Social Influence: Conformity & Obedience By: Audrey Cashman, Jackson Smith, and Paisley Spence

Social Norms Social norms are the unspoken rules that define behavior in social situations. These norms can change from group to group depending on the social group you're with. The "norm" differs from culture to culture and even group to group within one society. Norms are thought to be an effective means to maintain social welfare.

Conformity Conformity is defined as action and in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc.

Solomon Asch Solomon Asch's Line Study was designed to evaluate the extent to which others influence your decision. Using planted participants to influence the real subjects, Asch was able to see when and why we do what people expect or what we know to be right.

Solomon Asch The experiment was to see what effect the planted subjects had on the real subject in terms of following social cues. Most subjects conformed readily and when asked why later, they said they didn't want to stand out as being "peculiar" so they chose incorrectly.

7 Reasons when and why we conform Conformity tends to increase in the following situation: 1. You feel incompetent or insecure 2. You are in a group of three or more 3. The rest of the group is unanimous 4. You are impressed by the status of the group 5.You have made no prior commitments to a response 6. You are being observed by others in the group 7. Your culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

Stanley Milgram Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist who studied conformity and how it changes based on expectations. " He concluded people obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative--even when acting against their own better judgment and desires" --University of California Berkeley Zwk

Milgram Experiment - Results and Significance: "The lesson Milgram wanted us to carry away was that ordinary people can be corrupted by an evil situation. Despite the predictions of behavior experts, normal, everyday, well-adjusted men and women were willing to follow orders and severely punish another human for making a mistake. Soldiers also may follow orders and shoot unarmed civilians. Milgram said, in summarizing his findings, 'The fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.' Situational factors, such as the presence of an authority figure, have far more influence on our behavior than most of us realize." Psychology Textbook