Social Psychology T3

Conformity

A change in one’s behavior resulting from the real or imagined influence of other people.

Informational Social Influence

Relying on other people as a legitimate source of information to guide our own behavior because we believe their interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours.

Public Compliance

Conforming to other people's behavior publicly without necessarily believing in or internalizing what we are saying or doing.

Private Acceptance

Conforming to other people's behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are saying or doing is correct, resulting in long-term attitude change.

Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Study

Participants in a dark room estimated the movement of a stationary point of light. When grouped, their estimates converged to a group average; when retested individually later, they maintained the group estimate, demonstrating private acceptance.

Energy Consumption Study

Showing household residents descriptive norm feedback that the majority of their neighbors saved energy caused the greatest reduction in energy usage compared to environmental or financial appeals.

Hotel Towel Study

Group norm messages in hotel rooms ("the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels") significantly increased towel reuse

Police Lineup Study (High Ambiguity / Accuracy Importance)

When viewing time was short (high ambiguity) and task importance was high ($20 reward), participants relied heavily on confederates, increasing conformity

Police Lineup Study (Low Ambiguity / Accuracy Importance)

When viewing time was long (low ambiguity/unambiguous) and task importance was high, conformity dropped

Contagion

Rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd; when informational conformity backfires

When Informational Social Influence is powerful

People are most likely to conform when: (1) the situation is ambiguous, (2) the situation is a crisis, or (3) other people are experts.

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to a group's implicit or explicit rules in order to be liked, accepted, and avoid social rejection or punishment; typically leads to public compliance without private acceptance.

Social Norms

The implicit or explicit rules a group maintains regarding acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs for its members.

61-Million-Person Experiment

Displaying a social norm message on Facebook ("I Voted" button with photos of friends who voted) significantly boosted voter turnout during US congressional elections.

Injunctive Norms

Perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others ("what you should do").

Descriptive Norms

Perceptions of how people actually behave in a given situation, regardless of approval ("what people actually do").

Parking Lot Littering Study

Seeing someone pick up trash (salient injunctive norm) produced the lowest rates of littering across clean and littered environments compared to descriptive norms (confederate dropped trash) alone.

Boomerang Effect

Invoking descriptive norms can backfire if individuals performing better than average adjust their behavior downward to match the norm

Asch’s Line Judgment Study

Participants judged unambiguous line lengths out loud in a room of confederates giving wrong answers; 76% conformed at least once (averaging 32-37% conformity per trial) due to normative fears of standing out.

Resisting Normative Influence (Johnny Rocco Study)

When a dissenter repeatedly disagreed with group consensus, group members initially tried to convince him, then ignored him, and ultimately nominated him to be removed or assigned bad tasks.

Idiosyncrasy Credits

Interpersonal "tolerance points" earned over time by conforming to group norms, allowing a member to occasionally deviate without severe social retribution.

Social Impact Theory

States that conformity to social influence depends on three factors: Strength (group importance), Immediacy (closeness in space/time), and group size

Asch Study Variation (Allies)

Having just one ally who agrees with participant drops participant conformity

Asch Study Variation (Cultural Differences)

European Americans value uniqueness (selecting uncommon pens / deviant shapes) more than East Asians; Japanese participants conformed less on line tasks with strangers than with established in-groups.

Obedience to Authority

A universally valued social norm where individuals obey authority figures even when instructed to perform acts against their moral code.

Milgram’s Obedience Study

Participants ("Teachers") is to deliver escalating electric shocks up to 450V to a "Learner" when incorrect answer is given under orders from an authority figure; learner complains of heart problem and percentage who still delivered shock was higher than most thought

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Getting people to agree first to a small request makes them more likely to agree later to a second, larger request because it shifts their self-perception.

Safe Driving Study

Asking homeowners for a small favor and then asking them bigger favor of putting large safe driving sign on lawn

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Asking for an extreme, large request that will certainly be refused makes people more likely to agree to a smaller, secondary request due to social reciprocity.

Chaperoning Troubled Children Study

Participants asked to volunteer every week for 2 years at local juvenile center and after rejection, are asked smaller favor of chaperoning a troubled child at zoo for 2 hours. More agreed in experimental condition

Group

Two or more people who interact and are interdependent, in that their needs and goals cause them to influence each other.

Social Roles

Shared expectations in a group about how particular people are supposed to behave.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Participants randomly assigned as guards or prisoners rapidly adopted their roles (guards became abusive; prisoners became passive), demonstrating that social roles override individual personality.

Group Cohesiveness vs. Diversity

Group cohesiveness promotes mutual liking but can hinder critical analysis; diverse groups feel less cohesive initially but perform significantly better on complex problem-solving tasks.

