Exam 2: Self and Society

Social Influence and beyond

Social Influence

The process by which other people affect your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Open Influence

The target understands that another person/group of people is trying to change their attitude or behaviors.

Manipulative Influence

social influence is hidden or covert from the target

Conformity

refers to attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral changes in response to real or imagined social pressure.

Two types of influence

majority and minority

Manipulative influence

social influence is hidden or covert from the target

conformity

attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral changes in response to real or imagined social pressure.

Private acceptance

when we conform to other people out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is correct (also called conformity)

Public conformity

when we conform to other people, but only publicly, without necessarily believing in what we are saying or doing (also called compliance)

What types of conformity did the Asch line experiment show?

Public and Private

Normative social influence

when we conform to others because we want them to accept and like us.

Informational social influence

when we conform because of our need to be correct

Minority influence

a small consistent group challenges a social norm and slowly shifts the majority’s perspective.

Majority influence

when individuals change their beliefs or behaviors to gain approval to fit in with the larger group.

Factors that affect the success of a minority in influencing the majority

-size of minority

-behavioral style

-consistency

Moscovici color study results

minorities can influence a majority, but they must show consistent behavior

compliance

type of conformity where a person goes along with others publicly but does not actually change their private beliefs

Low ball

a compliance technique in which an item or service is offered at a lower price, then is actually intended to be changed, after which the price is raised to increase profits.

foot in door

getting a person to comply with a large request by first having them agree to a smaller request

door in face

convincing someone to comply with a request by first making a large request that they will likely turn down. Then the person is more likely to agree to a smaller request.

“That’s not all”

you introduce a product or service, and to get a person to comply, you then increase the value by decreasing the price or adding extras

Obedience

the act of following rules, orders, or instructions (compliance) from someone in a position of authority.

Benefits of obedience to authority

-Maintain social order

-Allows organizations that depends on hierarchies to function

Undesirable outcomes of obedience to authority

-Sometimes leads to abuse of power

Discourages critical thinking

-People may do harmful/immoral things

-Displaces blame

Results of Milgrim electric shock experiment

People obey authority figures regardless of morality

Cognitive Dissonance

When there is an imbalance between our attitudes and our behavior, or between two or more attitudes resulting in mental discomfort.

Ways to reduce cognitive dissonance

-Change attitude

-Change behavior

-Change my perception of the behavior (mental gymnastics)

Persusaive campaigns can be

can be ineffective as it shows mixed results

Cognitive Dissonance is akin to a

“hunger” or “thirst”, and people are motivated to reduce the mental stress

What did La Piere’s experiment show?

Attitude doesn’t always predict behavior.

Reasons why attitude and behavior might not mesh

-Activation of the attitude (acting without thinking)

-Characteristics of the attitude

-Attitude behavioral correspondence

-Situational constraints on behavior

Attitude behavioral correspondence

Attitudes are more likely to predict behavior if they are on the same level of specificity.

Collective Behavior

refers to when 2 or more people engage in behavior together

Dimensions of collective behavior

-Space (location)

-Temporal Duration (time period)

-Scale (amount/# of people involved)

De-individuation

feeling of invisibility/anonymity in a crowd, and temporary loss of self awareness and sense of personal responsibility.

social loafing

people’s tendency to slack off when working in a group.

Contagion

tendency to imitate the actions or behaviors of a crowd.

social movements

an organized collective activity by a large number of people to express a high level of concern for an issue

Rumors

often false, exaggerated, distortion of the facts.

Mass hysteria

refers to widespread intense fear of and concern for a danger that turns out to be false or exaggerated.

rumors thrive in

uncertainty and importance

rumors are more likely to spread in

uncertain, high emotion environments

moral panic

widespread concern over a perceived threat to the moral order that turns out to be heavily exaggerated or false

Stages of moral panic

1.) Someone, something, or a group is defined as a threat to the moral order

2.) Then depicted in a simple and recognizable form symbol (perhaps by the media)

3.) The portrayal of the symbol arouses public concern

Attributes of a moral panic

-Concern

-Hostility

-Consensus

-Disproportionality

-Volatility

Fad

refers to an activity or product that is popular among a large group of people for a certain period of time (ex:labubus)

Crazes

a temporary activity that attracts the obsessive enthusiasm of a relatively small group of people (ex: bottle flipping)

Intergroup conflict

when groups have opposing interests and might engage in antagonistic emotions toward eachother.

social identity

strong in-group identification can produce out-group aggression

Ethnocentrism

tendency to judge other groups by the standards and values of one’s own group

Social identity theory

we tend to evaluate our own group positively, and by comparison, we rate out-groups more negatively.

Aversive events

when a single provocative incident provokes in-group conflict.

cross race effect

bias in racial recognition. the tendency to be able to differentiate faces in ones own race more easily but not other races.

Biased evaluation in-group performance

we tend to rate performance of own group more favorably than the out group, even when there is no objective bias for this difference.

confirmation bias

we tend to search for, interpret, favor, and remember info that confirms our beliefs about our in-group and about our out-groups.

Intergroup contact theory

as contact between groups increases, the conflict decreases.

contact hypothesis

social (interpersonal) contact between members of different groups reduces prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination.

3 main factors of the effects of desegregation

-Sanction by authority

-Equal status conflict

-Pursuit of common goals

mediator

a third party who serves as a go between or advisor for each side.

Arbitrator

third party who listens to both sides and has the power to decide how the conflict will end.

Realistic conflict theory

conflict arises when groups pursue zero sum objectives, creating a situation where interests are inherently at odds.

Backfire effect

correcting a mistake makes believing the false information even stronger.