Lecture 5- social influence, conformity, persuasion

What is social influence?

How others affect our beliefs, attitudes, values, or behaviour

What is social learning?

Capacity to learn from observing others

How do mirror neurons facilitate social learning?

• Activated both when one does an action oneself

• And when one simply observes another person perform that action

Describe Social learning theory (Bandura)

• Observational learning

• We are encouraged or discouraged to engage in new behaviours after viewing someone else engaging in these behaviours

According to social learning theory, what does the likelihood of replicating behaviours depend on?

Consequences

What study by Bandura supports social learning theory?

The bobo doll experiment

What is the chameleon effect?

Tendency to mimic nonverbal mannerisms of someone else

How does our attitude change when we like a person (chameleon effect)?

We shift attitudes towards what we think another person’s opinion might be

What is a strength of social learning?

It is adaptive- beneficial for survival

What is a limitation of social learning?

• Can increase the likelihood of maladaptive/negative behaviours

• e.g celebrity suicides → increases suicide among the general public

What is an injunctive norm?

What behaviours are generally appropriate in one’s culture

What is a descriptive norm?

A belief about what most people typically do

What is social cognition?

The phenomenon whereby ideas, feelings, and behaviours seems to spread across people like wildfire

What are some examples of socially contagious behaviours?

• Yawns

• Laughter

• Applause

• Moods

A confederate rubs their face.

Are participants more likely to rub their face or shake their foot as a result?

Rub their face

A confederate shakes their foot.

Are participants more likely to rub their face or shake their foot as a result?

Shake their foot

What is conformity as defined by Sherif?

Individual alters their beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour to bring them in accordance with those of a majority

Describe Asch’s (1951) conformity experiment

• Participants were placed in a group of confederates

• Confederates gave incorrect answers to a simple visual judgement task (judging length of lines)

What does Asch’s (1951) conformity study find?

• 32% of participants conformed to the group’s incorrect answers

• Even though the correct answer was obvious

Define public compliance

Conforming to fit in with a group, without changing beliefs

Define private acceptance

Conforming by altering private beliefs and public behaviour

Define informational influence

Others used as a source of information about the world

Why do people conform?

Normative influence

Define normative influence

Occurs when we use others to know how to fit in

What % of participants in Asch (1951) never conformed in at least one trial?

25%

Why may participants NOT have conformed to the group opinion in Asch (1951)?

• Gender differences

• Size of group exerting

• Group member unanimity

• Familiarity with task

How did the % of participants conforming change as the number of confederates giving wrong answer increased?

% of participants conforming increased

Describe the personality of those less likely to conform?

• High need to achieve

• Propensity to be leaders

• Greater self-awareness

• High self-esteem

Define obedience

• Actions to fulfill the direct order or command of another person

• The pressure to obey is direct and explicit

When is obedience sometimes essential?

• Preserve societal health and functioning

• e.g social distancing during COVID-19

What factors increased obedience in Milgram (1961)?

• Separation from the ‘learner’ (confederate)

• Legitimacy of authority of experimenter (wearing a lab coat)

What factors decreased obedience in Milgram (1961)?

Removing the experimenter from the room

What other factors influenced obedience in Milgram (1961)?

• Closeness to authority figure

• Closeness of the ‘learner’

• Witnessing defiance

What % of participants obeyed when the participant only delivered the memory test (someone else administered the shocks) in Milgram (1961)?

92.5%

What % of participants obeyed in the original Milgram (1961)?

65%

What % of participants obeyed when Milgram’s (1961) study occurred in an unimpressive downtown office building?

48%

What % of participants obeyed when the learner was in the same room in Milgram (1961)?

40%

What % of participants obeyed when they had to physically place the learner’s hand on the shock plate in Milgram (1961)?

30%

What % of participants obeyed when the experimenter phones in the instructions in Milgram (1961)?

21%

What % of participants obeyed when the experimenter was replaced by another participant in ordinary clothes in Milgram (1961)?

20%

What % of participants obeyed in the presence of two defiant participants in Milgram (1961)?

10%

Are there gender differences in obedience?

• No

• Women show the same obedience as men

Are there culture differences in obedience?

• No

• People from different cultures show similar obedience

What individual differences influence obedience?

• Submissive personality

• Education

Does Milgram (1961) have temporal validity?

• Some variations/replications suggest similar obedience today as in Milgram’s time

• Yes?

Why do we obey?

• Innate predisposition to obey authority

• Socialised to obey authority

• Gradual increases in obedience

• Difficulty in defying a legitimate authority

Define persuasion

Intentional efforts to change other people’s attitudes to change their behaviour

What are attitudes?

• Evaluation of a stimulus

• Can range from positive to negative

What is the main target of persuasion techniques?

Attitudes

What is elaboration likelihood model?

• Persuasive messages influence attitudes by 2 different routes

• Central routes

• Peripheral routes

What are the 2 routes according to the elaboration likelihood model?

