Social Influence

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Social Influence(PYB2, Section A, Question2)

Let’s 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 person’s 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:-G.B 1 hour lunch break or even work through lunch.

BUT IN Spain2 – 3 hour lunch break, eat & may even sleep

Yorkshire

Men call each other ‘love’

BUT IN Cumbria 

Men call each other ‘marra’

Asian British population Females almost always see a female GP

BUT IN White British population Females will see either male or female GP

McDonalds 

Use your fingers to eat your meal

BUT IN Brown’s restaurant 

Use cutlery to eat your meal

My homeAll meals are eaten together round the table

BUT IN ‘X’’s home All meals are eaten individually in front of TV

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CONFORMITY

• CONFORMITY IS .......      “ yielding to group pressures”,

Crutchfield (1962)

     “a change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people”, Aronson (1976)

See the handout

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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)1. 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 group’s beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour their own.

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Empirical Studies of Conformity

Jenness (1932) – Beans in a jar studyAim : 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 it’s 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 Asch’s studies 1. Artificiality – lacks ecological validity – in

everyday situation could just keep quiet if do not agree with the group.

2. Individual differences – the 32% conformity rate covers up the wide range of individual differences, 75% conformed at least once, 25% not at all.

3. Unrepresentative sample. – Male, from same small town in America, paid to take part, 1950’s so may not reflect today’s society. Therefore can not easily generalise findings to the general population.

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1. 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.

2. 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 AschVariations on Asch’s basic study and the effect on conformity.

1. 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 % conformityIndividual + 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 conformityLine 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 Crutchfield’s 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:-

Cultural differences• Cultural factors (Asch’s studies in

America – reflect the culture of conformist America in 1950’s).

• 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.

Copy this slide onto the back of the handout.

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• ·     Historical Differences – Attempts to repeat Asch’s 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)

• 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

INFORMATIONAL

Need for certainty

Subjective uncertainty

Need for information to reduce uncertainty

Comparison with others

INTERNALISATIONPrivate & Public

acceptance

NORMATIVE

Need for acceptance of others

Others have power to reward or punish

Conflict between own and others’ opinions

COMPLIANCEPrivate disagreement but Public agreement

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• CONFORMING TO SOCIAL ROLES.Philip Zimbardo’s 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 someone’s 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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• 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.

Quick Test- part 2

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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, women’s 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 group’s 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 group’s 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:

1. Legitimate power – formal power invested in particular roles e.g. senior staff in school

2. Reward power – control over valuable resources, e.g. salary, food, respect, love – parents, employers, close friends

3. Coercive power – control over feared consequences e.g. withdrawal of resources, loss of love, dismissal.

4. Expert power – possession of special knowledge & skills e.g. plumber, doctor etc.

5. 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 Moscovici’s 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 Moscovici’s 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 Moscovici’s study

was used, but ps allowed to respond with a complex colour, also there were three conditions;

1.confederates said ‘green’ on half of trials and ‘green-blue’ on other half, in a random order.(inconsistent, complex colour)

2.confederates said ‘green’ in response to brighter slides, and ‘green-blue’ to the dimmer slides, or vice versa.(consistent, complex colour)

3.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 3Conclusions:-• 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 minority’s 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 thisAim:-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 YorkSampling method :- opportunityProcedure:-Male experimenter dressed as either milkman,‘police officer’ (guard’s 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 doesn’t have any change, give him a dime” (pointing to a confederate)

“don’t 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 guard’s uniform, compared to only 40% when dressed as a civilian. The milkman’s 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 experimenter’s 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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‘ 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.).

Obedience(copy onto reverse of Obedience handout)

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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 1960’s 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

See your handout & textbook for details.

- examined obedience in a real life social setting - a hospital.

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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 Milgram’s study.

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Exam Question

Copy down this question. Allow 20 minutes to answer it.When Ruth’s 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 Milgram’s work, that may be affecting Ruth’s 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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• Milgram’s 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 Milgram’s 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 else’s 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.