Introductory Psychology Concepts Instructor name Class Title, Term/Semester, Year Institution © 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Social Influence

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2 Social Influence Compliance The adjustment of individual behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs to a group standard. Foot-in-the-door People use a small request in hopes that you will later comply with a large request. Door-in-the-face Making a large request that is expected to be rejected, and then presenting a smaller, more approachable request. Low-balling Getting you to conform to an action, then increasing the cost of said action. That’s-not-all Presenting a request, with following incentives that “sweeten the pot”. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 3 Social Influence Groupthink: Tendency for group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence Antecedent conditions Some symptoms of groupthink Groupthink increases risk of defective decision making 1. High stress to reach a decision 2. Insulation of the group 3. Directive leadership 4. High cohesiveness 1. Illusion of invulnerability (group overestimates itself) 2. Direct pressure on dissenters 3. Self-censorship 4. Illusion of unanimity 5. Self-appointed mind guards 1. Incomplete survey of alternatives 2. Incomplete survey of objectives 3. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice 4. Poor information search 5. Failure to reappraise alternatives

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 4 In Asch’s classic (1956) conformity experiments, students were asked to judge which of three comparison lines was the same length as the standard line. Upon hearing other group members say that line 1 was the correct match, participants wondered whether their own judgments were correct. A213 Comparison linesStandard line Social Influence: Solomon Asch Conformity Studies Compliance, or conformity—the adjustment of individual behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs to a group standard. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 5 Social Influence: Stanley Milgram Obedience Studies The Dilemma of Obedience: When Conscience Confronts Malevolent Authority Stanley Milgram (1974) asked a disturbing question: Would ordinary citizens obey the orders of an authority figure if those orders meant physically harming an innocent person? He conducted 18 studies between 1960 and 1963 to answer this question and to identify factors that increased or decreased obedience to authority. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 6 Social Influence: Stanley Milgram Obedience Studies The Dilemma of Obedience: When Conscience Confronts Malevolent Authority Milgram’s Method: Participants: 40 men, years old, “teachers”. Each participant was introduced to a “learner” (confederate). Participants were told that the experiment studied the effects of punishment on memory. Each time the learner made an error, the teacher was instructed to administer an electric shock, beginning with 15 volts and increasing to 450 volts. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 7 Social Influence: Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Studies Milgram’s Results: Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence This graph shows the percentage of male participants who continued to shock the learner through various voltage levels. SOURCE: Based on Milgram, Slight 15 volts Strong 135 volts Intense 255 volts Danger: Severe Shock 375 volts Moderate 75 volts Ver strong 195 volts Extreme intensity 315 volts XXX volts Percentage of people obeying command at each shock level

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 8 Social Influence: Due to The Presence of Others Social Facilitation A person performs a task individually (in front of an audience or with a co-actor) and does not pool his/her effort with anyone. Social Loafing The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Social Influence