Psych 585: Psychology of Persuasion Social Influence

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Psych 585 Psychology of PersuasionSocial
Influence

• Professor Icek Aizen
• Office Tobin 625
• Email aizen_at_psych.umass.edu
• Tel [phone]

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Influence ProcessesPrivate Acceptance vs.
Public Compliance
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Depth of Processing
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Motivation Ability to Process and Depth of
Processing
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Automaticity in Behavior (Bargh, 1996)

• For behavior to be considered automatic, one or
  more of the following must be true.
  
• Unintentional No act of will is required to
  initiate the behavior.
  
• Outside awareness The person is not aware of
  performing the behavior.
  
• Uncontrollable The person cannot stop the
  behavior once it has started.
  
• Efficient Performing the behavior does not
  interfere with other (conscious) processes.

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Subliminal Priming of Cognitive Schemas
Scrambled Sentence Task(Bargh, Chen, Burrows,
1996)

• The elderly vs. neutral
• -- played they bingo left regularly
• -- played they music left regularly
• Rude vs. polite vs. neutral
• -- they her bother see usually
• -- they her respect see usually
• -- they her send see usually

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Automatic Priming of Walking Speed(Bargh, Chen,
Burrows, 1996)
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Automatic Priming of Rude Behavior(Bargh, Chen,
Burrows, 1996)
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Automatic Goal Pursuit(Bargh, Gollwitzer, et
al., 2001)
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Automatic Goal Activation Effect on Behavior
(Fishbach, Friedman, Kruglanski, 2003)
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Mindlessness Using Copying Machine (Langer,
Blank, Chanowitz, 1978)
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Reciprocity Buying Raffle Tickets (Regan, 1971)
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Reciprocal Concession (Cialdini et al., 1975)
Large Request Volunteer to work as counselor
for juvenile delinquents at the County Juvenile
Detention Center. Commitment required 2 hours
per week for at least 2 years.
Small Request Volunteer to chaperone a group
of juvenile delinquents from the County Juvenile
Detention Center on a trip to the zoo.
Commitment required 2 hours of one afternoon or
evening.
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Concession Private Acceptance(Miller et al.,
1976)
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Commitment Volunteering for American Cancer
Society (Sherman, 1980)
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Foot-in-the-Door Household Inventory(Freedman
Fraser, 1966)
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Foot-in-the-Door Volunteering for American
Heart Association (Chartrand et al., 1999)
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Liking and Social Influence

• In interpersonal influence, liking (positive
  feeling) for another person can serve as a
  peripheral cue.
  
• Liking can thus trigger automatic compliance
  with a request by a liked stranger.
  
• Question What makes us like (or dislike) a
  stranger?

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Physical Attractiveness and Personality Traits
(Dion, Berscheid, Walster, 1972)
Personality Traits Attributed
To Physically Attractive Persons

Warm Kind Sensitive Interesting
Strong Poised Modest Sociable
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Initial Impressions Effects of Speed on
Confidence (Willis Todorov, 2006)
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Initial Impressions Effects of Speed on
Judgments (Willis Todorov, 2006)
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Initial Impressions Effects of Speed on
Judgments (Willis Todorov, 2006)
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Effect of Similarity on Attraction in
Interpersonal Attraction Paradigm (Byrne, 1961
1974)
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Effect of Similar Dress on Compliance(Emswiller,
Deaux, Willis, 1971)
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Manipulating Similarity to Influence People
(Cialdini, 2001)

• Requesters can manipulate similarity to
  increase liking and compliance by claiming that
  they have backgrounds and interests similar to
  ours. Car salespeople, for example, are trained
  to look for evidence of such things while
  examining a customers trade-in. If there is
  camping gear in the trunk, the salespeople might
  mention, later on, how they love to get away from
  the city whenever they can if there are golf
  balls on the back seat, they might remark that
  they hope the rain will hold off until they can
  play the eighteen holes they scheduled for later
  in the day if they notice that the car was
  purchased out of state, they might ask where a
  customer is from and report with surprise
  that they (or their spouse) were born there, too.

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Conformity The Asch Paradigm
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Conformity With Incorrect Majority(Asch (1951)
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Percent Conformity With Majority(Allen Levine,
1971)
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Effect of Commitment to Own Opinion Asch
Paradigm (Deutsch Gerard, 1955)
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Social Comparison Theory(Festinger, 1954)

• Unlike objective properties, beliefs and
  attitudes are subjective.
  
• We evaluate the validity of our opinions by
  comparing them with others opinions, and we
  judge what is correct behavior by looking at what
  others do.
• This is usually the case in ambiguous situations
  where it is not clear what opinions or behaviors
  are appropriate.
  
• We are guided especially by the opinions and
  behaviors of others who are similar to us, or who
  find themselves in a similar situation.

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Effect of Presence of Others on Helping a
Stranger (Darley Latané, 1968)
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Effect of Ambiguity on Social Influence(Latané
Darley, 1968)
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Group-Induced Polarization 12 Choice Dilemmas
(Wallach, Kogan, Bem, 1962)

• Example
• Mr. E. is president of a metals corporation in
  the U.S. The corporation is quite prosperous and
  Mr. E. has considered the possibility of
  expansion by building an additional plant in a
  new location. His choice is between building
  another plant in the U.S., where there would be a
  moderate return on the initial investment, or
  building a plant in a foreign country, where
  lower labor costs and easy access to raw
  materials would mean a much higher return on the
  initial investment. However, there is a history
  of political instability and revolution in the
  foreign country under consideration. In fact,
  the leader of a small minority party is committed
  to nationalizing, that is, taking over all
  foreign investments.

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Group-Induced Polarization (Wallach, Kogan,
Bem, 1962)

• Imagine that you are advising Mr. E. Listed
  below are several probabilities of continued
  political stability in the foreign country under
  consideration. Please check the lowest
  probability that you could consider acceptable in
  order for Mr. E.s corporation to build in that
  country.
• ___ The chances are 1 in 10 that the foreign
  country will remain politically stable.
  
• ___ The chances are 3 in 10 that the foreign
  country will remain politically stable.
  
• ___ The chances are 5 in 10 that the foreign
  country will remain politically stable.
  
• ___ The chances are 7in 10 that the foreign
  country will remain politically stable.
  
• ___ The chances are 9 in 10 that the foreign
  country will remain politically stable.
  
• ___ Place a check mark here if you think Mr. E.s
  corporation should not build a plant in the
  foreign country, no matter what the
  probabilities.

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Group-Induced Polarization (Wallach, Kogan,
Bem, 1962)

• Individual decisions are followed by discussion
  until the group reaches a unanimous consensus.
  
• Results On 10 of the 12 choice dilemmas, the
  decision reached by the group is more risky than
  the mean pre-discussion judgments. On 2
  dilemmas, shifts in the conservative direction
  are observed.

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Possible Explanations of Group-Induced Shifts in
Decisions

• Riskier people are more persuasive.
• Under most circumstances, cultural values favor
  risk taking.
  
• Persuasive argumentation.

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Pressure Toward Unanimity Self-Censorship
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Group Think(Janis, 1971 1982)

• Groups can adopt policies with disastrous
  consequences because of the dynamics of group
  decision making.
  
• Examples
• 1950 invasion of North Korea (Truman)
• 1961 invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs
  (Kennedy)
  
• 1964-65 escalation of the Vietnam War (Kennedy,
  Johnson)
  
• 2003 invasion of Iraq (Bush)

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Legitimate Authority Figures

• Officers in the military
• Police
• Physicians, nurses
• Scientists
• Politicians (President, Senators, etc.)
• Supervisors at work

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Authority and Obedience(Milgram, 1963)