Social Influence

Social influence Conformity, why people conform, types of conformity Obedience to authority Social influence in everyday life Explanations of independent behaviour How social influence research helps us understand social change

1.In order to change people’s racist behaviors, we first need to change their racist attitudes. 2.Most people would refuse to obey and authority figure who told them to hurt an innocent person. 3.Studies of college and professional athletic events indicate that home teams win about 6 in 10 games. 4.Individuals pull harder in a team tug-of-war than when they pull in a one-on-one tug-of war. 5.The higher the morale and harmony of a social group, the more likely are its members to make a good decision. 6.Sex-selective neglect and abortions have resulted in China and India together having 76 million fewer females than they should have. 7.Those who keep a gun in the house are more likely to be murdered. 8.From research on liking and loving, it is clear that opposites attract. 9.We are less likely to offer help to a stranger if other bystanders are present. 10.Putting individuals from two prejudiced groups of people into close contact will defuse conflict. 1. False 2.False 3.True 4.False 5.False 6.True 7.True 8.False 9.True 10.False

Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Avoid rejection or gain social approval. This is ‘normative social influence’.

Informational Social Influence: When we accept others’ opinions about reality.

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What do experiments on conformity and compliance reveal about the power of social influence? Behavior is contagious. We are natural mimics. This is called the chameleon effect.

Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment /3

Asch’s Study of Conformity

About 1/3 of the participants conformed 70% conformed at least once To strengthen conformity: The group is unanimous The group is at least three people One admires the group’s status One had made no prior commitment

How do groups affect our behavior?

When you are good at something, you do it even better when people are watching

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable.

Deindividuation People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self Feel anonymous and aroused Explains rioting behaviors

Group Polarization Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual. e.g. after discussion people supportive of a war become more supportive

Pt. 1 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

Groupthink Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group. They are more concerned with group harmony. Worse in highly cohesive groups. Funny Elevator Psychology

Zimbardo’s Prison Study Showed how we deindividuate AND become the roles we are given. Philip Zimbardo has students at Stanford U play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building. They were given uniforms and numbers for each prisoner. What do you think happened?

Deindividuation People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self. Feel anonymous and aroused. Explains rioting behaviors.

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.