Social Influence and Conformity

Flashcards reviewing the definitions and key concepts of social influence, conformity, and related studies.

Social Influence is defined as:

any change in an individual's thoughts, feelings, or behavior caused by other people, who may be actually present or whose presence is imagined, expected, or only implied.

___ is also known as yielding to group pressure or peer pressure.

a change to a person's behavior or opinions because of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

According to the notes, what are the two reasons people conform?

People conform because they depend on other people for approval and ___.

Informational Social Influence (SI) is ___

conforming because of belief in superior knowledge or judgment of others and leads to a change in private opinion.

found that pps exposed to negative information about Arican Americans (which they were led to believe was a majority view) later reported more negative beliefs about a black individual.

Wittenbrink and Henley (1996)

Normative Social Influence (NI) is ___

conforming to be liked or respected by a group of other people and does not lead to a change in private opinion.

found that hotel guests exposed to normative message that 75% guest re-used their towels each day rather than requesting fresh ones, reduced their own towel usage by 25% suggesting that people shape their behavior out of a desire to fit in reference to their group.

Schultz et al (2008)