social exam 2

CHAPTER 6: CONFORMITY & OBEDIENCE

Conformity

Changing one's behavior or beliefs to match those of others or to fit social expectations

Social norms

Shared rules or expectations about how members of a group should think, feel, or behave

Descriptive norms

What most people actually DO in a given situation (e.g., most people recycle at this hotel)

Prescriptive norms

What people SHOULD do; rules about what is considered acceptable or unacceptable behavior

Tight cultures

Cultures with strong social norms and low tolerance for deviance from those norms

Loose cultures

Cultures with weaker social norms and higher tolerance for deviance

Normative influence

Conforming to fit in, be liked, or avoid rejection — driven by social pressure rather than genuine belief change

Informational influence

Conforming because you genuinely believe others have correct information, especially in ambiguous situations

Asch's Line Judgment Study

Participants judged which comparison line matched a standard line; when confederates unanimously gave wrong answers, ~75% of participants conformed at least once — demonstrates normative influence

Why Asch demonstrates normative influence

The task had a clear correct answer, so participants weren't uncertain — they conformed to avoid standing out or being rejected, not because they believed the wrong answer

Sherif's Autokinetic Effect Study

Participants estimated how far a stationary light "moved" in a dark room (an ambiguous task); over time, individual estimates converged into a group norm — demonstrates informational influence

Why Sherif demonstrates informational influence

Because the situation was ambiguous, participants genuinely used others' judgments as information to reduce their uncertainty

Effect of group size on conformity

Conformity increases as group size grows, but plateaus around 3–5 people; adding more people beyond that has diminishing returns

Effect of unanimity on conformity

A single dissenter dramatically reduces conformity, even if the dissenter gives a different wrong answer — unanimity is critical for social pressure to work

Effect of public vs. private response on conformity

Conformity is higher when responses are public; when responses are private, people are more likely to give their true answer

Effect of status/authority on conformity

People are more likely to conform to high

Effect of prior commitment on conformity

If someone has already publicly committed to a position, they are less likely to conform to group pressure

Acceptance (internalization)

The deepest type of conformity; privately and genuinely believing what the group believes — most likely to endure over time

Compliance

Publicly going along with the group while privately disagreeing — driven by normative influence; does NOT endure when pressure is removed

Obedience

Complying with a direct order or command from an authority figure

Why informational influence leads to acceptance

Because you actually believe the group's position is correct, the attitude change is genuine and persists even without the group present

Why normative influence leads to compliance

Because you conform only to gain approval or avoid rejection, you revert to your true belief when social pressure is removed

Milgram's Obedience Studies

Participants were ordered by an experimenter to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner (a confederate); ~65% continued to the maximum 450 volts — demonstrates powerful obedience to authority

Role of perceived status in Milgram

Obedience decreased when the study was moved from Yale University to a run

Role of proximity to the victim in Milgram

Obedience decreased as the learner's proximity increased (e.g., when participants could hear or see the victim, or had to physically hold their hand on the shock plate)

Role of proximity to the experimenter in Milgram

Obedience decreased when the experimenter gave orders by phone rather than in person, showing authority is weaker at a distance

Role of social influence in Milgram

When confederate "teachers" refused to continue, obedience dropped dramatically — social support for resistance empowers defiance

Main takeaway of Milgram's studies

Ordinary people can commit harmful acts under situational pressure from authority; the situation, not personal evil, drives obedience

Criticisms of Milgram's studies

Ethical concerns about deception and psychological harm to participants; some argue demand characteristics inflated compliance

Mimicry (chameleon effect)

Unconsciously imitating others' postures, gestures, and mannerisms; increases liking and social rapport

Mimicry in negotiations (Maddux et al., 2008)

Negotiators who mimicked their counterpart's body language reached more successful deals — mimicry builds trust and cooperation

Social contagion

The spread of behaviors, emotions, or ideas through a group via observation and mimicry

Mass hysteria

A form of social contagion where physical symptoms or emotional states spread rapidly through a group with no medical cause

Moral convictions as resistance to conformity

Strongly held moral beliefs act as an anchor that protects people from social pressure to conform

Reactance as resistance to conformity

When people feel their freedom is threatened by pressure to conform, they push back in the opposite direction to reassert autonomy

Desire for uniqueness as resistance to conformity

People resist conformity when a group is too homogeneous; they prefer to be moderately (not extremely) different from others

CHAPTER 7: PERSUASION

Persuasion

The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behavior

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

A theory applying dual

Peripheral route

Persuasion through automatic, low

Central route

Persuasion through controlled, deliberate, high

Peripheral route preferred audience

Unmotivated, distracted, or non

Central route preferred audience

Motivated, involved, and analytical people with a high need for cognition

Associative learning (peripheral route)

An item repeatedly paired with a positive stimulus forms a memory link, and attitude transfers automatically; e.g., using a celebrity in an ad so their positive image transfers to the product

Priming (peripheral route)

Exposure to a positive cue activates a positive attitude that then colors judgment of a nearby stimulus; e.g., the Janis et al. (1965) food study where snacking while reading made essays seem more persuasive

Janis, Kaye & Kirschner (1965) food study

Participants who snacked while reading persuasive essays were more persuaded than those who did not; demonstrates priming via positive affect

Fear and disgust in persuasion

Arousing fear or disgust can be persuasive, but is MOST effective when paired with a clear, actionable solution to the threat

