Social Influence PYB2, Section A, Question2

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Social Influence(PYB2, Section A, Question2)
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• Lets begin by looking at some key definitions-
• Social psychology is an attempt to understand
  explain how the thoughts, feelings behaviours
  of individuals are influenced by the actual,
  imagined or implied presence of others (Allport,
  1985)

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• Social influence refers to the way a persons
  thoughts or behaviours are changed as a result of
  either active or passive influence from other
  people.
• According to Baron Byrne (2000), Social
  Influence is
• efforts by one or more individuals to change
  the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions or behaviours
  of one or more others

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• A Social norm is a way of thinking or behaving
  that is considered appropriate and proper within
  a particular society, and that most members of
  that society adhere to.
• Social norms, therefore differ from one society
  to another.
• Group norms / cultural norms are norms that vary
  from group to group / culture to culture.

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• Some examples are-

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See the handout

• CONFORMITY
• CONFORMITY IS .......
•      yielding to group pressures, Crutchfield
  (1962)
•      a change in a persons behaviour or
  opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure
  from a person or group of people, Aronson (1976)

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•      Baron Byrne(2000) . . .
• Use your textbooks to find this definition in the
  chapter on Social Influence.
• The Group - three or more people of roughly equal
  status, may be friends (or other stable group) or
  complete strangers.
• Conformity - you CHOOSE to do something , no-one
  in the group makes you do it.

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• Types of CONFORMITY (Kelman,1985)
• COMPLIANCE
• Supporting the group by appearing to agree
  (going along with other people), but not in fact
  changing your views or opinions.
• 2. IDENTIFICATION
• Establishing a link between an individual and
  another person (or group of people) who is
  important to the individual. The individual
  absorbs characteristics of the person (or group)
  into their own behaviour, although this may be
  short lived.

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• 3. INTERNALISATION
• The individual agrees with the group both
  publicly and privately, making the groups
  beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour their own.

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• Empirical Studies of Conformity
• Jenness (1932) Beans in a jar study
• Aim to show that group norms are formed and
  that they influence individual behaviour.
• Method Jar of beans, individual estimates,
  group estimate and then individual estimate
  again.
• Results Individuals made shift towards the
  group estimate on their second estimate.

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• Conclusion Individuals are influenced by the
  group norm.
• Evaluation
• First empirical study of conformity.
• Very simple study

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• Muzafer Sherif (1935)
• He used a visual illusion called the AUTOKINETIC
  EFFECT.
• A visual illusion in which a stationary spot
  of light appears to move when shown in a
  completely dark room.
• Aim To demonstrate the development of a group
  norm and its influence on individual behaviour.

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• Method
• He told participants that he was going to move
  the spot of light and asked them to estimate how
  far he had moved it. Participants were tested
  individually, Participants were then tested in
  small groups and tested again individually
• Findings
• a) Participants tested individually - estimates
  varied between participants to a large degree.

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• b) Participants tested in small groups (usually
  three) - the estimates of each group member
  gradually got closer and closer until a group
  norm was established.(note there was no
  discussion among group members about the
  estimate).
• c) When tested again individually the
  participants estimates remained close to the
  group norm rather than their original estimates.
  (But would claim not to have been influenced by
  the group). INTERNALISATION

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• What does this study tell us?
• According to Brown (19 85) , in western cultures
  at least, to be in agreement with others
  satisfies an important psychological need,
  especially in situations where people are
  uncertain or the situation is ambiguous.
• Through a social comparison process a common
  social reality is established and validated. (But
  people are relatively unaware of being influenced
  by others).

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• Solomon Asch (1951)
• Aim
• He wanted to look at situations that did not
  involve any ambiguity or uncertainty.
• He wanted to see how likely people were to go
  against the group norm (i.e. not to conform) when
  there was no uncertainty.

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• Method
• In a series of experiments, Asch gave
  participants the simple visual task of matching
  one line (drawn on card and called the standard
  line or test line) with another line ( one of
  three comparison lines drawn on another card A,
  B or C).
• Participants had to say which line matched the
  standard line - A, B or C.
• Participants were tested in groups of 7 to 9,
  one participant was placed in one group the rest
  of the participants being confederates.

