Chapter 7

Social Influence

Social Influence Conformity

Changing one’s beliefs or behavior to be consistent with group standards

Compliance Doing what we are asked to do even if we

prefer not to Obedience to Authority

Complying with a person or group perceived to be a legitimate authority

Conformity

Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Study Participants estimated the apparent

(but illusory) movement of a light. When alone, estimates varied from one

inch to 800 feet. When put in groups of 2 or 3,

participants’ estimates converged. The effect of group influence persisted

when individuals were alone again.

Conformity

1 2 3

Subjects’ task was to pick the line on the left that best matched the target line on the right in length.

Alone, people virtually never erred. But when four or five others before them gave the wrong answer, people erred about 35% of the time.

Asch Line Judgment Study

Conformity

To understand conformity, one must understand the cultural context. Individualistic cultures emphasize

freedom and independence, so “conforming” means loss of control.

Collectivist cultures emphasize ties to the social group, so “conforming” means maturity and inner strength.

Conformity

Why do people conform? Informational Influence

The Desire to Be Right Normative Influence

The Desire to Be Liked

Conformity

Others’ behavior often provides useful information. Trust in the group affects conformity. Task difficulty affects conformity. Conformity due to informational

influence affects both public behavior and private beliefs.

Conformity The desire to be accepted and to

avoid rejection from others leads us to conform.

Conformity due to normative influence generally changes public behavior but not private beliefs. However, through dissonance

reduction, a behavioral change can lead to a change in beliefs.

Confomity

Group Size

Group Unanimity

The larger the group, the more conformity—to a point.

Even one dissenter dramatically drops conformity.

When do people conform?

Conformity

Commitment to the Group

The Desire for Individuation

Commitment fosters increased conformity.

Desire for individuation decreases conformity

When do people conform?

Conformity

Minority Influence Dissent from a minority can reduce

conformity from the majority

Conformity

To be effective, a minority must be Consistent in its position Flexible in style of presentation Forceful Otherwise similar to majority Not appear to be driven by self-

interest

Conformity Moscovici study:

Members of 6-person groups rate color of slides; all slides are blue w/variation

Experimental group has two confederates call some slides green; control group has no confederates

In experimental groups, about a third of participants report at least one slide as green.

Conformity

The “dual processing hypothesis” suggests that minority influence leads to systematic processing of information while majority influence is less thoughtful. Under this view, minorities’ influence

is disproportional to their size. View is not universally accepted.

Compliance

“Mindless conformity” Langer: A “placebo reason” (“Can I

use the copier now because I have to make copies?”) increases compliance over no reason, and almost as much as a real reason (“because I’m in a rush”).

Compliance

Rewards Coercion Expertise Information Referent Power Legitimate Authority

Power of Helplessness

Providing + outcome

Providing – outcome Special knowledge Message content Identifying w/other Influencer’s right to

make request Helpless have power

because of norm of social responsibility

Six Bases of Social Power

Compliance Foot-in-the-Door

Technique

Door-in-the-Face Technique

First make a small request, then a large one.

First make an unreasonably large request, then a smaller one.

Compliance Low-Ball

Technique

That’s-Not-All Technique

Pique Technique

First make a reasonable request; then reveal further costs

First make a large request, then offer a bonus or discount

Make an unusual request to disrupt target’s mindless refusal script

Compliance

Reactance theory (Brehm 1966): people attempt to maintain their personal freedom of action.

Thus, influence attempts that threaten perceived freedom may backfire.

Obedience

Obedience is based on the belief that authorities have the right to make requests.

Obedience

People are more likely to obey If they receive benefits from

belonging to the group If people feel fairly treated If people trust authorities’ motives If people identify with the group

Obedience

“Crimes of obedience” can occur when the demands of authorities are immoral or illegal The “Eichmann defense” refers to

Adolph Eichmann’s claim that he was “just following orders” when he supervised the murder of 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany

Obedience The Milgram Experiments

Men from the New Haven community were assigned to serve as the “Teacher” and administer shocks to the “Learner” (a confederate).

Shock levels ranged from 15 to 450 mv Milgram was interested in the point at which

people would disobey the experimenter in the face of the learner’s protests

Obedience

Shock Level (mv) % obeying

0-240 (slight to very strong)

100

255-300 (intense) 88

315-360 (extreme intensity) 68

375-420 (Danger: severe shock)

65

435-450 (“XXX”) 65

Obedience

Variations increasing obedience Watching a peer

give shocks Two other

teachers continue

Variations decreasing obedience Increasing

closeness of learner

Increasing distance of experimenter

Two other teachers quit

Obedience

The Milgram experiments illustrate the “normality” or “banality” of evil and the power of the social situation

Obedience

People sometimes do resist pressures to obey When victims’ suffering is salient When person feels responsible for their

actions When others model disobedience When people are encouraged to question

authority