Chapter 8 Conformity Influencing Behavior Aronson Social Psychology

Power. Point Presentation Prepared By Fred W. Whitford Montana State University Aronson Social Psychology,

Chapter Outline I. Conformity: When and Why

Conformity is a change in behavior due to the real or imagined influence of others.

Conformity American culture celebrates the rugged individualist, but even in our own culture extremes of conformity occur.

Chapter Outline II. Informational Social Influence: The Need to Know What’s “Right”

Informational Social Influence Informational social influence is the influence of other people that leads us to conform because we see them as a source of information to guide our behavior; we conform because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action.

Informational Social Influence

Informational Social Influence An important aspect of informational social influence is that it can result in private acceptance, when people conform to other people’s behavior because they believe that what they are doing or saying is correct.

Informational Social Influence A less likely result of informational social influence is public compliance, when people conform to other people’s behavior publicly, without necessarily believing in what they are doing or saying.

Informational Social Influence • The Importance of Being Accurate Baron and colleagues (1996) found that when the outcome of the task is very important, we are more likely to succumb to informational social influence than when the task outcome is of low importance.

Informational Social Influence • When Informational Conformity Backfires Depending on others to help us define the situation can backfire. One example is contagion, the rapid transmission of emotions or behaviors through a crowd.

Informational Social Influence • When Informational Conformity Backfires Another example of informational conformity backfiring is mass psychogenic illness, the occurrence, in a group of people, of similar physiological symptoms with no known physical cause.

Informational Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Informational Social Influence? When the situation is ambiguous. When the situation is a crisis. When other people are experts.

Informational Social Influence • Resisting Informational Social Influence To resist undue informational social influence, consider whether or not others’ view of a situation is any more legitimate than your own. Understanding how informational social influence works will help one know when it is useful and when it is harmful.

Chapter Outline III. Normative Social Influence: The Need to Be Accepted

Normative Social Influence People conform to a group’s social norms, the implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members.

Normative Social Influence Humans are a social species and thus have a fundamental need for companionship that forms the basis for normative social influence, conformity in order to be liked and accepted by others.

Normative Social Influence A likely result of normative social influence is public compliance, when people conform to other people’s behavior publicly, without necessarily believing in what they are doing or saying.

Normative Social Influence • Conformity and Social Approval: The Asch Line Judgment Studies Asch (1951, 1956) tested whether people would conform in situations in which the group’s judgments were obviously incorrect. Participants in the Asch line study showed a high level of conformity, given how obvious it was that the group was wrong in its judgments.

Normative Social Influence • Conformity and Social Approval: Asch Line Judgment Studies The

Normative Social Influence • The Importance of Being Accurate, Revisited Baron and colleagues (1996) found that people are less likely to conform to a group’s obviously wrong judgment when the task is important than when the task is not important. Yet, even when the task is meaningful, people still conform due to normative social influence.

Normative Social Influence • The Importance of Accountability

Normative Social Influence • The Consequences of Resisting Normative Social Influence When someone manages to resist normative group influence, other group members try to convince the deviant group member to conform; if he or she does not, eventually the deviant will be rejected.

Normative Social Influence • Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life Normative social influence helps explain women’s attempts to create socially desired body types through dieting and possibly eating disorders.

Normative Social Influence • Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life

Normative Social Influence • Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life Recent studies have found that men now are pressured to create socially desired body types through dieting and possibly eating disorders.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? Latané’s social impact theory suggests that conforming to normative pressures depends on the strength, immediacy, and number of other people in a group.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence?

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? Asch’s research show that conformity does not increase much after group size reaches 4 or 5 other people.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? Normative pressures are much stronger when they come from people whose friendship, love, or respect we cherish.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? People from collectivist cultures are more likely to conform to normative social influence than are people from individualist cultures.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? Some evidence suggests that people with low self-esteem are more likely to conform compared to people with high self-esteem.

Normative Social Influence • When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence? Gender differences in conformity are small and depend on the type of situation in which conformity is measured.

Normative Social Influence • Resisting Normative Social Influence The first step in resisting normative social influence is to become aware that we are doing it. The second step is to find an ally who thinks like we do.

Normative Social Influence • Resisting Normative Social Influence Additionally, if you conform to group norms most of the time, you earn idiosyncracy credits that give you the right to deviate occasionally without serious consequences.