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• The participant was in the last or next to the
  last position to give his answer.
• Six of the trials were neutral trials and twelve
  were critical trials
• NOTE. Asch checked the task for ambiguity-
• There were 36 control participants (tested
  alone) who made only 3 mistakes out of a total of
  720 trials, this showed that the task was simple
  and the answer was obvious.

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• A confederate is someone who appears to be a
  genuine participant but who is actually part of
  the experiment.
• In this study the confederate were instructed to
  give the same incorrect answer on a certain
  number of the trials (know as the critical
  trials) and the correct answer on the other
  trials (Neutral trials)
• The participants were told that the study was an
  experiment on visual perception and that the
  confederates were other participants like
  themselves.

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• Findings
• The average rate of conformity was approx.32
• approx. 25 of subjects showed no conformity at
  all.
• approx. 75 conformed on at least one trial
• approx. 5 conformed on all of the critical
  trials.
• Conclusion
• People will conform to a majority view even when
  it is obvious that the majority is incorrect.

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• When debriefed interviewed, the participants
  were aware of being influenced by the group
  opinion (knowing that the answer they had given
  was not what they privately believed to be the
  right answer ) and gave more specific reasons for
  conforming, eg. not wanting to upset the
  experimenter, not wanting to be different, or
  inferior.
• What type of conformity is this?
• COMPLIANCE

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• However some participants actually believed the
  majority decision was actually correct, and that
  perhaps they were suffering from eye strain or
  that they were sitting in a compromising
  position.
• What type of conformity is this?
• INTERNALISATION
• Many participants experienced a good deal of
  stress as a result of the conflicts during the
  trials.

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•  Evaluation of Aschs studies
• Artificiality lacks ecological validity in
  everyday situation could just keep quiet if do
  not agree with the group.
• Individual differences the 32 conformity rate
  covers up the wide range of individual
  differences, 75 conformed at least once, 25 not
  at all.
• Unrepresentative sample. Male, from same small
  town in America, paid to take part, 1950s so may
  not reflect todays society. Therefore can not
  easily generalise findings to the general
  population.

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• Demand characteristics. - Some ps said that they
  did not want to spoil the experiment,
  suggesting that they may have worked out the aim
  of the research and altered their behaviour
  accordingly.
• Time consuming and uneconomical ( see Crutchfield
  below.) One participant tested at a time.

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• Can you think of any ethical issues rising from
  this study ?
• Was there any way round these issues or were they
  necessary for the purpose of the study?
• Assuming that there was no way round these issues
  what do you think the researcher would have done
  at the end of the study?

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• Factors that effect conformity levels as
  investigated by Asch
• Variations on Aschs basic study and the effect
  on conformity.
• Group size can effect the likelihood of an
  individual conforming to the opinions of others.
• Individual 1 other person 0 conformity
• Individual 2 others 14 conformity
• Individual 3 (or more than 3) 32

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• 2. Uncertainty where the situation is more
  ambiguous or difficult and the individual feels
  less certain this increases conformity levels.
• Line lengths similar higher of conformity
• Line lengths more dissimilar lower
• 3. Support of another If one of the
  confederates gave the correct answer when the
  others all gave the wrong answer this lowered
  conformity to 5.
• 4. However, When the supporter went back to
  agreeing with the rest of the group this
  increased conformity rates back to 32

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• 5. Status having high status group members
  (e.g. introduced as Professor so and so )
  increased conformity rates in individuals of a
  lower status and vice versa.
• 6. Privacy when the individual was allowed to
  write down their answer instead of saying it out
  loud conformity rates dropped. See also the
  findings from Crutchfields study below.

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• Richard Crutchfield (1954)
• Aim
• to investigate conformity to the implied
  presence of others.
• Method
• He tested several participants at a time in open
  booths with an array of lights and buttons in
  front of them, he used army personnel and tested
  over 600 participants.
• He presented a variety of tasks for the
  participants to give an answer to.

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• Method continued
• The lights were supposed to indicate the answers
  of the other participants being tested at the
  same time.
• Each participant had to give their answer by
  pressing one of the buttons in front of them.

