug in a field study in a real Hospital, showing high ecological validity with a familiar task and high mundane realism
• 54% of males and 100% of females gave the puppy the highest shock level in the Sheridan & King (1972) study, showing without demand characteristics, people are highly obedient