Social Influences on Behavior Chapter 14

Effects of Being Observed  SOCIAL FACILITATION: tendency to perform a task better in front of others than when alone  SOCIAL INTERFERENCE: tendency to perform a task worse in front of others than when alone  The presence of others facilitates performance of dominant actions and interferes with performance of non-dominant actions (Zajonc, 1965)  Increased drive or arousal

Choking Under Pressure  “Choking” occurs with tasks that make heavy demands on your working memory  E.g. choking on academic tests  STEREOTYPE THREAT: during a test, threatened feeling that occurs when a person is reminded that he or she belongs to a group that, according to the stereotype, is expected to do worse

Impression Management  IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT: the entire set of ways by which people either consciously or unconsciously attempt to influence other people’s impressions of them  All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. –Shakespeare  We are more concerned with impression management with new people versus people we already know

Effect’s of Others’ Examples and Opinions  INFORMATIONAL INFLUENCE: influence that derives from the use of others’ behavior or opinions as information in forming one’s own judgment  NORMATIVE INFLUENCE: influence that derives from people’s concern about what others will think of them if they behave in a certain way or express a certain belief  Asch’s Conformity Experiment: On average, participants conformed On 37% of the 12 critical trials.

Norms as Forces for Helpful and Harmful Actions  “Broken Windows” Theory of Crime  Crime is encouraged by physical evidence of unlawfulness and chaos  The Passive Bystander Effect  A person is much more likely to help if they are the only witness than if other witnesses are also present

Norms, continued.

Social Pressure in Group Discussions  GROUP POLARIZATION: tendency for a group of people who already share a particular opinion to hold that opinion more strongly (or in a more extreme form) after discussing the issue among themselves  GROUP THINK: model of thinking in which members of a group are more concerned with group cohesiveness and unanimity than with realistic appraisal of the actions being considered.  A group that values the dissenter rather than ostracizes that person is a group that has the potential to make fully informed, rational decisions.

Effects of Others’ Requests  Cognitive dissonance acts as a force for compliance  Theory of cognitive dissonance - people are made uncomfortable by contradictions among their beliefs, or between their beliefs and their actions, and their discomfort motivates them to change their beliefs or actions to maintain consistency. Trick where the salesperson suggests a low price for the item being sold, and then when the potential buyer agrees to buy it, “discovers” that the item cannot be sold for that price The Low-Ball Technique Technique for gaining compliance in which one first asks for some relatively small contribution or favor before asking for a larger one The Foot-in-the-door Technique The widespread sense of obligation that people have to return favors (pregiving). Reciprocity Norm

Milgram’s Obedience Study 

Explaining Milgram’s Finding 1 The norm of obedience to legitimate authorities 2 The experimenter’s self-assurance and acceptance of responsibility 3 The proximity of the experimenter and the distance of the learner 4 The absence of an alternative model of how to behave 5 The incremental nature of the requests

Group Against Group  The Robbers Cave Experiment (Sherif, 1950s)  The Eagles vs. The Rattlers  Escalating Conflict 1.Within-group solidarity 2.Negative stereotyping of the other group 3.Hostile between-group interactions

Resolving the Conflict  Failure to reduce hostility: peace meetings, individual competitions, joint participation in pleasant activities  SUPERORDINATE GOALS: goals shared by two or more groups, which tend to foster cooperation among the groups