• Central routes

• Peripheral routes

Describe the processing of central routes of persuasion

• Effortful

• Comparing arguments with prior knowledge

• Generating thought

• Direct, logic, and evidence based

What does the central route use to persuade?

Strong arguments

Describe the processing of peripheral routes of persuasion

• Automatic and effortless

• Indirect, emotional based

• Use of irrelevant, peripheral cues and heuristics

What does the peripheral route use to persuade?

Peripheral cues

What persuasion route is used if the audience is motivated and able to elaborate on the message?

Central route

What persuasion route is used if the audience is NOT motivated and able to elaborate on the message?

Peripheral route

What is the role of motivation in the elaboration likelihood model?

Relevancy to goals and interests contributes to the level of effort we devote to thinking deeply (elaborating) about a message

What determines which persuasion route is taken?

Relevance to goals

What persuasion route do we use when we have strong motivation?

• Central route

• Rely on argument strength

When are peripheral routes effective?

• Preventing maladaptive health behaviours from forming

• e.g tobacco packaging

When are peripheral routes NOT effective? Why?

• Not effective to change persistent behaviours

• e.g as the evocative tobacco packaging did not stop everyone smoking

• If we are motivated to continue smoking, we will discount peripheral routes of persuasion

Were participants who were mildly distracted more or less likely to disagree with the argument for a tuition cut?

Less likely

How does distraction influence elaboration?

Lots of distraction leaves us unable to elaborate

Describe attitudes formed through the central route

• Stronger

• More durable, longlasting

• Resistant to contrary information

• More likely to affect behaviour

Why are attitudes formed through the central route stronger?

They require deep thinking

What factors influence the source credibility of the persuasive messge?

• Appearance

• Perceived expertise

How does the appearance of trustworthiness influence source credibility?

• Overheard conversation boost confidence in source

• Argument of position opposes your self-interests

• Display of authenticity and uniqueness

Describe DeBono and Harnish (1988)

• Students were asked to react to issues on campus

• Including the pom-pom squad’s calendar which included the cheerleaders dressed in bathing suits posing with university president

• Listened to recorded opinions of campus community members

• Either expert source or control source

• Expert source

  • Psychologist ‘Dr Leonard Charles’

  • Nationally known

  • Well-published

  • Specialised in effects of print media on attitudes and beliefs

• Control source

  • Leonard Charles

  • Active in student government

  • Conveys consensus of students

What was the strong argument in DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

• Calendar promotes sexist attitudes

• Reinforced gender stereotypes

• Tarnished university image with presence of male staff

What was the weak argument in DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

• Calendar gives free advertising to swimsuit manufacturers

• People may focus on cheerleaders rather than athletes

Does the strong argument have high or low elaboration DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

Low elaboration

Does the weak argument have high or low elaboration DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

High elaboration

Does the expert source have high or low elaboration DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

Low elaboration

Does the control source have high or low elaboration DeBono and Harnish (1988)?

High elaboration

What did DeBono and Harnish (1988) find?

• Expert source resulted in more positive attitudes towards the calendar for the strong argument

• Control source resulted in more positive attitudes towards the calendar for the weak argument

• Strong argument → expert source > control source

• Weak argument → expert source < control source

What is the sleeper effect?

We remember a message but forget where it came from

How does source credibility affect attitudes over time (sleeper effect)?

Source credibility has a diminishing effect on attitudes over time

What is the primacy effect?

Initially encountered information primarily influences attitudes

What is the recency effect?

Recently encountered information primarily influences attitude

What does the likelihood of the primacy vs recency effect depend on?

Timing

Message 1 → message 2 → time delay =

Primacy effect

Message 1 → time delay → message 2 =

Recency effect

What are 2 peripheral routes of persuasion?

• Classical conditioning

• Mere exposure effect

How does classical conditioning act as a peripheral route of persusion?

• We often associate pre-existing emotions with targeted stimuli

• Transference of positive emotions with stimuli

What is the mere exposure effect?

• Repetition and familiarity

• e.g product placement

How does self-perception theory explain compliance?

Once we freely engage in a behaviour, we often adopt attitudes that are consistent with that behaviour

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

People are more likely to comply with a moderate request after having initially complied with a smaller request

Describe the ‘norm for social commitment’

Once people make a public agreement, they tend to stick to it, even if circumstances change

What is an example of a norm for social commitment?

Lowballing

What is lowballing?

After agreeing to an offer, people find it hard to break that commitment, even if extra cost is later added to the deal

Describe the ‘norm of reciprocity’

• Often used to induce compliance

• Often plays a role in negotiations

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

We are more likely to comply with a moderate request after first presented with and refused to agree to larger request

Who is Robert Cialdini?

• Social psychologist made popular in 1980s

• Wrote a book The Psychology of Persuasion

• Worked on campaigns for Obama etc