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• Findings
• In general he found that conformity was low.
• He found that conformity to the wrong answer
  varied with the type of task, but he did find
  similar rates of conformity to Asch to the Asch
  type tasks.
• He also found a wide difference in conformity
  between individual participants, some were very
  conforming and others very independent
  (suggesting that some people are more likely to
  conform than others).

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• Conclusion
• Social pressure (the actual presence of others)
  has an effect on behaviour, increasing the
  likelihood of conformity. Whereas when the
  pressure is implied, we are less likely to
  conform.

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Activity

• Have a go at listing the factors that increase
  and decrease the rate of conformity in the table
  on the handout, based on the work of Asch and
  Crutchfield.

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Other factors that influence conformity-
Copy this slide onto the back of the handout.

• Cultural differences
• Cultural factors (Aschs studies in America
  reflect the culture of conformist America in
  1950s).
• Cross-cultural studies of the Asch study have
  revealed cultural differences e.g.
• 58 conformity in Indian teachers in Fiji, 14
  conformity in Belgian students.
• Collectivist vs. individualistic cultures (China
  vs. UK) emphasise different levels of
  responsibility towards the group.

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Copy this slide onto the back of the handout.

•      Historical Differences Attempts to repeat
  Aschs work have found that levels of conformity
  have declined steadily since Asch carried out his
  studies (Smith Bond,1993).
•      Deindividuation loss of sense of personal
  identity (as in Zimbardo study see later)
  uniforms can produce this effect. Conformity to
  the role portrayed by uniform. e.g. Ku Kluz Klan
  nurses outfits used in Milgram type study
  conformity

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Why do people conform? (Theories of conformity)
Copy these slides.

• Crutchfield (1955) suggests that some people have
  a CONFORMING PERSONALITY.
• If a person has a conforming personality, then
  they should show conformity in a variety of
  situations. McGuire (1968) has found people to
  be inconsistent in conformity across different
  situations.

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• INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE. (Deutsch
  Gerard, 1955)
• When we are in uncertain situations we look to
  others for information about how to react. This
  often leads to internalisation (change in private
  opinion in line with the rest of the group)
  demonstrated in the Sherif study.

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• NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE.
• (Deutsch Gerard, 1955)
• When an individual needs to accepted by the
  other members of the group. For example if you
  are in a potentially embarrassing situation of
  disagreeing with the majority, you are faced with
  the conflict between you own views and those of
  the group compliance is often the result of
  normative influence.

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The difference between Informational Social
Influence and Normative Social Influence

• NORMATIVE
• Need for acceptance of others
• Others have power to reward or punish
• Conflict between own and others opinions
• COMPLIANCE
• Private disagreement but Public agreement

• INFORMATIONAL
• Need for certainty
• Subjective uncertainty
• Need for information to reduce uncertainty
• Comparison with others
• INTERNALISATION
• Private Public acceptance

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• CONFORMING TO SOCIAL ROLES.
• Philip Zimbardos study demonstrates this very
  well.
• Behaving in a way that is expected of you given
  the role/part you are playing at the time. Eg.
  Friend, mother, doctor, teacher and so on.
• See video clip handout.

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• REFERENT SOCIAL INFLUENCE.
• (Turner, 1991)
• People have a tendency to categorise themselves
  as members of different groups (social identity
  theory) and are most likely to conform to the
  norm of those groups that they belong to
  identification.

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• INGRATIATIONAL CONFORMITY.
• Ingratiation is the term for trying to win
  someones favour and getting them to like you by
  trying to please or flatter them.
• Many people conform to the behaviour of others
  to try to please and flatter them, this is done
  to be liked and accepted by the group.

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Quick Test- part 1

• Put your name n the piece of paper you have been
  given.
• You have 5 minutes to answer this 3 mark exam
  question.
• Apart from yielding to group pressure (normative
  conformity), explain one other reason why people
  conform within a group. Illustrate you answer
  with an example.

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Dissent.

• When someone does not conform but instead holds
  and expresses opinions that are different to the
  rest of the group. That is they go against the
  norm.
• The factors that decrease the likelihood of
  conformity, increase the likelihood of dissent.
• E.g. Conformity Dissent
• small group size, support of another, higher
  status of individual than group members.

