SOCIAL INFLUENCE: CONFORMITY, COMPLIANCE, OBEDIENCE

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

A change in overt behavior caused by real or imagined pressure from others

Conformity

Behavior change designed to match the actions o others.

Compliance

Behavior chane that occurs as a result of a direct request.

Obedience

Compliance that occurs in response to a directive from an authority figure.

Goals of Social Influence

1, To choose correctly

2. To gain social approval

3. To manage self-image

Expert power

The capacity to influence that flows rom one’s presumed wisdom or knowlede.

Authorities as experts

We believe them on the basis of their expertise

Authorities as agents of influence

Because of influence, we can be easily steered in the wron direction by false authorities

Validation

We use the actions o these others as an interpersonal way to locate and validate the correct choice.

MASS HYSTERIA

a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions o threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population and society as a result of rumors and fear.

Normative influence

Conormity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance or to be liked.

“going along with the crowd” to avoid rejection, to stay in people’s good races, or to gain their approval

Informational influence

results from others’ providing evidence about reality. The tendency to conform more on difficult decision-making tasks reflects informational influence: We want to be right.

Norm of Reciprocity

The norm that requires that we repay others with the form of behavior they have given us.

Reciprocal Concessions

● Gifts, favors, and services are not the only actions governed by the reciprocity norm; so, too, are the concessions people make to one another in negotiations.

● After receiving a concession rom another, most people eel an obligation to make a concession in return.

Door-in-the-face Technique

A technique that increases compliance by beginning with a large favor likely to be rejected and then retreating to a more moderate favor.

Approval

● Those whose personality test scores indicated a high need or approval were more likely to o along with the group

● Agreeable people are described as accommodating and compliant. They are inclined to o along with others in their groups to avoid conflict

● Agreeableness may have been vitally important to our ancestors’ survival in groups

Collectivism

● Identification with a particular social or cultural group

● Increases the chance o conformity

Rebelliousness

● Anti conformists react to social influence by reacting against it.

● Reactance Theory (Brehm)

○ We all value our freedom to decide how to act. When something (such as social pressure) threatens to take away that freedom, we often respond by doing the opposite o what we are being pressured to do

Personal Appeal

● People are more likely to o along with the influence attempts o appealing individuals because they are more motivated to gain the approval o those individuals.

● Two important situational sources o personal appeal are physical attractiveness and common group membership

Peer Pressure and Influence

● Strong group norms can be resisted when members believe that they have the power to withstand group influence or when members don’t eel highly identified with the group.

Public Observability

● Just as we would expect if social influence is sometimes based on the desire or acceptance and approval, conformity is less prevalent in private.

● When people can keep their decisions secret, they don’t have to worry about the loss of connection and respect an independent opinion might create.

Personal commitment

Anything that connects an individual’s identity more closely to a position or course of action.

Foot-in-the-Door Tactic

Technique that increases compliance with a particular request by first gaining compliance with a smaller, related request.

Low-ball tactic

● Gaining a commitment to an arrangement and then raisin the cost o carryin out the arrangement.

● Involves making an offer that sounds good to be true. However, there are hidden strings attached

● Once the consumer is psychologically committed, it hard to back out

Bait-and-Switch tactic

Gaining a commitment to an arrangement, then making the arrangement unavailable or unappealing and offering a more costly arrangement.

Labeling tactic

Assigning a label to an individual and then requesting a favor that is consistent with the label.