Social influence
What is conformity?
‘A change in behaviour or belief as a result of
real or imagined group pressure’
Definition for 2 AO1
Mention whether private beliefs are changed
or not and whether the change is long lasting.
Give an example.
Shallowest
Compliance
• Refers to instances where a person may agree in
public with a group of people but the person actually
privately disagrees with the group’s viewpoint or
behaviour. This type of conformity therefore does
not lead to a change in a person’s private beliefs and
is temporary.
Identification
• Refers to instances when the individual takes
on the views of a group they join or they
admire. It does not necessarily result in a
change of a person’s private beliefs.
Internalisation
• refers to instances where a person behaves or agrees
with a group of people because they have actually
accepted the group’s point of view or beliefs. This type of
conformity does result in a change in the persons’
private beliefs and attitudes as a result it may have
longer lasting effects than public compliance
(conversion).
Deepest
Studies into compliance
Sherif (1935)
Asch (1951)
Asch’s Results
Variations
At one point the experiment was modified to
determine if the size of the group affected
the participants’ reactions. (the confederate
group varied in size from one to fifteen)
Studies into minority influence
Internalisation
Moscovici (1969)
Clark (1998/1999)
Conditions for Conversion
Consistency
The minority must be consistent in their opinion
Flexibility
The minority must not appear to be rigid & dogmatic
Relevance
The minority will be more successful if their views are
in line with social trends
Commitment
A committed minority will lead people to rethink their
position.
Study into identification
Zimbardo (1973)
Why do we conform?
Normative influence
This refers to instances where someone
conforms in order to fit in and gain approval
or avoid disapproval from other group
members. Leads to conformity.
Informational social influence
This refers to instances where people
conform because they are uncertain about
what to do in a particular situation, so they
look to others for guidance. This
explanation tends to lead to internalisation.
Size of the majority
Gender:
How did the results
change when Asch
changed the number of
confederates?
Larsen et al. (1979)
Males conform more in higher
status groups, Women
conform more in peer groups
Factors influencing
conformity
Culture: Smith
and Bond (1996)
The importance of time
When Asch carried out his
research, the USA was
very conservative, schools
were more hierarchical
than they are now
Individual characteristics:
confidence
Perrin & Spencer (1981)
Obedience
“a person who carries out orders that are given
by a legitimate authority figure.’
Milgram’s study
Sample:
40 male, American
participants with various
educational backgrounds
Recruited by advertisement
in local paper, paid $4
Experimenter:
Dressed with a laboratory coat
Task:
PS told that the
experiment was aimed
to find out the effects
of punishment on
learning
The Ps were ordered
to give the learner an
electric shock if he
made a mistake in the
pairs of words he had
to learn from 15v to
459v in steps of 15 v
Ethics of Milgram’s study
Protection of
participants
Consent
Withdrawal
• Psychological harm (stress during the study) and
learning something unpleasant about
themselves but a year later did not present any
long-lasting effects. Most said they were pleased
that they had taken part.
•The participants gave consent to take part
but it was not informed consent as they were
not told the real aim of the study.
• The participants could withdraw before
reaching 450V and 35% of them did but the
experimenter put them to continue using
prods such as “the experiment require that
you continue” and “you have no choice”.
Ethics of Milgram’s study
Deception
Debriefing
• The participants were told that the study was about
the effect of punishment on learning and it was in fact
about obedience.
• The participants did not know that Mr Wallace (the
learner) was a confederate.
• They were told that they administering real electric
shocks when they were not.
• The participants were debriefed thoroughly
and met Mr Wallace the learner.
• They were also assessed by a psychiatrist a
year later.
Milgram did not break
any ethical guidelines
as they had not been
created
Variations on Milgram's Experiment
(percentages)
Original setup
65
Office building instead of Yale University
47
Teacher and learner in the same room
40
Teacher forces learner's hand onto the shock plate
30
Experimenter leaves the room and gives order by telephone
23
Experimenter leaves the room and ordinary person gives
orders
20
Teacher sees two other teachers rebel
Teacher choses shock level
10
3
Why do people obey?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Gradual commitment
Agency theory
Buffers
Perception of legitimate authority
Personality factors
Gradual commitment
Also referred to as the ‘foot in the door
phenomenon’. This refers to instances where a
person might show some sort of commitment to
a particular task e.g. by starting something and
then as they continue it becomes harder to back
down/change their mind.
450v
.....v
90v
105v
75v
60v
45v
15v
30v
Agency theory
Milgram explained the behaviour of his participants by suggesting that
people actually have two states of behaviour when they are in a social
situation:
• • The autonomous state – people act according to their own values,
and they take responsibility for the results of those actions.
• • The agentic state – people allow others to direct their actions, and
the pass off the responsibility for the consequences to the person
giving the orders. In other words, they act as agents for another
person’s will.
