Social Psychology: Conformity & Groupthink

Social Psychology - Conformity & Groupthink: Social Psychology studies how people think, feel, and behave in social interactions Conformity is the tendency for people to bring their behavior in line with group norms (i.e. “peer pressure”) Informative Influence is when an individual doesn’t know much about a topic so they go to the group for what they should do (i.e. training a dog with a shock collar) Normative Influence is when you do know a lot about a topic and go against your knowledge in order to fit in with the group in order to not be a social outcast Private conformity is when you actually change your beliefs to go with the group (i.e. you ARE convinced) Public conformity is when you temporarily change your beliefs in order to fit with the group (i.e. you are NOT convinced) Groupthink is when maintaining harmony among group members is more important than carefully analyzing the problem at hand (doesn’t lead to the most rational decisions) Group polarization is when a group has varying degrees of radicalness, but when convening, their views end up becoming extreme in the group (i.e. Trump rallies lol) → tends to favor majority view (confirmation bias is when you seek out information to justify your viewpoints) Conformity & Obedience: Obedience describes how we follow orders and obey authority (different than conformity because there is no cognitive aspect here) Compliance is when you perform a behavior in order to attain a reward or to avoid a punishment Identification is when we go along with something because we are motivated by our desire to be a certain person (typically after someone an individual respects) Internalization is when you conform publicly AND privately Ecological Validity refers to the realism with which a design of evaluation setup matches the user's real work context. - Milgram Experiment on Obedience: Milgram studies were developed in order to study participants who were instructed by an authority figure to perform behaviors that conflicted with their personal beliefs and morals This is the shock experiment (65% of participants shocked all the way to the highest level) He used deception in order to recruit individuals Also helps to possibly explain the atrocious acts of the holocaust This experiment was very controversial, ESPECIALLY today (participants were often traumatized from they acts they “inflicted”) Just World Phenomenon refers to the belief that people get what they deserve (good things happen to good people and bad to bad people) Self-serving bias is the common habit of a person taking credit for positive events or outcomes, but blaming outside factors for negative events A Closer Look at the Stanford Prison Experiment: Our actions can often be attributed to situational factors such as the situation with which we are put in. Dispositional factors have to do with our internal personality and beliefs Internalization involves the integration of attitudes, values, standards and the opinions of others into one's own identity or sense of self Demand characteristics refers to a subtle cue that makes participants aware of what the experimenter expects to find or how participants are expected to behave Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed (i.e. who the fuck in their right mind would willingly sign up for the prison experiment) → was it really a random sample? Factors that Influence Obedience & Conformity: Group size means we are more likely to conform in groups of 3-5 Unanimity means we are more likely to conform when the views of a group are unanimous (i.e. Asch line experiment) Group cohesion refers to the degree with which we identify with that group, as in if we identify more with the group, we are more likely to go along with the viewpoints OF that said group Prior commitments also influence the degree of conformity (i.e. if you reject the views then you are more likely to be consistent) Personality doesn’t really affect conformity or obedience Moods have a strong effect (shitty day people are less likely to conform than those having a good day) Lower status individuals are more likely to conform than higher status individuals Individualistic cultures are less likely to conform than collectivist cultures Bystander Effect: Deindividuation is when individuals in a group are more likely to act compulsively, perform crimes or antisocial acts because the presence of the crowd conceals the person’s identity (i.e. Black Friday) → the internet can also do this because it provides the ability to be anonymous - - - Social Facilitation & Social Loafing: Social facilitation refers to the fact that the presence of others increases the chance that the dominant form of a behavior will be shown (i.e. if you don’t practice you’ll suck but if you do practice you’ll do great) This is due to increased arousal in the presence of others Social loafing is the tendency to put forth less effort when working on a group task IF the individual contributes AREN’T evaluated This can be counteracted by adding in a more complicated task or individually grading each person in the group Agents of Socialization: Socialization is the lifelong process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society Primary socialization occurs when children learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture (primarily through their parents) Secondary socialization occurs when individuals learn these same things but from smaller, outside groups of peers