Social Facilitation

The tendency for people to perform better on simple/well-learned tasks and worse on complex/novel tasks when in the presence of others and individual performance can be evaluated.

Cockroach Maze Study

The presence of an audience enhanced cockroaches' speed on a simple runway maze but impaired performance on a complex multi-turn maze.

Three Theories of Social Facilitation Arousal

(1) Evaluation Apprehension (concern about judgment), (2) Alertness/Vigilance (awareness of unpredictable others), and (3) Distraction-Conflict (cognitive overload from divided attention).

Social Loafing

The tendency for people to relax when in the presence of others and individual performance cannot be evaluated, leading to worse performance on simple tasks but better performance on complex tasks.

Deindividuation

Loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people cannot be differentiated, leading to an increase in impulsive and deviant acts

Process Loss

Any aspect of group interaction that inhibits effective problem-solving

Failure to Share Unique Information

Groups spend time discussing shared knowledge and ignore facts known to only some members of the group

Student Body President Study

Decision of who is most qualified as student body president; students either have shared info or same negative info and unique positive info; unique info condition only focused on shared negative information and failed to choose best candidate

How to Focus on Unshared Information

Extend discussion times, assign group members specific area-of-expertise roles, and hold off on stating initial preferences early in the meeting.

Groupthink

A mode of thinking where maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is prioritized over realistic consideration of facts; driven by high cohesiveness, isolation, stress, and directive leaders.

How to Avoid Groupthink

Leaders should remain impartial, solicit anonymous opinions, invite outside experts, create subgroups, and assign a dedicated "Devil's Advocate."

Group Polarization

The tendency for group decisions to become more extreme than the initial inclinations of individual members, driven by persuasive arguments and social comparison interpretations

Chess Study

Individuals agree that a player should make a risky chess move if there is a higher chance of success, but groups agreed that the player should make the move even with a lower chance of success (group polarization)

Social Dilemma

A conflict in which the action most beneficial to an individual will, if chosen by most people, have harmful effects on everyone (e.g., Prisoner's Dilemma).

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

A game theory strategy for encouraging cooperation by starting cooperatively and then mirroring the opponent's previous move (cooperative or competitive) on subsequent turns.

Trucking Game Study

2 companies have to transport merch as quickly as possible, but shortest path only fits 1 truck; when sides told to communicate, no increase in benefit, btu when told to communicate cooperatively, benefits increased

Integrative Solution

An outcome to a trade-off negotiation where parties make concessions on issues that are unimportant to them but critical to the opposing party.

Great Person Theory

The idea that key personality traits (intelligence, extroversion, confidence) make a person a good leader regardless of the situation (weak empirical support).

Contingency Theory of Leadership

Leadership effectiveness depends on matching leader style (Task-Oriented vs. Relationship-Oriented) with the degree of situational control.

Task-Oriented Leaders

Excel in High-Control and Low-Control (crisis) situations and are more concerned with getting job done rather than workers’ feelings and relationships

Gender & Leadership Traits (Agentic vs. Communal)

Men are stereotyped as agentic (assertive, decisive), women as communal (warm, caring). Women in leadership face a double-bind: evaluated negatively if agentic and seen as lacking leadership potential if communal.

Glass Ceiling

Blocks women from top roles

Prejudice

A hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinguishable group based solely on their membership in that group, consisting of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.

Three Components of Prejudice

(1) Cognitive (stereotypes/beliefs), (2) Affective (emotions/physiological reactions), and (3) Behavioral (discrimination/actions).

Stereotype

A generalization about a group assigning identical traits to virtually all members; can be adaptive or maladaptive

Stereotype Content Model

Evaluates groups along Warmth and Competence: (1) High Warmth/Low Competence = Pity, (2) High Warmth/High Competence = Admiration, (3) Low Warmth/Low Competence = Contempt, (4) Low Warmth/High Competence = Envy.

Discrimination & Institutionalized Discrimination

Unjustified negative or harmful actions toward members of a group based on group identity, often embedded in societal practices and structural policies.

Resume Whitening Study

Submitting identical job applications with "whitened" identity (name and/or experience) details yielded more employer callbacks than non-whitened minority applications. Whitened experience more likely to receive callback than whitened name

Microaggressions

Subtle slights, indignities, and nonverbal/verbal put-downs directed at minority group members.

Social Distance

A person's reluctance to get interpersonally close to members of another group

Handgun / Shooter Bias Study

Participants given array of white and african american targets either holding handgun or nonthreatening object; most errors (shooting unarmed targets) when the target was Black, proving implicit associations link racial minorities with danger.

