Conformity, Compliance, & Obedience:
Lecture #6 topics
 The automaticity of social influence
 Conformity
 Compliance
 Obedience
The automaticity of social influence
social influence:
 the ways in which we are affected by the real/
imagined _________ of other people
 we are vulnerable to subtle influences
 e.g., _________, _________
 effects occur within 72 hours of birth
The automaticity of social influence
HIGH
LOW
Frequency of participant's actions
Chartrand & Bargh (1999):
Participant rubs face
Participant taps foot
Confederate rubs
face
Confederate taps foot
The automaticity of social behaviour
the _________ effect (non-conscious mimicry):
 _________ mimicking people’s subtle actions
 _________ our social interactions with them
 evidence: when a confederate mimicked them,
participants liked him _________
Conformity
conformity:
 changing our perceptions, opinions, & behaviour
to be _________ with _________
 social norms are difficult to violate
 e.g., wearing jeans to a wedding
Conformity
SHERIF’S (1936) “AUTOKINETIC EFFECT” STUDY:
individual session
 dot of light appeared before
participant in darkened
room
 task: estimate the distance
the light had moved
group sessions
 same procedure, except
participants worked in
groups of 3 over 3 sessions
 after a few trials, their
estimates converged on
their own _________ norms
 after a few trials,
participants’ estimates
converged on a _________
norm
Conformity
Distance estimates
Sherif (1936):
Participant 1
Participant 2
Participant 3
Individual
Session
Group
Session 1
Group
Session 2
Group
Session 3
individual
estimates
converged on
group norm
Conformity
ASCH’S (1951) “LINE JUDGMENT” STUDY:
 participants either worked alone or with 6 other
“participants” (confederates)
 task: announce which of 3 comparison lines (X,
Y, Z) was same length as target line (A)
Conformity
Is A the same
length as X, Y,
or Z?
A
X
Y Z
Conformity
Asch (1951):
LOW
# of incorrect judgments
HIGH
Alone
6-person group
Conformity
WHY DO PEOPLE CONFORM?
informational influence
 desire to be correct, esp.
when physical reality is
ambiguous
 leads to _________
(_________): changes in
both outward behaviour &
inward beliefs
normative influence
 desire to avoid social
deviance & to be accepted
 e.g., _________ study;
religious converts
 e.g., _________ study;
politicians
 leads to _________
(_________): change in
outward behaviour but not
inward beliefs
Conformity
The difference between private & public
conformity:
 people who have _________ conformed
maintain that change
 _________ participants maintained normative group
estimates up to 1 year following original study
 people who have _________ conformed do not
maintain that change
 _________ participants’ conformity dropped when
they wrote their answers in private
Conformity
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONFORMITY
group size:
conformity increases with group size up to a
certain point
 beyond _________ people, additional influence is
negligible
Conformity
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONFORMITY
having an ally:
any dissent—whether it validates your opinion or
not—is enough to break normative pressures to
conform
Conformity
minority influence:
 process by which dissenters can bring about
change in a group
 most influential when they are _________ ,
_________ , & _________
 _________ shows that they are unwilling to yield,
forcing majority to compromise
Compliance
the language of request:
 mindlessness can _________ compliance
 e.g., Langer (1978): butting in line for the photocopier
 mindlessness can _________ compliance
 e.g., ignoring panhandlers
 compliance can be increased by unusual requests
(“spare some change” vs. “spare 17¢”)
Compliance
_________:
 we should treat others as they’ve treated us
 we feel obligated to comply with people’s
requests as repayment
 e.g., Regan’s (1971) “pop” study
 wait staff write “thank you” on bills to increase tips
Compliance
SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES
foot-in-the-door technique:
break the ice with a small request that can’t be
refused, then follow up with a bigger request
 e.g., Freedman & Fraser (1966) _________ study
Conformity
Freedman & Fraser (1966):
Compliance rate
HIGH
LOW
No phone survey; outrageous
request only
Phone survey first, then
outrageous request
Conformity
SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES (cont’d)
low-ball technique:
committing to an attractive proposition before
hidden costs are revealed
 once you’ve committed yourself to a decision, you
justify it to yourself & resist changing your mind
Conformity
SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES (cont’d)
door-in-the-face technique:
_________ of a large initial request, followed by
a second, more _________ request
 e.g., taking juvenile delinquents to the zoo
Compliance
Compliance rate
HIGH
LOW
Modest request only
Large request, followed by
modest request
Compliance
WHY DOES DOOR-IN-THE-FACE WORK?
_________:
_________ request seems smaller than larger,
_________ request, so we concede
_________:
when someone backs down from a large request,
we respond by conceding to the smaller request
Obedience
obedience:
behaviour change produced by the commands of
authority figures
Adolf Eichmann
Obedience
Milgram’s (1963) obedience study:
75 to 105 volts
120 volts
150 volts
330 volts
Obedience
psychiatrists, university students, & middle-class
adults predicted that:
 they would quit at _________
 other people would quit at _________
psychiatrists also predicted that _________
people would go all the way to 450 volts
Obedience
Milgram’s (1963) results:
Participants who stopped at this level
Shock level (volts) # participants /40 % of participants
300
5
12.5
315
330
345
360
4
2
1
1
10
5
2.5
2.5
375
450
1
2.5
Obedience
what makes a person so obedient?
the _________ personality:
 ethnocentric, intolerant of dissent, punitive
 _________ to authority figures; _________
to “subordinates”
 more likely to administer higher shock levels
Obedience
SITUATIONAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER
the authority figure:
 his _________ & *apparent* legitimacy influenced
obedience
 obedience dropped when:
 experiment moved from Yale to rundown building (___%)
 experimenter was replaced by a “participant” (___%)
 experimenter issued commands by phone (___%)
Obedience
the victim:
 participants were _________ from the student
 could maintain emotional distance from the
consequences of their actions
 obedience rates dropped when:
 participants sat in same room as student (___%)
 participants had to hold student’s hand down on
shock plate (___%)
Obedience
the procedure:
 participants didn’t feel personally _________
because experimenter _________
 obedience dropped when participants thought they
were personally responsible
 _________ escalation of commitment
 couldn’t escape the situation once they realized what
they were doing (_________)
 similar to how torturers of political prisoners are
trained
Defiance
disobedience is a _________ act:
 having just 1 ally/ dissenter is enough to give
people courage to dissent as well
 obedience dropped when participant was joined by
___ co-teachers who refused to continue (___%)