Psych 280 Chapter 9: Social Influence

Social influence

the many ways people affect one another, including changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior resulting from the comments, actions, or even the mere presence of others

Conformity

changing one's behavior or beliefs in response to explicit or implicit pressure (real or imagined) from others

Compliance

responding favorably to an explicit request by another person

Obedience

in an unequal power relationship, submitting to the demands of the person in authority

Automatic mimicry

Natural tendency to take on the emotional tones of those around us, we are natural mimics, unconsciously imitating others' expressions, postures, and voice tones

Ideomotor action

the phenomenon whereby merely thinking about a behavior makes performing it more likely

The Müller-Lyer Illusion

illusion of line length that is distorted by inward-turning or outward-turning corners on the ends of the lines, causing lines of equal length to appear to be different

Informational social influence

The influence of other people that results from taking their comments or actions as a source of information about what is correct, proper, or effective

Normative social influence

The influence of other people that comes from the desire to avoid their disapproval and other social sanctions (ridicule, barbs, ostracism)

Effect of group size on conformity

as the number of people in a majority increases, so does the tendency to conform, but only up to a unanimous majority of three or four...after that, conformity levels off

Effect of group unanimity on conformity

the tendency for people to go along with a misguided majority drops precipitously once there's a break in the majority, when there is just one other person willing to dissent

loose cultures

norms aren't as strong and their members tolerate more deviance

tight cultures

strong norms regarding how people should behave and don't tolerate departure from those norms

Why are some nations tighter

-higher population densities

-fewer natural resources

-unreliable food supplies

-less access to safe water

-greater risk of natural disasters

-more territorial threats from neighbors

-higher prevalence of pathogens

behavioral constraints are associated with, and may partly be caused by, ecological constraints

Gender differences in conformity

-women are raised to value interdependence and to nurture important social relationships more than men

-men are raised to value autonomy and independence more than woman

-->might expect women to be more subject to social influence and thus conform more than men do

Minority influence on the majority

minority opinions can influence the majority through consistent and clear messages that persuade the majority to systematically examine and reevaluate its opinions

Internalization

private acceptance of a proposition, orientation, or ideology

Norm of reciprocity

the idea that people are expected to provide benefits for those who provided benefits for them; a norm dictating that people should provide benefits to those who benefit them

Reciprocal concessions (door-in-the-face) technique

a compliance approach that involves asking someone for a very large favor that will certainly be refused and then following that request with one for a smaller favor (which tends to be seen as a concession the target feels compelled to honor)

Foot-in-the-door technique

a compliance approach that involves making an initial small request with which nearly everyone complies, followed by a larger request involving the real behavior of interest

Emotion-based approaches

Both positive and (some) negative moods can increase rates of compliance

-when people are in a good mood, they are more likely to agree to requests

Positive Mood and Compliance

being in a good mood boosted participant compliance, with the effect slowly wearing off with the passage of time ... why?

-our mood colors how we interpret events

-mood maintenance (feels good to feel good and we want that feeling to last for as long as possible)

Negative state relief hypothesis

The idea that people engage in certain actions, such as agreeing to a request, to relieve their negative feelings and feel better about themselves

Pluralistic ignorance

a false impression of what most other people are thinking or feeling, or how they are responding

Descriptive norms

the behavior exhibited by most people in a given context

Prescriptive (injunctive) norms

the way a person is supposed to behave in a given context

Reactance theory

the idea that people reassert their prerogatives in response to the unpleasant state of arousal they experience when they believe their freedoms are threatened

Milgram Experiment: "touch proximity" with the learner

participants were required to force the learner's hand onto the shock plate, which reduced the participants' obedience rates

-the closer the "teachers" were to the learner, physically and psychologically, the less likely they were to administer the maximum shock

Milgram Experiment: tuning in the learner

-participants spontaneously tried to do the opposite

-as the learner became more and more present and "real," the teachers found it increasingly difficult to deliver the shocks and obedience rates diminished

Milgram Experiment: tuning out the experiementer

-by physically removing himself from the scene, the experimenter lost much of his influence, and participants were less likely to obey

-as the experimenter became less salient and less of an authority in the participant's mind, it became easier for the participant to defy him, so the rate of obedience declined