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Quick Test- part 2

• The second question is a 10 mark exam essay
  question. You have 20 minutes to answer it.
• Discuss two factors that might affect the level
  of conformity. Refer to evidence in your answer.

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• The Importance of conformity
• Why is conformity important for the
  group/society?
• For a group /society to function and run
  smoothly, there has to be a degree of conformity
  by the members of the group. Imagine shopping at
  Christmas in a shop where people did not conform
  to the social norms of queuing!! There would be
  fights over the latest kids toy (there has been
  in the past Tellytubbies).

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• The dangers of conformity
• A society where no one questions the majority
  view point can be equally dangerous.
• The owning of slaves and slave trade was the
  accepted majority view of the 19th century. This
  was only changed as a result of minority group
  pressure.
• The suffragettes are another example of a
  minority group whose influence brought about
  social change.
• Had these people conformed to the majority view,
  these changes would not have happened.

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Minority Group Influence

• Majority influence (conformity) reduces conflict
  between individuals. But . . .
• If all social influence is seen as serving the
  need to adapt to the status quo for the sake of
  stability within a society (or group), where
  would change and new ideas come from?

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• Without active minorities, social change and
  scientific innovations would not come about.
  (e.g. abolition of slave trade, womens votes
  etc).
• So, although conformity is important for the
  stability of the group/society, minority
  influence, in the shape of resisting conformity
  to the group/society is important.

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How do minorities exert an influence?

• Moscovici argued than minority groups can
  influence a groups behaviour and views.
• He said that majority group influence often
  results in compliance, whereas minority group
  influence often results in conversion.
• He suggested that individuals may often comply
  (compliance) with the majority (for safety) but
  privately agree with the minority. As the
  minority opinion becomes more widespread
  individuals feel safer about expressing their
  opinions and going against the majority.

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Processes that are supposed to account for
minority influence are status, power, behavioural
style and style of thinking.

• Status and power
• Individuals occupying positions of high status or
  who are able to exert some sort of power over
  other people may use these resources to make
  his/her (initially) minority view a majority one.

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• Status- One way in which a person can achieve
  status, is by initially conforming to the groups
  norms, thereby building up idiosyncrasy credits
  (Hollander, 1958). As these credits accumulate,
  the person will be allowed a degree of
  non-conformity and be allowed to suggest
  deviations from group standards. Conforming at
  the outset can lead to opportunities to innovate
  later. i.e. the right to bring about change has
  to be earned

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• Power- A number of different kinds of power
  have been distinguished. According to French
  Raven (1959) there are five main types
• Legitimate power formal power invested in
  particular roles e.g. senior staff in school
• Reward power control over valuable resources,
  e.g. salary, food, respect, love parents,
  employers, close friends
• Coercive power control over feared consequences
  e.g. withdrawal of resources, loss of love,
  dismissal.
• Expert power possession of special knowledge
  skills e.g. plumber, doctor etc.
• Referent power personal qualities, such as
  charm magnetism personality characteristics.

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Behavioural style

• Freud was the object of rejection by the
  Victorian scientific community when he first put
  forward his theory of childhood sexuality. He did
  not yield however, to the majority view but
  persisted in developing his theory he was
  consistent.
• According to Moscovici (1974, 1976, 1980),
  minority influence is most likely when the
  minority adopts a consistent behavioural style
  and is firm and uncompromising, but not
  necessarily rigid. A committed minority will
  exert more influence than an uncommitted minority.

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Evidence for Moscovicis ideas about behavioural
style comes from a study he carried out in 1969.

• Using your text book summarise the study by
  Moscovici found on page 166 167
• Title Studies of Minority Influence.
• Use the headings Aim, Method, Findings,
  Conclusion, Evaluation.

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• Copy this down also.
• Further evidence for the behavioural style needed
  for a minority to influence a majority is given
  by
• Nemeth et al. (1974)
• Aim-
• A variation of Moscovicis study, to demonstrate
  that for minority influence, consistency is
  important but not always sufficient to influence
  a majority.