Working memory / cognitive load and persuasion route

When working memory is taxed by distraction, time pressure, or multitasking, people are pushed toward the peripheral route

Motivation and persuasion route

High motivation (personal relevance) pushes people toward the central route; low motivation pushes toward the peripheral route

Credibility (communicator factor)

Perceived expertise in the relevant domain; we weight arguments more heavily from those we believe know what they're talking about

Speaking style (communicator factor)

Confident, fluent delivery increases persuasion; hesitation and hedging undermine it even when the content is identical

Trustworthiness (communicator factor)

Perceived honesty and lack of ulterior motive; especially powerful when the communicator argues against their own interest

Attractiveness and liking (communicator factor)

We are more persuaded by people we like; physical attractiveness, similarity, and familiarity all increase liking

Foot

in

Door

in

One

sided appeal

Two

sided appeal

Serial position effect

Memory and persuasion are stronger for information presented first (primacy) and last (recency) than for information in the middle

Primacy effect

Information presented first shapes how all subsequent information is interpreted (top

Coker (2012) TripAdvisor study

Participants who read negative hotel reviews first were less likely to book and liked the hotel less overall than those who read positive reviews first — even though they saw the same total reviews; demonstrates primacy effect

Recency effect

Information presented last is sometimes more persuasive because it has not faded from working memory and is most cognitively accessible at the time of judgment; more likely when there is a gap of time between the two messages

Channel of communication

The medium through which a message is delivered; richer, more interactive channels (face

Anticipating the audience's response

Preparing counterarguments to the audience's likely objections before they raise them makes persuasion more effective

Managing cognitive load (audience strategy)

Reducing distraction makes central

Matching strategy to audience involvement

High

Costello, Pennycook & Rand (2024) — DebunkBot study

AI chatbot that discussed conspiracy theories using individualized, fact

Why AI reduced conspiracy beliefs via central route

The AI provided prediction error (evidence contradicting held beliefs), triggering belief updating — a central

Hackenburg et al. (2025)

Large

Training for persuasion (+51%)

The biggest lever of AI persuasiveness; specifically optimizing a model for persuasion at training time increased persuasion by 51%

Prompting strategy (+27%)

Instructing AI to use facts and evidence was more persuasive than all psychological strategies; second

Personalization / microtargeting (+0.5%)

Had a surprisingly small effect on AI persuasion; much less powerful than commonly feared

Tradeoff of optimizing AI for persuasiveness

Models trained to be maximally persuasive were also the LEAST accurate; optimizing for persuasion may come at a cost to truthfulness

Meincke et al. (2025) — Wharton GAIL

Study testing classic human persuasion principles on GPT

Commitment technique on AI (foot

in

Authority technique on AI

Citing an expert identity (e.g., "world

What the AI persuasion study implies

AI systems trained on human text respond to the same persuasion principles humans do, suggesting persuasion may be a learnable cognitive pattern embedded in language

Attitude inoculation

Strengthening resistance to persuasive arguments in advance, analogous to a psychological vaccine

Counterargument inoculation

Building resistance by practicing generating rebuttals to weak attacks on a belief, so stronger future attacks can be resisted

McAlister et al. (1980) tobacco inoculation study

7th graders taught to counter peer pressure to smoke showed significantly lower smoking rates through 9th grade compared to a control school; demonstrates counterargument inoculation

Knowledge inoculation

Building resistance by learning the strategies used to persuade or spread misinformation, so those tactics can be recognized and discounted when encountered

Roozenbeek & van der Linden (2019) Bad News Game study

Participants randomly assigned to play the Bad News Game (learning misinformation tactics by acting as a spreader) rated fake news as significantly less reliable than a Tetris control group across all five test rounds; demonstrates knowledge inoculation

CHAPTER 8: GROUP INFLUENCE

Social facilitation

The phenomenon where the presence of others strengthens the dominant (most likely) response; improves performance on easy/well

When others' presence helps performance

When a task is easy or well

When others' presence hurts performance

When a task is complex or novel; the dominant response is error

Michaels et al. (1982) pool study

Good pool players made more shots when watched; bad pool players made fewer shots when watched — demonstrates that social facilitation depends on skill level and task difficulty

Evaluation apprehension

The concern about how others are evaluating us; one reason why the presence of others causes arousal

Distraction (as a cause of arousal)

Our attention is drawn to others in the room, creating an attentional conflict that generates arousal

Social loafing

The tendency to exert less effort on a collective task when individual contributions cannot be identified; occurs because evaluation apprehension is lower

Why social loafing occurs

When working toward a common goal, it is hard to tell who did what, which lowers evaluation apprehension, which lowers arousal, which reduces effort

When social loafing is LESS likely

When the task is challenging, appealing, or engaging; when group members are close to one another; when there is a large reward tied to individual effort

How to reduce social loafing

Track and make individual performance identifiable, which increases evaluation apprehension

Group (social psychology definition)

Two or more people who, for longer than a few moments, interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as "us"

Three purposes groups serve

Groups help satisfy the need to belong, help us achieve our goals, and help define our social identity

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986)

We categorize ourselves and others based on social characteristics, identify with our groups, and derive self

Deindividuation

A psychological state in which people lose their sense of individual identity when anonymous and part of a group, leading to behavior they would not normally engage in

Why deindividuation leads to unusual behavior

Anonymity reduces self

Diener et al. (1976) Halloween study

Children trick

How to counteract deindividuation

Increase individual accountability and self