social influence

Conformity

A change in behaviour or beliefs due to real or imagined group pressure

Compliance

Publicly going along with the group while privately disagreeing

Identification

Changing behaviour to be like a group because we value it, even if we don’t fully agree

Internalisation

Deep conformity where beliefs are genuinely accepted and persist even when the group is absent

Normative Social Influence (NSI)

Conforming to be liked or accepted by a group; linked to compliance

Informational Social Influence (ISI)

Conforming because we believe others have more accurate knowledge; linked to internalisation

Asch (1951)

Found 75% of participants conformed at least once in a line judgement task due to NSI

Asch's variations

Conformity decreased with a dissenter, fewer confederates, or making answers private

Zimbardo (1973)

Stanford Prison Experiment showed how people conform to social roles; guards became abusive

Zimbardo’s findings

Participants quickly adopted their assigned roles, showing power of situational factors

Zimbardo’s evaluation

Lacks realism but has high internal validity; major ethical issues raised

Milgram (1963)

Found 65% of participants obeyed orders to give 450V shocks to a “learner”

Milgram’s explanation

People obey due to agentic state, legitimacy of authority, and situational factors

Agentic State

Acting as an agent for someone in authority; feeling no personal responsibility

Legitimacy of Authority

We obey people who we believe have power or authority due to their role or context

Milgram’s variations

Obedience dropped with proximity, location change, or absence of uniform

Authoritarian Personality

A dispositional explanation of obedience; rigid, obedient to authority, hostile to inferiors

Adorno et al. (1950)

Developed the F-scale to measure authoritarian personality, finding links with obedience

Locus of Control

Refers to how much control a person feels they have over events in their life

Internal LOC

Belief that you control your own behaviour; linked to resistance to obedience

External LOC

Belief that outside forces control behaviour; linked to higher obedience

Resistance to Social Influence

The ability to withstand group pressure; affected by social support and LOC

Social Support

Presence of others resisting pressure can help individuals resist conformity or obedience

Minority Influence

When a smaller group influences the majority to adopt their beliefs or behaviour

Moscovici (1969)

Showed consistent minorities (green slide study) could influence majority views

Consistency

Minority influence is more powerful when the message is consistent over time

Commitment

Minorities must show dedication, often through personal sacrifice, to be taken seriously

Flexibility

Minorities must be willing to compromise and be flexible to avoid appearing rigid

Social Change

Occurs when society adopts a new belief or way of behaving due to minority influence

Processes in Social Change

Includes drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, snowball effect, and social cryptoamnesia

Snowball Effect

As more people are converted to a minority view, the pace of conversion speeds up

Social Cryptoamnesia

When people forget the origin of a new belief, but accept it as normal

Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness and personal responsibility in a crowd or uniformed role