social psychology alive, breckler/olson/wiggins chapter 8 chapter eight conformity, compliance, and...
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Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Chapter EightConformity, Compliance, and Obedience
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Conformity, Compliance, Obedience
• Conformity
– any change in behavior caused by another person or group
• Compliance
– a change in behavior requested by another person or group
• Obedience
– a change in behavior that is ordered by another person or group
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Why Conformity?
• People conform when faced with a new or unusual situation
• By using the behavior of others as a guide we can (presumably) also behave in an appropriate way
• Informational influence leads us to conform
– we want to be right
• Normative influence leads us to conform
– we want to be liked
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Why Compliance?
• People make direct requests of us all the time
– salespeople, peers, friends, family
• Honoring those (reasonable) requests helps maintain the social fabric
– helping others and anticipating their help in the future makes for good social bonds
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Why Obedience?
• Many people have power over us
– law enforcement, parents, military
• Following the direct orders of a (legitimate) authority is usually not a matter of debate
– when the officer asks to see your driver’s license, it’s usually prudent to obey
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Conformity: Doing as Others Do
• Sherif’s autokinetic effect studies
– a stationary point of light in a dark room appears to move of its on accord
– social norms can lead us to converge with others in estimates of the amount of movement
• In this ambiguous situation, informational influence drove conformity
• Norms can persist over generations
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Asch’s Length Judgment Studies
• Asch asked people to judge the length of a line in the presence of others
– judgments conformed to the estimates of the group
• In this unambiguous situation, normative influence drove conformity
• Crutchfield replicated and extended these original findings
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Limits to Conformity
• Ambiguity affects the amount of conformity
• Task difficulty affects the amount of conformity
• Individual differences affect conformity: not everyone conforms in a given situation
• Group size affects conformity
• Conformity can disappear
– private versus public judgments
– lack of unanimity
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Cultural Differences in Conformity
• Individualism and collectivism
– members of individualistic cultures should conform less often
• Independent versus interdependent self-concept
– people with independent self-concepts should conform less often
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Gender Differences in Conformity
• Women conform slightly more often than do men
– the extent and magnitude of gender differences is small, though reliable
– could be due to gender bias
– could be due to topics studied
– could be due to strivings for harmony and interdependence
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Compliance: Foot-in-the-Door
• Foot-in-the-door
– compliance with an initial, small request makes us more likely to comply with a later, larger request
• Due to self-perception
• Due to consistency motivations
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Compliance: Door-in-the-Face
• Door-in-the-face
– refusing an initial, large request makes us more likely to comply with a later, smaller request
• Due to pressure to honor the norm of reciprocity
– we feel urge to repay a favor with a favor
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Compliance: Free gift technique
• Free gifts
– giving someone a free gift also activates the norm of reciprocity
– we comply to repay this nice “favor”
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Compliance: Low-Ball
• Low-Ball
– we agree to an initial, attractive deal
– something happens to alter the bargain
• bad elements are introduced, or good elements are removed
– we still go along with the modified, worse deal
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Compliance: Scarcity and Liking
• What is scarce is valuable
– limited-time offers, limited availability make an offer seem more attractive than it might otherwise
• Like-me-then-help-me
– we are more likely to be influenced by attractive, nice, similar, trustworthy others
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Concept Review
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Obedience: Following Commands
• Milgram’s obedience studies illustrate the capacity to obey the orders of a perceived authority
– “teachers” administer electric shocks to “learners,” even to the point of incapacitation or “death”
– this, despite most people’s predictions that few if any people would do so
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Milgram Variations
• Closer proximity between teacher and learner reduced extent of obedience
• Watching the proceedings, rather than participating, leads to passive acceptance of the activities
• Experimenter disagreement reduces the extent of obedience
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
The Legacy of the Milgram Experiments
• Ethicality of experiments led to an examination of experimentation in the field of social psychology
• Practical applications were considered
– military, governmental examples of mindless obedience received a closer look
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Mechanisms Underlying Social Influence
• Informational and normative influence
– people want to be right
– people want to be liked
• Terror management
– we don’t like contemplating our own mortality
– mortality salience affects our behavior in self-affirming ways
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Concept Review
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8
Social Impact Theory
• Strength
– the intensity of social forces
• Immediacy
– the closeness of social forces
• Number
– the quantity of social forces
Social Psychology Alive, Breckler/Olson/WigginsChapter 8