Review Article
David Nippard 201005264
A Study of Normative and Informational Social Influences upon Individual Judgment
The experimental studies conducted by Morton Deutsch and Harold B Gerard were
developed in a way to prove that social influences have an impact on an individual’s
psychological processes. Furthermore, Social influences can also affect individual’s decision
making and judgment. Individuals rely on the judgments and perceptions of other individuals as
a trustworthy source of correct evidence in regards of reality. Also, According to Deutsch and
Gerard, these social influences maybe categorized into two types, “informational” and
“normative” . (Deutsch and Gerard, 1955).
Deutsch and Gerard broke their study of social influences into VI different hypothesis
categories, all in which describe different scenarios and different outcomes. Their hypotheses are
as follows; Hypothesis I: Individuals forming a group will experience greater normative social
influence than individuals who are not forming a group. Hypothesis 2: When individuals
judgments cannot be identified , normative social influence will be reduced towards individual’s
judgment. Hypothesis 3: Normative social influence to believe an individual’s own judgment
will reduce the effect of a normative social influence to believe other’s judgments and
perceptions. Hypothesis 4: Normative social influence from others as well as one’s self
judgment will be greater than just normative social influence from oneself, solely. Hypothesis 5:
The greater the uncertainty of an individual’s own judgment, the more susceptible they are to the
normative social influence and judgment of others. Hypothesis 6: The greater the uncertainty of
the correctness of others’ judgment, the likeliness of the susceptibility of social influence is less
(Deutsch and Gerard, 1955).
Through the use of different scenarios and experiments it is not a surprise that the
judgments and perceptions of other individuals should be taken into consideration and also
Review Article
David Nippard 201005264
weighed in with the judgment of one’s own perspective. The use of normative social influence
can be a useful tool in making an individual have their own correct judgments, and not be
affected by the judgments of a group. However social normative influence does play a role in the
confidence of one’s own judgment (Deutsch and Gerard, 1955). The results of the experiments
conducted show that when an individual is a part of a group, the normative social influences are
greatly increased, which creates a greater amount of errors in the individuals own judgment
(Deutsch and Gerard, 1955).
Review Article
David Nippard 201005264
References
Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B. (1955). A study of normative and informational social influences
upon individual judgment. The Journal Of Abnormal And Social Psychology, 51(3), 629-636.
doi:10.1037/h0046408
Review Article
David Nippard 201005264
A Study of Normative and Informational Social Influences upon Individual Judgment
Psychology 240 Article review
Submitted to: Jenna Wright
Submitted by: David Nippard 201005264
November 7th, 2012