Social Influence (social psych p. 1) (week 14)

What is social psychology?

The scientific study of how the (real or imagined) presence of others influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

What is social facilitation?

Improved performance on simple or well-practiced tasks in the presence of others due to increased arousal and evaluation apprehension.

What is social inhibition?

Decreased performance on difficult or unfamiliar tasks when others are present, due to heightened arousal disrupting concentration.

What was Zajonc’s roach study?

Roaches performed better in a simple maze when others were watching (dominant response correct), but worse in a complex maze (dominant response incorrect), showing social facilitation and inhibition.

What is social loafing?

The tendency to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone, especially when individual performance is not monitored.

What are examples of social loafing?

Pulling a rope, cheering or clapping, tipping, donating to charity.

What reduces social loafing?

Evaluating individuals, increasing group cohesion or meaning, and emphasizing individual responsibility and goal value.

Why is social loafing reduced in collectivist cultures?

Cultures like Japan and China emphasize group harmony and collective goals, which reduce the likelihood of individuals slacking in group settings.

What is deindividuation?

A psychological state where individuals lose self-awareness and self-regulation, often in groups or anonymity, leading to anti-normative behavior.

What are examples of deindividuation?

People cheat more in dim lighting, give more shocks when anonymous, and steal more when masked or unnamed during group activities (e.g., trick-or-treating).

What is the bystander effect?

The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present.

What are the causes of the bystander effect?

Pluralistic ignorance (looking to others for cues), diffusion of responsibility (someone else will act), and audience inhibition (fear of embarrassment).

What is pluralistic ignorance?

A situation where people misinterpret others’ inaction as evidence that help is not needed (e.g., smoke in a room study).

What is diffusion of responsibility?

The tendency to assume someone else will act, reducing one’s own feeling of obligation in group settings.

What is audience inhibition?

People may fear negative judgment if they act incorrectly in front of others, which reduces helping behavior.

What was the smoke in the room study?

Latané & Darley (1968) found that 75% of individuals alone reported smoke, but only 10% did with passive others, demonstrating pluralistic ignorance.

What was the mess-in-the-room study with kids?

Children helped more when alone than when with other bystanders, showing diffusion of responsibility (Plötner et al., 2015).

What is an example of audience inhibition in adults?

In a bar, people were less likely to help an experimenter who dropped objects if others were present — but alcohol lowered inhibition and increased helping.

What is compliance?

Agreeing to a request from another person, often through subtle persuasion techniques.

What is the foot-in-the-door technique?

Gaining compliance by starting with a small request, then following it up with a larger request.

What is the lowballing technique?

Gaining commitment to a deal, then revealing hidden costs or drawbacks, making people more likely to follow through anyway.

What is the door-in-the-face technique?

Making a large, likely-to-be-rejected request followed by a smaller one, increasing the chance of compliance through reciprocity.

What is cognitive dissonance?

A psychological discomfort caused by holding conflicting beliefs or behaviors, often resolved by changing one’s attitude or justification.

What was Festinger & Carlsmith’s peg-turning study?

Participants paid $1 (vs. $20) to lie about a boring task rated it as more enjoyable, showing that insufficient external justification led to attitude change.

What is hazing, and how does it relate to dissonance?

Hazing creates cognitive dissonance: people justify the unpleasant initiation by overvaluing the group to reduce discomfort (Aronson & Mills, 1959).

What was Aronson & Mills’ hazing study?

Women who underwent severe initiation rated a boring discussion more positively than those with mild or no initiation, supporting dissonance theory.

What is obedience to authority?

Compliance with commands given by an authority figure, even if it conflicts with personal conscience.

What was Milgram’s obedience study?

Participants believed they were administering electric shocks. 65% obeyed to the maximum voltage under authority pressure at Yale.

What is conformity?

The act of changing behavior or beliefs to match those of others, due to real or imagined group pressure.

What was Sherif’s autokinetic study?

Participants' judgments of a moving light in a dark room converged in group settings, showing conformity in ambiguous situations.

What was Asch’s line study?

Participants conformed to clearly wrong answers about line lengths due to group pressure, even in non-ambiguous situations.

Why do people conform?

They believe others are right (informational influence), want to be accepted (normative influence), or identify with group norms (self-categorization).

What is group polarization?

After discussion, group members tend to adopt more extreme positions in the direction already favored by the group.

What explains group polarization?

Persuasive arguments (hearing new reasons), social comparison (wanting to stand out), and self-categorization (shifting toward perceived group norms).

What is social loafing?

The tendency to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone, especially when individual performance is not monitored. The effect is greatest when tasks are simple, individual contributions are not evaluated, group size is large, and motivation or connection to the group is low.