Social Influence

• Social Psychology Overview

  Social psychology is the study that explores how an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others, whether those others are real or imagined. It encompasses various phenomena such as the home team advantage, racial discrimination, gang behavior motivations, and the explanations individuals provide for their own and others' actions. This understanding of social influence is fundamental in grasping human interactions and motivations.

  Norms and Social Influence

  • Norms: These are powerful guidelines for behavior that are dictated by culture and society. Normative expectations inform individuals on how to act in a variety of social circumstances. Adhering to these norms helps individuals navigate social interactions successfully.

  Types of Social Influence

  1. Normative Social Influence: This form of influence leads individuals to change their behaviors or beliefs to fit in with a group, primarily motivated by the desire for acceptance and to avoid rejection.

  2. Informational Social Influence: This occurs when individuals look to others for guidance on behavior or decision-making, seeking social proof from those perceived to have better knowledge or insight.

  3. Social Influence Theory: This theory posits that social influence can be divided into normative and informational types.

  Persuasion Techniques

  Persuasion involves strategies used to convince oneself or others to adopt certain ideas or actions. Two major routes to persuasion are:

  • Central Route of Persuasion: This approach relies on the strength and relevance of the message's content, effective when the audience is motivated to pay attention. When successful, it fosters lasting attitude change.

  • Peripheral Route of Persuasion: This relies on superficial attributes like the speaker's attractiveness or delivery style to influence listeners, often effective with less informed audiences.

  Cognitive Biases in Perception

  • Halo Effect: This refers to the tendency to associate positive traits with physically attractive individuals, impacting judgments about their morality, mental health, or intelligence. Conversely, the Horn Effect identifies the bias where a negative trait can shape negative perceptions of an individual.

  Change in Attitudes and Behavior

  1. Foot-in-the-Door Technique: This strategy involves starting with a small request and then escalating to larger requests, increasing compliance.

  2. Door-in-the-Face Technique: This involves making a large request first, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request to gain agreement.

  Conformity and Obedience

  • Conformity: This involves changing behavior or beliefs to align with group norms, influenced by factors including group size and unanimity. Solomon Asch’s experiments illustrate this concept.

  • Obedience: Obedience entails altering behavior in response to orders from an authority figure, which can be highlighted in Stanley Milgram’s studies on obedience.

  Psychological States and Group Dynamics

  • Deindividuation: This state occurs when individuals lose their sense of individual identity within a group, often leading to behaviors that contradict personal values. Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment showcases this phenomenon.

  • Bystander Effect: The Genovese Effect suggests that with more witnesses in an emergency, individual responsibility to help diminishes. This is compounded by diffusion of responsibility, where individuals feel less inclined to intervene due to the presence of others.

  Altruistic Behavior

  Prosocial Behavior: Actions intended to benefit others, driven by empathy and concern for others' welfare. Altruism can sometimes manifest as selfless behavior, though motivations may be complex, such as social reciprocity norms.

  Workplace Psychology

  Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologists focus on employee behaviors and interactions within organizational settings, studying management practices and workplace satisfaction.

  Group Influence on Behavior

  1. Social Loafing: Individuals may exert less effort when part of a group than when working alone.

  2. False Consensus Effect: Individuals may perceive that others share their opinions more than they actually do.

  3. Group Polarization: Individuals' views may become more extreme after discussions within a group, further influenced by social media dynamics.

  4. Groupthink: This phenomenon describes how group cohesion can lead to poor decision-making by prioritizing harmony over critical evaluation.

  5. Social Facilitation: The presence of others may enhance performance, while Social Inhibition can impair it.

  Goal-Oriented Group Dynamics

  Certain group activities, such as nuclear disarmament, demonstrate how disparate groups can unite under superordinate goals, reducing conflict. Social Traps highlight scenarios where immediate personal gains lead to long-term negative consequences for communities.

  Cultural Perspectives on Individuality

  Cultural frameworks can deeply influence an individual’s perception and behavior:

  • Individualistic Cultures emphasize personal goals and achievements, encouraging independence.

  • Collectivistic Cultures prioritize group harmony and social cooperation, often making decisions based on collective welfare rather than individual desires.

  Social Comparison Theory

  This theory outlines how individuals assess their worth in relation to others. Key concepts include:

  • Upward Comparison: Comparing oneself to those deemed superior, which may lead to feelings of inadequacy.

  • Downward Comparison: Comparing oneself to those perceived as worse off, often to boost self-esteem.

  Cognitive Influences on Attitudes

  • Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to stimuli can increase liking and acceptance. A lack of exposure can lead to stereotypes and prejudice.

  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Expectations can influence behavior, often causing the predicted outcome to occur.

  • Attribution Theories: This involves how individuals explain behavior through dispositional (internal) and situational (external) attributions, influenced by explanatory styles.

  Biases in Attribution and Beliefs

  1. Self-Serving Bias: Individuals attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors, protecting self-esteem.

  2. Fundamental Attribution Error: This occurs when observers overemphasize dispositional explanations for others' behaviors while neglecting situational influences.

  3. Just World Phenomenon: This leads individuals to rationalize injustices, often blaming victims to maintain a belief in a fair world.

  4. Belief Perseverance: This is a tendency to hold onto beliefs even when presented with contradicting information, which can be strengthened by confirmation bias.

  Cognitive Dissonance

  Cognitive dissonance, as explored by Leon Festinger, describes the mental discomfort experienced when actions contradict attitudes. Individuals are motivated to align their beliefs with their behaviors to alleviate this discomfort.

  In-Group and Out-Group Dynamics

  • In-Groups are groups individuals identify with, often exhibiting favor through In-Group Bias.

  • Out-Groups are those individuals do not identify with, leading to Out-Group Homogeneity Effect, where stereotypes regarding out-group behavior are formed without recognizing individual differences.

Ethnocentrism and Discrimination

• Ethnocentrism: This refers to the perception that one’s own culture is superior to others.

• Stereotypes: These are oversimplified mental images of group characteristics, often the basis for prejudice and discrimination.

• Discrimination: This involves negative actions directed towards an individual based on group membership, while prejudice refers to attitudes held towards those groups.