Chapter 12: Social Influence

Chapter 12: Social Influence Social Psychology: studies the interaction between the person and the environment. That the person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior influence are influenced by social groups. Human behavior is affected by the presence of other people Social Influence: how others influence the individual. real or implied presence of others can directly or indirectly influence thoughts, feelings, and behavior of an individual Conformity: changing one’s behavior to match that of real or imagined group pressure ● Study Muzafer Sherif: darkened room with a single point of light that seems to move from tiny, involuntary movements of the eye. The Confederate (person chosen to manipulate the situation) gave an estimate of how far the light moved, which made the participants give similar answers ● Study Soloman Asch: created a conformity pressure environment and see how they respond to it. 7 participants were told were participating for visual judgement. Task is judging line lengths. Shown a white card with 1 line and another white card with 3 lines of varying length. Goal was to determine which nd st 2 card line was similar to 1 card. Only 1 real participant, next to last. All others were confederates picked correct answers but then all chose the same incorrect line. Real participant did conform to other’s opinion, and conformity increased with more confederates. Conformity decreased when at least 1 confederate agreed with the participant ○ 76% of participants conform on at least 1 trial ○ 33% conform on 1-3 trials ○ ○ 43% conform on >3 trials ○ Greater face-to-face conformity in collectivist cultures: Hong Kong, Japan, Zimbabwe. Cultural difference disappears online format with no faces ○ Private Responses: Women and men have equal conformity ○ Public Responses: Women have greater conformity than men Why Feel the Need to Conform? ● Normative Social Influence: don’t want the group to dislike you. need to act in ways we feel we will be liked and accepted by others. Use other people behaviors and attitudes as a measuring stick and the norm ○ Ex. Laughing at an unfunny joke because others around are laughing ○ Public Conformity: believe self is correct, but don’t want to disrupt group ● Informational Social Influence: Want to make the correct judgement. take behavioral cues from other people when in an unclear or ambiguous situation ○ Conform when believe others have more accurate info in ambiguity to make their right decision or gain correct understanding of situation ○ Ex. Being in a foreign country ○ Private Acceptance: truly believe that group is correct and accept it ● Mental Averaging: Individuals confusing own behavior with behaviors of others Groupthink: people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned ● NOT effective to minimizing Groupthink: open vote by show of hands ● Ex. Timothy Piazza got drunk and fell headfirst. One offered help but the frat leader said no and told him to leave so no one helped so he dead because no one stood against the leader or the other group members ● Ex. Titanic, builders thought it was unsinkable so didn’t put enough lifeboats Irving Janis: symptoms of groupthink ● Invulnerability: members feel they cannot fail ○ Group can’t do no wrong, morally correct, will always succeed ● Rationalization: members explain away warning signs and help each other rationalize their decision ● Lack of introspection: members don’t examine the ethical implications of their decision because they believe that they can’t make immoral choices ● Stereotyping: members stereotype their enemies as weak, stupid, or unreasonable ● Pressure: members pressure each other not to question the prevailing opinion ● Lack of Disagreement: members don’t express opinions that differ from the group consensus ● Self-Deception: members share in the illusion that they all agree with the decision ● Insularity: members prevent the group from hearing disruptive but potentially useful info from people who are outside the group Group Polarization “risky shift”: group members involved in a discussion to take more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions when compared to individuals who haven’t participated in a group discussion ● Group makes extreme discussion greater than the average ● Ex. Jury decides on punishment at civil trial. If jury members individually favor a low damage before deliberation, then after deliberation the amount decreases more Social Facilitation: presence of other people to have a positive impact on the performance of an easy task (working in groups) Social Impairment: presence of other people to have a negative impact on the performance of a difficult task Social Loafing: people put less effort into a simple task when working with others on that task. But if working alone then loafer works harder as work can’t be shifted Deindividuation: lessening of personal identity, self-restraint, and the sense of personal responsibility that can occur within a group. Key is anonymity ● People in a crowd feel anonymity so they are more impulsive ● Ex. Stanford Prison Experiment, Ku Klux Klan, online games, trolling