•
• Milgram suggested that two things must be in place in order for a
person to enter the agentic state:
• • The person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct
other people’s behaviour. That is, they are seen as legitimate.
• • The person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority
will accept responsibility for what happens.
Buffers
Any aspects of a situation that protects people
from having to confront the consequences of
their actions.
What aspect of the
situation acted as a
buffer in the original
experiment?
When the participant was
ordered to hold the “learner’s
hand on the shock plate only
30% of the Ps went up to
450v. Use the concept of
buffers to explain this result.
Perception of legitimate authority
We feel obligated to those in power because
we respect their credentials and assume that
they know what they are doing.
Variations on Milgram's
Experiment
(percentages)
Office building…
Teacher forces…
Experimenter…
Teacher choses… 3
47
40
30
23
20
10
What evidence is there
that this factor influenced
the participants?
65
Hofling(‘66) study,Bickman (1974) support
the importance of legitimate authority.
Personality factors
Authoritarian personality
Traits found in authoritarian personality
Hostile to people seen as inferior
Servile to people seen as superior
Contemptuous of weakness
Rigid and inflexible
Intolerant of ambiguity
Unwilling to introspect
Upholder of conventional values
Upbringing:
Harsh, punishing , disciplinarian upbringing
Little affection shown
Unconscious hostility towards parents
Latent hostility towards parents
displaced onto minority groups and /or
projected onto these groups (the
authoritarian fells threatened by
them)
Independent behaviour
Individuals behave independently when they act
according to their own values, they might conform
or obey but only if they agree with the norms or
orders.
Two categories of factors influence independent
behaviour.
Situational factors: factors relating tot he situation
they are in.
Dispositional factors: factors relating to the
individual i.e. Locus of control
Situational factors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Gradual commitment
Size of the majority
Buffers
Perception of legitimate authority
Reactance
In exam:
Describe the factor (AO1)
Quote some research evidence i.e. Variations of Milgram’s
experiment or Asch (AO2)
Dispositional factors
• Locus of control
• Gender
• Moral development
• Personality factors
Locus of Control
The extent to which an individual believes they
are in control of their destiny (internal LOC) or
are at the mercy of events (external LOC)
Key characteristics of individuals with a high internal locus of control:
•They tend to be active seekers of information and are less likely to rely on the opinions of
others (this would imply that such individuals are less likely to conform)
•They also tend to be more achievement-oriented and as a result are more likely to be leaders.
•They are also better able to resist coercion (control) from others
(this implies that they are less likely to obey).
Gender
In Milgram’s research, females obeyed at the
same rates as males. However, other studies
show that females can be less obedient than
men. For instance, Kilham and Mann (1974)
found that Australian females (10% obedience
rate) were less obedient than men (40%
obedience rate) in a Milgram-type procedure.
Moral development
• The extent to which individuals take into
account moral values, the impact of their
decisions and actions on others and on society
as a whole.
• The higher the moral development the more
likely an individual is to act independently.
Personality
• Crutchfield (1955) proposed that people who are more
likely to show independent behaviour have higher selfesteem and intelligence, and less need for social approval,
than people who obey/conform.
• People who score low in the need for social approval
(measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability
Scale) are more likely to show independent behaviour than
those high on the scale (Crowne and Marlowe, 1964).
• People who are more likely to show independent behaviour
score higher on a social responsibility scale than people
who conform/obey (Elms and Milgram, 1974).
Social change
“When society adopts a new
belief or way of behaving which
then becomes widely accepted
as the norm”
Examples of recent social change:
• Ban on smoking in public places
• Recycling
Majority vs Minority Influence
• Majorities maintain the status quo, promoting
uniformity and exerting pressure on those
deviating
• Minority influence is associated with change &
innovation as the ideas cause a social conflict
• For minority influence to work there must be
a conversion in those from the majority
Conditions for Conversion
Consistency
The minority must be consistent in their opinion
Flexibility
The minority must not appear to be rigid & dogmatic
Relevance
The minority will be more successful if their views are
in line with social trends
Commitment
A committed minority will lead people to rethink their
position.
Snow ball effect
This occurs when a minority convert a
small group of people to their views, this
small group convert other people. Over a
period of time the original minority view
can become the view of the majority.
Social crypto amnesia
Minority ideas are assimilated into the
majority viewpoint without those in the
majority remembering where the ideas
came from.
This often happens when the minority
ideas are so strongly associated with
the source that to adopt the message
risks assuming the negative identity of
the source.
Social change
Informational social
influence
i.e. Effects of smoke
inhalation on health
Internalisation:
conversion of a few
people who then
become a minority.
Conditions for Conversion
Snowball effect:
The minority
becomes the
majority
Normative social influence
Compliance to
the majority
norm.
Crypto amnesia