Social Influence Final Notes

Ch. 9: Social Influence Conformity : changing beliefs or behaviors in response to explicit or implicit pressure (real or imagined) According to the textbook, conformity can be beneficial for society because it leads to smoother social interactions. Compliance- responding favorably to an explicit request Obedience- In an unequal power relationship, submitting to the demands of the person in authority Normative Social InfluenceNot asserting yourself because you wish to avoid disapproval, ridicule,rejection, and other unpleasant social responses. Normative social influence often has a greater impact on public compliance than on private acceptance People who hold a minority view tend to change the majority opinion through informational social influence Ch. 9: Social Influence Negative state relief hypothesis: people engage in certain activities (such as complying with a request)to relieve their negative feelings and feel better about themselves Emotion-based Approaches for Eliciting Compliance Researchers asked Catholics to donate to the March of Dimes either when they were on their to church for confession, or when they were on their way out. People gave more money before confession, guilt influences can motivate compliance Norm of reciprocity A norm that people should provide benefits to those who benefit them. Those who don’t conform to this norm are often called names, such as moocher, parasite, and leech Descriptive Norm Behavior exhibited by most people in a given context Prescriptive Norm The way a person is supposed to behave in a given context Most effective approach = prescriptive + positive descriptive Techniques for eliciting compliance: The foot-in-the-door techniqueAsk for something small (that speaks to identity) before asking for something bigger Ch. 9: Social Influence Following his initial experiment, Milgram conducted several additional experiments to examine factors that might increase or decrease obedience to authority. In one of these experiments, Milgram showed that participants were less likely to obey the experimenter’s orders if the experimenter’s requests to continue were issued over a telephone. Understanding People’s Behavior in the Milgram Experiment Ineffective disobedience (“They tried to disobey but failed”) Release from responsibility Step-by-step involvement (just a little shock and just a little more) Chapter 14: Altruism and Cooperation Daniel Batson (1991) has argued that there are three main motives for helping others: Social rewards, personal distress, and empathic concern Three Main Motives for Helping Others Social rewards Benefit (praise, gratitude) gained from helping others Personal distress The need to reduce one’s own distress Empathic concern Identifying with someone in need, feeling and understanding their experience, accompanied by intention to help that person How might the ambiguity of a situation influence altruistic behavior? When others are around, we are unlikely to help someone else Because we assume someone else will do it (diffusion of responsibility) Because we are afraid of looking foolish Pluralistic ignorance if no one else is reacting, then I must be mistaken in my assessment of the situation What might increase the likelihood of being helped? Reduce any ambiguity Screaming for help(reduces ambiguity of situation by clarifying the urgency) Make your need clear (signals unambiguous need) One is more likely to receive help in a rural setting than an urban setting and population density matters ... but only up to a certain point. Much more likely to be helped in a town of 1,000, than in a town of 5,000 Kin selection -natural selection promotes behaviors that increase the chances of survival of genetic relatives THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA GAME- A situation involving payoffs to two people who must decide whether to cooperate or defect. THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA Cooperative BrainReward-related regions exhibit increased activation when women cooperate with strangers (playing a Prisoner’s Dilemma game while viewed in an fMRI) Same regions activated by... Sweet tastes Pleasant smells Pictures of tropical vacations Pleasing touches ReputationThe collective beliefs, evaluations, and impressions people hold about an individual within a social network Greater competition (on the first round) when the prisoner’s dilemma was called “Wall Street” Greater cooperation when it was called “The Community Game We are more likely to cooperate with, and provide assistance to those who have helped us in the past Axelrod’s Perspective: Given its universality and emergence in the most unlikely of social contexts, cooperation must be part of our evolutionary heritage. Cooperation around the world People who live in cultures requiring high amounts of interdependence for survival (for example, food sharing) allocated resources more fairly during an ultimatum game than did people from other cultures.