Bogus Pipeline (Lie Detector Method)

Hooking participants up to a fake "lie detector" causes them to report significantly higher explicit racism and sexism because they believe their hidden feelings are revealed.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A computer-based speed-sorting test measuring reaction times to paired associations to uncover implicit, unconscious biases.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Prejudice Application)

Having expectations about a person affects your behavior toward them, which causes that person to act in ways that confirm your original expectations.

Job Candidate Study (Part 1)

White interviewers treated Black applicants with cold, distant nonverbal behavior (Part 1)

Sexism Study

Female participants rate how important it was to them to speak up against sexism and are paired with sexist male confederates; in ability to confront condition, women who placed higher importance on standing up rated their partner with higher evaluation, but lower evaluation when not given chance to confront

Normative Conformity

Strong tendency to go along with the group in order to fulfill the group’s expectations, gain acceptance, and avoid being an outcast

Spatial Ability Test

When reminded they were good students, females had better performance on test; displays how to draw identity with counterstereotype

Causes of Prejudice

Pressure to conform, social identity, and realistic conflict

Pressures to Conform

Institutional discrimination and normative conformity

Social Identity

Part of our identity that stems from our membership in groups

In-Group Bias

Tendency to favor members of one’ sown group and give them special preference over people who belong to other groups

Dot Estimation Study

Participants estimate number of dots, are told if they are an over or underestimater, and give points to people who were either an overestimater or underestimater; participants assigned greater points to others who were like them

Out-Group Homogeneity

In-group members perceive out-group members as being more similar than they really are - “they” are all alike

Princeton-Rutger Student Study

Participants watch target who either goes to their school (in-group) or doesn’t (out-group) making choices and make prediction about what % of students from each school would make same decision as target person; rutgers students thought princeton members answers would be very similar

Victim Blaming

Tendency to blame individuals for their victimization which is typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair place

Realistic Conflict Theory

Limited resources leads to conflict among groups which leads to prejudice and discrimination

Scapegoating

When frustrated or unhappy people tend to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible, and relatively powerless

Ways to reduce prejudice

1.) Contact hypothesis 2.) Cooperation and interdependencies

Contact Hypothesis

The view that social interactions between social groups would reduce prejudice

Interdependence

The need to depend on each other to accomplish a goal that is important to each group

Housing Project Study

Integration condition where randomly chosen resident assigned to live in same building and segregation condition where residents assigned to live in building depending on race; white residents in integration project showed more positive changes towards African American neighbors to white residents in segregation project

When Contact reduces prejudice

1.) Equal status 2.) Common goal 3.) Mutual interdependence 4.) Supported by social norms

Sherif and Colleagues Study

Bringing two competing groups increased hostility and distrust

Jigsaw Classroom Study

Classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and raise self-esteem of children by integrating them to depend on each other; jigsaw classroom saw reduced prejudice, promoted integration, increased performance and self-esteem, and more ethnic intermingling in school yard

California Energy Consumption Study

Californians divided on whether above or below energy consumption average. Descriptive norm or descriptive norm with injunctive norm message concerning energy consumption. In short term and long term, energy consumption decreased in above average energy users while it increased in below average energy users; smiley face worked to encourage people using less energy

Reasons we obey

1.) Adhering to wrong norm 2.) Self-justification

Obedience

Universally valued concept where we are socialized to obey legitimate authority figures and obey even if authority figure isn’t present

Why people join groups

Reduce ambiguity, define self, and establish social norms

Social Media Study

Adolescents given hypothetical where a user posted about another girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Had either parents as audience, disapproval by bystanders, or harm for receiver which were effective especially in parents’ condition - deindividuation

Persuasive Arguments Interpretation

Individuals bring to the group a set of arguments, some of which other individuals have not considered and provides additional information to validate a person’s existing beliefs, raising intensity of stance

Social Comparison Interpretation

When people discuss an issue in a group, they first explore how everyone feels in order to align with the majority

Prisoner’s Dilemma

2 partners in crime caught and are offered a deal to betray their partner to receive lighter sentence; variation where $3 if both cooperate, $6 if one wins and one loses, $1 if both compete; more likely to be cooperative if playing with friends or expectation to interact with partner in future

Negotiation

form of communication between opposing sides in conflict in which offers and counteroffers are made and a solution occurs only when both parties agree

Relationship-Oriented Leader

More effective in moderate-control work situations and are more concerned with workers’ feelings and relationships

Glass Cliff

Appointing women disproportionately to precarious, high-risk crisis leadership positions where failure is likely.