Social Psychology is the study of the impact of our surroundings, and in particular of other people on our behaviour.

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What is Social Psychology?

• Social Psychology is the study of the impact of
  our surroundings, and in particular of other
  people on our behaviour.
• Social Influence
• Conformity vs Independent behaviour

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The Final Solution

• e.g. Adolf Eichmann

6 million people
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Abu Ghraib
Iraqi prison abuses
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Conformity

• What is conformity?
• It is a form of social influence where people
  adopt the behaviour, attitudes and values of
  other members in a majority position
• Kelman (1958) proposed 3 types of conformity
• Compliance
• Internalisation
• Identification

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Compliance

• Individuals engage in social comparison,
  adjusting their own actions to fit with the group
• Identification with the majority is desirable
• Individual may comply with little or no private
  attitude change

6
Internalisation

• Individuals may engage in a validation process.
• Beliefs and attitudes are examined
• Individual may decide that the majority is
  correct.
• This leads to an acceptance of the groups point
  of view both publicly and privately

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Identification

• Incorporates both compliance and internalisation
• Individual may wish to adapt the groups
  attitudes and beliefs to establish a relationship
  etc.
• Individual accepts what they are adopting
  (internalisation)
• Attitudes are adopted to be an accepted member of
  the group (compliance)

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Asch 1956 - procedure

• 123 male American undergraduates recruited for a
  vision test
• In each experiment all but one were confederates
• In turn, participants and confederates were asked
  to state which of three lines was the same length
  as a stimulus line.
• The real participant always answered last or
  second to last
• Confederates would give the same incorrect answer
  for 12 out of 18 trials

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Findings

• For 12 critical trials 36.8 of responses given
  by participants were incorrect
• ¼ of participants never conformed
• In a control trial, only 1 of responses given by
  participants were incorrect

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Why?

• When asked why they conformed, participants often
  gave one of three answers
• Distortion of perception
• Participants actually started to perceive the
  line differently
• Distortion of judgement
• Feelings of doubt about their judgement
• Distortion of action
• Majority continued to trust their own perception
  and judgement but changed their behaviour to
  avoid disapproval

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Variations - Difficulty

• Differences between the lines were made smaller
• Conformity increased
• Lucas et al. (2006)
• Conformity is moderated by self-efficacy of the
  individual
• E.g. When exposed to maths problems, individuals
  confident in their abilities remained more
  independent
• Demonstrates both situational (task difficulty)
  and individual differences (self-efficacy)
  determine conformity

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Variations Size of the Majority

• Conformity low when majority consisted of one or
  two
• With majority of three, conformity rose to 30
• Further increases did not substantially increase
  conformity

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Variations Unanimity of the Majority

• When participant was joined by another real
  participant or disaffected confederate,
  conformity fell from 32 to 5.5
• If the dissenter gave a different wrong answer
  conformity fell to 9
• Asch concluded breaking the groups consensus
  important to reduce conformity
• Abu Ghraib Private Joe Darby

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Real-World Applications

• Conformity in juries
• Many jurors would not want to appear to have a
  different attitude to their fellow jurors

• Tanford and Penrod, 1986
• 1st vote of the jury determines the outcome 95
  of the time
• Suggests conformity pressure is a real issue in
  juries
• How could this be reduced?

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Individual Differences

• Eagly and Carli (1981)
• Meta-analysis of 145 studies
• Women were more compliant than men
• Women are possibly more interpersonally-oriented
• Male researchers were more likely to find gender
  differences, suggesting they choose experimental
  material more accessible to males (self-efficacy)

Vs.
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Quick quiz

1. What are the three different types of conformity?
2. How many participants were there in Aschs study?
   What gender?
3. What percentage of the responses were incorrect?
4. What percentage of the population never
   conformed?
5. Conformity increased when the line lengths were
   closer or farther apart?
6. The size of the majority must be more than what
   for individuals to conform?
7. Do men or women conform more?

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Evaluation Validity of Aschs study

• Lack of ecological validity
• Judging lengths of lines is an insignificant task
• How would conformity change for important tasks?
• Answering out loud puts special pressure on the
  participant not to sound stupid
• Aschs study may only show us about conformity in
  certain circumstances
• Williams and Sogon (1984) tested people from same
  sports club
• Suggested conformity higher with people you know

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Evaluation Validity of Aschs study

• Lack of historical and population validity?
• All were male Americans in the 1950s during the
  era of McCarthyism
• Perrin and Spencer (1980)
• England 1970s on science and engineering
  students only one conformity in 396 trials
• In a 2nd study youths on probation (probation
  officers as confederates), conformity was similar
  to Aschs studies
• Suggests conformity is higher when perceived
  costs of non-conformity are high

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Evaluation - Ethics of Aschs study

• Deception
• Pps didnt know the real purpose of the study
• Can be overcome with
• proper debriefing
• Offering right to withhold their data
• Informed consent not given at the start but could
  be given at the end

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Independence???

• With 2/3 of trials participants not conforming,
  Aschs study also highlights a human tendency to
  show independent behaviour
• Lalancette and Standing (1990) found no
  conformity in trials concluded Asch effect is
  unstable phenomenon.

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Activity

• Complete Study Evaluation for Smith and Bond,
  1998
• Plan essay question Has research supported the
  view that majority exerts a significant degree of
  influence over the individual?

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• Compliance
• Individuals engage in social comparison,
  adjusting their own actions to fit with the group
• Internalisation
• Individuals engage in a validation process,
  possibly changing their attitudes
• Identification
• Individuals conform by both adjusting their
  actions (compliance) and changing their attitudes
  to fit with the majority (internalisation)
• Asch
• Researcher who studied majority influence
• Distortion of perception
• Participants who started to perceive the line
  differently is explained as a...
• Self-efficacy
• Confidence in performing in a certain manner to
  attain certain goals.
• Distortion of judgement
• Participants who felt doubt about their judgement
  is explained as a...
• Distortion of action
• Majority of participants changed their behaviour
  to avoid disapproval, is explained as a...
• Conformity in juries
• A real-world application of research into
  majority influence
• Deception