Social Influence

• Internalisation: Individuals being persuaded to believe it as correct - they both publicly and privately agree
• Identification: individuals adopting the behaviour of the group, even if they don't agree - only while part of the group
• Compliance: Individuals publicly going along with the majority view but privately disagreeing with it
• Deutsch & Gerard believe people conform for 1 of 2 reasons: Informational Social Influence or Normative Social Influence
• Informational Social Influence (ISI): conform to be correct - done for cognitive reasons
• Normative Social Influence (NSI): conform to be liked - emotional reasons
• Asch (1951) - procedure: 50 American men; ppts told it was a task of visual perception; placed in groups of 7-9 around a table with the real ppt being 2nd to last; group had to choose which line matched the standard line; confederates said the wrong answer on 12/18 studies
• Asch (1951) - results: 5% conformed on every critical trial; 25% remained completely independent; 75% conformed at some point
• Asch (1951) - conclusions: conformity increased as difficulty increased; if all confederates were unanimous, ppt more likely to conform; group size of 3 led to conformity, more confederates makes little difference
• Zimbardo (1973) - Procedure: Basement of Stanford university converted into a mock prison; 24 men most physically and mentally healthy selected; ppts paid $15 a day; ppts randomly assigned to guard or prisoner; prisoners dehumanised and treated like criminals; guards deindividualized with uniforms; guards instructed to do what they thought necessary but no violence
• Zimbardo (1973) - Results: People conformed; guards quickly harassed the prisoners; on the 2nd day, prisoners rebelled; supposed to last 2 weeks, ended on the 6th day
• Zimbardo (1973) - Conclusion: main factor for conformity was the prison environment; guards' deindividuation diffused responsibility to Zimbardo; learned helplessness witnessed
• Agentic state: People obey because when given a command by an authority figure they shift into a different state where they no longer feel responsible for their actions (diffusion of responsibility) - they surrender their conscience
• Legitimacy of authority: if we perceive the authority figure to have the power to tell us what to do then we are more likely to obey - based on the social hierarchy
• Factors to recognise authority: looks, behaviour, symbols (uniform/ID)
• Authoritarian Personality: people may be more likely to obey due to their personality; usually caused by harsh and rigid parenting that leads to either hate or fear of parents and instills more respect for order and the social hierarchy in the individual
• Milgram (1965) - Procedure: 40 American men (20-50 years old) volunteered; participants believed study was on the effect of punishment on learning; assignment was rigged so confederate was always the student; participant samples 45V shock; in adjoining rooms, ppt asks questions; if confederate gets answer wrong, they're "shocked"; shocks increased in 15V intervals from 15V- 450V
• Milgram (1965) - Participants given prods if they wanted to stop:

  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 (1965) - Results: 65% went to 450V; 100% reached 300V (12.5% dropped out here); everyone visibly distressed; 3 had seizures
• Milgram (1965) - Variations:

  Uniform: authority figure=ordinary person - obedience dropped to 20%

  Location: run down office - obedience dropped to 47.5%

  Touch proximity: teacher forces learner onto shock plate - obedience dropped to 30%
• Minority Influence: the concept that an individual/ small group of people can influence wider society - takes longer than majority influence
• Consistency: Synchronic - all members of the group agree eg. vegans
• Consistency: Diachronic - remaining the same over a long period of time eg. women's rights movement
• Commitment: the minority suffer social pressure and abuse from the majority but persist eg. the suffragettes
• Augmentation Principle: A small group of the minority will always look for extreme action eg. Emily Davison
• Flexibility: of message - listen to the majority and compromise where possible eg. Nemeth
• Flexibility: of cause - who they let in on the cause
• Nemeth (1986): Based on a mock jury; groups of 3 ppts and 1 confederate; ppts had to decide on the amount of compensation for a victim of a ski lift accident; found when minority argued for a low amount and refused to change, it had no effect on the majority but when the minority compromised, the majority also compromised
• Social change: how a society develops over time to replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations
• Resistance to Social Influence: The ability to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority
• Social Support: From another non-conformist - more confident to resist social influence eg. Non-Jewish families hiding Jewish families from nazis
• Social Support: from another disobedient person - more confident to disobey when not alone eg. Milgram
• Locus of Control: High internal LOC - believe they have control over their situation and ability to say no to authority/ conformity, making them more resistant to social influence; High external LOC - believe control is down to luck or fate and is out of their control