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• Method-
• The same set up as Moscovicis study was used,
  but ps allowed to respond with a complex colour,
  also there were three conditions
• confederates said green on half of trials and
  green-blue on other half, in a random
  order.(inconsistent, complex colour)
• confederates said green in response to brighter
  slides, and green-blue to the dimmer slides, or
  vice versa.(consistent, complex colour)
• confederates said green on every
  trial.(consistent, simple colour).

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• Findings-
• No influence in condition 1
• 21 of majority responses were influenced in
  condition 2.
• No influence in condition 3
• Conclusions-
• The minority had no influence in condition 1
  because it responded in an inconsistent way.
• The minority had no influence in condition 3
  because although it did respond in a consistent
  way, its refusal to use more complex colour
  descriptions of the stimuli made its behaviour
  seem rigid and unrealistic.

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• The influence in condition 2 was as a result of a
  consistent and flexible behavioural style.
• Evaluation
• A laboratory experiment therefore we can be
  fairly confident about a cause effect
  relationship.
• It may lack ecological validity because it is a
  laboratory experiment, so we may need to be
  careful when generalising the findings to
  everyday life.

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• Other research has shown that
• Minorities are more efficient if they-
• Are seen to have made personal/material
  sacrifices (investment).
• Are perceived as acting out of principle rather
  than ulterior motives (autonomy).
• Display a balance between being dogmatic
  (rigid) and inconsistent (flexible)
• Are seen as being similar to the majority in
  terms of age, gender and social category.

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• Style of thinking
• It is also important that there is enough time
  for the minoritys position to be fully debated
  and considered.
• The View itself will also affect the level of
  influence the minority will have on the majority
  in the group there is an advantage if the
  minority takes a position that is in the same
  direction as the general norms are moving
  Relevance of minority view.

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• Research suggests that if the minority can get
  the majority to think about the issue (Smith et
  al , 1996) and even better to discuss and debate
  the arguments surrounding the issue (Nemeth,
  1995) then the minority has a good chance of
  influencing the majority. This is known as
• Systematic thinking where you think more deeply
  about the views of others.
• When little thought is given it is known as
  Superficial thought.

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• Use your textbook to summarise the study by
  Zdaniuk Levine (1996)
• Title - Evidence to support the importance of
  Systematic Thinking in minority influence.
• Use the headings Aim, Method, Findings,
  Conclusion, Evaluation

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You are a team of psychologists. You have been
approached by two social workers for help, Mr
Brown Mrs Smith.
They want to introduce some significant changes
into the team of social workers they are a part
of. They strongly believe that these changes
will have long term benefits to the efficiency of
the team. The problem is that the rest of the
team (6 others) are very reluctant to have to
face any more changes, they feel that the
governmental initiatives over the past 5 years
have generated more than enough changes already.
They have change fatigue if such a term exists!
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They have asked you for some advice on how to go
about trying to win over the rest of the team to
their way of thinking about the changes. It is
your job to write a letter to the two social
workers, in which you give them some sound advice
on how they as a minority, can influence the
majority. You will need to back up what you say
in your report with psychological evidence. In
your group discuss this situation and make your
own notes on what you should put in the letter.
Each team member will then write up a letter
based on those notes for homework.
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Compliance (to a request) copy this down

• Agreeing to carry out a request
• Cialdini (1994) suggested 6 reasons why we are
  likely to comply with a request.
• Consistency/commitment
• Reciprocity
• Authority
• Social Validation
• Friendship/liking
• Scarcity

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• Look at page 153 in the text book and copy the
  diagram that explains each reason.
• Copy this down
• A number of researchers have studied compliance
  and the different techniques used to get people
  to comply.
• Bickman looked at Authority in a classic study.

