Social influence

- Conformity - Obediance - Resistance to social influence - Minority influence - Social change

How did Asch’s baseline study work?

• 123 American men

• 1 participant among 7 confederates

• Line lengths

Asch’s baselines study findings

• Conformed 1/3 of the time

• 25% didn’t conform at all

Variables investigated by Asch

• Group size

• Unanimity

• Task difficulty

What was the effect of group size?

• Curvilinear relationship

• 1 or 2 confederates was enough

What was the effect of unanimity ?

Rate of conformity decreased to less than 25% when there was another disagreeing person

What was the effect of task difficulty?

• Conformity increased as task difficulty increased

Limitations of Asch’s research

• Artificial setting

• Demand characteristics likely

• All people from an individualist culture

Strengths of Asch’s research

• Supported by other studies such as Lucas et al (2006)

Who found conflicting evidence against Asch?

• Neto suggested women might be more conformist

• Bond and Smith found people in China conformed more

• Lucas et al (2006) people who percieved themselves as less smart struggled more with task difficulty.

Types of conformity according to Kelman

• Internalisation

• Identification

• Compliance

Who developed the two process theory?

Gerard and Deutsch (1955)

What is ISI?

Need to be right

What is NSI?

Need to be liked

What research supports the two process theory?

• Asch found conformity reduced when participants wrote their answers down

• Lucas et al (2006)

Limitations of ISI and NSI

McGhee and Teevan found personality playing a role

Describe Zimbardo’s experiment set?

• 21 emotionally stable student volunteers

• Randomly assigned prisoner or guard

• Guards had uniform + props

• Prisoners had numbers and uniform

Zimbardo’s findings?

• Guards treated prisoners harshly

• Prisoners ‘rebelled’ and guards settled rebellion through seperation and punishment

• Prisoners conformed

• After 36 hours, one had to leave

Strengths of Zimbardo’s research?

• High internal validity

• Prisoners would talk 90% about prison life

• They thought it was real

Limitations of Zimbardo’s research?

• Method of picking participants

• Lack of realism, guards were play acting

What was Milgram’s baseline study?

• 40 American men

• Ordered to deliver shocks as part of the experiment

What were Milgram’s findings?

• All participants to 300V

• 65% to the greatest voltage

• All showed signs of anxiety

What are the ethical disadvantages/advantages? ZIMBARDO

• Participants were decieved

• Given annual check ins, reminded they behaved similarly to other participants

• 84% glad to have participated

Strengths of Milgram’s research

• Replicated in French documentary to have similar results

• Sheridan and King did the puppy experiment and had similar findings

Limitations of Milgram’s research

• Orne and Holland argued the participants knew the shocks were fake

• Haslam et al found that whenever the fourth prod was delivered, all participants disobeyed as they no longer identified with the study.

What were Milgram’s situational variables?

• Proximity

• Uniform

• Location

When proximity to learner increased, how did the rate of obediance change?

Dropped from 65% to 30% when forced hand.

When proximity to Experimenter decreased, how did the rate of obediance change?

Dropped from 65% to 20.5%

When legitimacy of location decreased, how did rate of obediance changed?

Dropped from 65% to 48%

When the experimenter was not in uniform, how did the rate of obediance change?

Dropped from 65% to 20%

What research support is there for Milgram’s situational variables?

• Bickman found people were twice as likely to follow orders from someone in uniform

• Meeus found people were more likely to follow orders if the authority figure was close

What are the limitations of Milgram’s research into situational variables?

• Orne and Holland

• Smith and Bond argued they were not cross cultural

What is an agentic state?

Mental state where a person does not feel responsible for their actions, that they are behaving as an agent for an authority figure.

Why do people remain in an agentic state even if they feel bad?

Binding factors

What are the binding factors?

Legitimacy of authority

How does Milgram’s research support agentic shift?

When participants were assured the responsibility if L was harmed was not theirs, they continued without question.

What is research which refutes the theory of the agentic shift?

Hofling: 16/18 nurses refused to give a dose of a known drug which was too high even if instructed to by a superior.

What was Adorno’s theory

That people are predisposed to be extra obediant.

How are authoritarian personalities made?

Conditional love as a child which leads to resentment which is displaced onto those ‘inferior’ to them.

How was Adorno’s research conducted?

• More than 2000 white middle class Americans

• Used F scale

What were Adorno’s findings?

• People who scored higher on the F scale were more obediant

• People who scored higher had a black and white cognitive style

• Strong positive correlation between authoritatarianism and prejudice

Research support for Adorno’s work?

• Milgram found obediant people were very similar to authoritarian people

Limitations of Adorno’s work?

• Milgrams research found some differences between obediant people and authoritarian people eg. not glorifying their father

• Cannot explain groupthink like in Nazi Germany

• F scale not great - very quantative

Who suggested Locus of control?

Rotter

What does locus of control have to do with obediance?

Those with internal LOC are less likely to obey blindly.

Research support for social support

Albrecht found those with a buddy were less likely to smoke.

Research support for dissenting peers

Gamson et al found greater dissent when people were able to discuss before answering.

What are the three main factors in the success of minority influence?

• Committment

• Consistency

• Flexibility

How does commitment cause minority influence?

Augmentation principle

Who suggested flexibility was important?

Nemeth 1986

Process of minority influence?

• Drawing attention

• Consistency

• Deeper processing

• Augmentation principle

• Snowball effect

• Social cryptomnesia

Research support for minority influence consistency?

Wood et al did a meta-analysis of almost 100 studies found the most consistent minorities were the most influential.

Research support for minority influence deeper processing?

Martin et al found people processed a minority more deeply if they say something conflicting to the majority view.

Limitation of minority influence?

• Research conducted often uses artificial tasks

• Meaning there is lower external validity

Research support for normative influences?

Nolan et al found comparative signs were more effective than non-comparative signs

Research refutation for normative influence?

Foxcroft et al found no impact of normative influence on teens to stop drinking.