Normative Social Influence • Minority Influence: When the Few Influence the Many Moscovici (1985) argues that a minority can affect change in the majority. The key to this is consistency over time and consistent unanimity among members of the minority.

Normative Social Influence • Minority Influence: When the Few Influence the Many A recent meta-analysis by Wood et al. (1994) leads to the conclusion that majorities often cause public compliance because of normative social influence, whereas minorities often cause private acceptance because of informational social influence.

Chapter Outline IV. Using Social Influence to Promote Beneficial Behavior

Using Social Influence In order to promote behavior for the common good through social influence, Cialdini and colleagues (1991) suggest that the norms operating in the situation must be known.

Using Social Influence • The Role of Injunctive and Descriptive Norms Two types of norms exist, injunctive norms, which are people’s perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others and descriptive norms, which are people’s perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations.

Using Social Influence • The Role of Injunctive and Descriptive Norms

Using Social Influence • The Role of Injunctive and Descriptive Norms Research has found that injunctive norms are more powerful than descriptive norms in producing beneficial behavior.

Chapter Outline V. Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority Philosopher Hannah Arendt (1965) argued that the atrocities of the Holocaust occurred not because the participants were psychopaths, but because they were ordinary people bowing to extraordinary social pressures.

Obedience to Authority Milgram (1963, 1974, 1976) examined the power of obedience to authority in social psychology’s most famous laboratory experiments. Milgram’s results indicate the powerful tendency people have to obey authority figures even when their orders go against people’s values and morals.

Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority • The Role of Normative Social Influence A variation on the Milgram experiment demonstrated the role of normative social influence. Significantly less compliance was demonstrated if two other “teachers” refused to continue.

Obedience to Authority • The Role of Normative Social Influence

Obedience to Authority • The Role of Informational Social Influence Other variations on the experiment demonstrate the role of informational social influence due to the confusion and ambiguity raised by the situation.

Obedience to Authority • Other Reasons Why We Obey Another factor influencing obedience includes conforming to the wrong norm.

Obedience to Authority • Other Reasons Why We Obey Social pressures can combine in insidious ways to make humane people act in inhumane ways.

Study Questions What are two main reasons why we conform? What advantages does conforming provide?

Study Questions When are we likely to conform to informational social influence? What are the differences between private acceptance and public compliance? Which one is more likely when we conform due to informational social influence?

Study Questions What is the relationship between conformity due to informational social influence and the importance of being accurate?

Study Questions Why are times of crisis related to an increase in conformity due to informational social influence? What is contagion? How do the mass media influence the likelihood of mass psychogenic illness?

Study Questions What are three main factors that make conforming due to informational social influence very likely?

Study Questions Why is the decision of whether or not to conform so important? What are some questions we should ask ourselves when we are deciding whether we should conform due to informational social influence?

Study Questions What are the differences between informational social influence and normative social influence? What are social norms? Why are they followed so often?

Study Questions Why were findings of Asch’s conformity study surprising? Were Asch’s participants more likely conforming due to informational social influence or normative social influence?

Study Questions What is the relationship between normative social influence and the importance of being accurate?

Study Questions According to Schachter’s (1951) study, how do people deal with a nonconformist?

Study Questions What are historical examples of normative social influence? What do they tell us about the power and consequences of conforming due to social pressures?

Study Questions What does social impact theory attempt to explain? To what do the variables of strength, immediacy, and number of influence sources refer? What is the relationship between these variables and conformity?

Study Questions When will people conform due to normative social influence? What are the main conditions that increase this conformity?

Study Questions What are cross-cultural differences in conformity? Has conformity increased or decreased since the 1950 s?

Study Questions Do personality traits readily predict who will conform due to normative social influence? Why or why not?

Study Questions What is the magnitude of sex differences in conformity? Under what conditions are women more likely to conform than men? Why?

Study Questions What are two steps toward nonconformity? What are idiosyncrasy credits?

Study Questions What are important conditions for the occurrence of minority influence on the majority? What is more likely a result of minority influence, public compliance or private acceptance?

Study Questions What are injunctive and descriptive norms and how can they be used to foster beneficial behavior?

Study Questions How does mindless conformity happen?

Study Questions What are the basic findings of the Milgram obedience study? What percentage of participants delivered the highest voltage of shock possible? Why was it difficult for participants in Milgram’s studies to disobey authority?

Study Questions What do variations of Milgram’s study tell us about limits to obedience?