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Bickman (1974) copy this Aim- To see if
people would comply with a request in a natural
setting and to see whether the dress of the
person making the request influenced the level of
compliance. Method- Participants 153 people
(passers by) on streets of New York Sampling
method - opportunity Procedure- Male
experimenter dressed as either milkman,police
officer (guards uniform) or a normal person -
civilian
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He gave one of three orders to the passers
by- pick up this bag for me (pointing to a
bag) this fellow is overparked but doesnt have
any change, give him a dime (pointing to a
confederate) dont you know that you have to
stand on the other side of this pole, this sign
says no standing (participant at a bus stop)
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Results- 80 compliance when experimenter
dressed in guards uniform, compared to only 40
when dressed as a civilian. The milkmans uniform
also did not produce a high level of
compliance. Conclusion- Participants were
willing to comply to a request in a natural
setting and, the perceived level of authority of
the person making the request (suggested by the
experimenters dress) affects the degree of
compliance to the request. Evaluation- ve
high ecological validity field experiment. -ve
may have had researcher bias in selection of Ps
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• Copy this down
• Other research can be found on the handout and in
  the textbook -
• handout Freedman Fraser(1966), Cialdini (1975
  1970)
• textbook Rind Bordia (1966)
• Look at the handout and do the exercises on page
  1 and fill in the table on page 2

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Obedience(copy onto reverse of Obedience handout)

• When a person or group of follow the direct
  commands, orders or missives of authority
  (another person or institution)
• Much of the time obedience is benign
  constructive. For example society demands a
  degree of obedience for it to function.
• Blind Obedience occurs when a person obeys an
  order without thinking about it (the implications
  of it, the motives behind it etc.).

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• Blind Obedience is often dangerous and
  destructive. There are several examples of blind
  obedience in history. Common to such events is
  that people low in hierarchy followed the orders
  of their superiors. Why?
• It is this question that stimulated much of the
  research into obedience.
• Two important studies on Obedience were carried
  out by Milgram and Hofling.

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• Milgram
• in the 1960s investigated obedience to
  authority in what is probably the most
  controversial experiment in psychology.
• See your handout textbook for details.

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• Hofling et al

- examined obedience in a real life social
setting - a hospital.
See your handout textbook for details.
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• The study carried out by Bickman (see notes on
  compliance) also illustrated obedience to an
  authority figure in an everyday real life setting.

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Factors That Affect Obedience(copy down)

• The variations carried out by Milgram on his
  basic study give some insight into the factors
  affecting obedience.
• Have a go at listing some of these factors,
  indicating whether obedience is more or less
  likely to happen. Refer to Milgrams study.

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Exam Question

• Copy down this question. Allow 20 minutes to
  answer it.
• When Ruths parents go to parents evening they
  are surprised to hear how well behaved their
  daughter is in class. They wonder how it can be
  that Ruth is so obedient at school with the
  teacher and yet so disobedient at home.
• Discuss TWO factors with reference to Milgrams
  work, that may be affecting Ruths behaviour. (10
  marks)

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Reasons for obedience.(or, So why do people
obey orders?)

• Trust in the authority figure giving the order
  assuming that they are seen as a legitimate
  (legal, not fake) authority figure. (Milgram
  experimenter in lab coat, Hofling doctor)
• Trust in the legitimate system
• (Milgram Yale university,
  Hofling doctor/nurse relationship)
• We live in a society where we are brought up to
  trust and obey those in authority over us e.g.
  parents, teachers, the law.

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• Being bound / the foot-in-the door phenomenon.
  Once an initial request/order has been carried
  out people find it difficult to then back out
  when further orders are given, especially if the
  next order is not much bigger than the last.
  (Milgram each request to increase the voltage
  of the electric shock was a small step up from
  the previous level)

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• Milgrams Agency theory. Milgram suggested that
  the person enters what he called an agentic
  state when faced with an order from a legitimate
  authority figure.
• In an organised society, individuals must give
  up responsibility to those of a higher status in
  order to ensure the smooth running of the
  society.
• The participants in Milgrams study may have
  entered this agentic state. Rather than acting
  as an individual the participants may have become
  the agent of the experimenter. The lab. Coat
  may have acted as a prompt for this behaviour.

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• According to Milgram, agency involves a
  cognitive shift in view point that results in a
  person switching from their normal autonomous
  state (feeling responsible for and in control of
  own actions), to the agentic state (they regard
  themselves as the instrument for carrying out
  someone elses wishes).
• Agency is the result of socialisation from the
  moment we are born we are encouraged to submit to
  authority.

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Disobedience(or Resisting Authority Figures)

• This final section of the topic of social
  influence is addressed on the handout on
  Resisting Authority.
• There are also some tasks for you to do on the
  handout.