Welcome to Social Influence!
Ever wondered why you start dressing like your friends, or why you’d probably follow an instruction from a police officer without questioning it? That is what Social Influence is all about! We are going to look at how the presence or actions of others change the way we think and behave. Don't worry if some of the terms seem a bit "psychology-heavy" at first—we'll break them down into everyday examples.
1. Conformity: Why do we "fit in"?
Conformity is a change in behavior or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure. Basically, it’s when you go along with the crowd.
Types of Conformity
Psychologist Herbert Kelman suggested there are three ways we conform. Think of these as levels, from "shallow" to "deep":
1. Compliance: This is the shallowest level. You go along with the group in public, but privately you disagree.
Example: laughing at a joke you don't find funny just because everyone else is laughing.
2. Identification: You value the group and want to be part of it, so you change your behavior to fit in, even if you don't agree with everything the group stands for. It’s usually temporary.
Example: acting a certain way while you are at a new job, but returning to your "old self" at home.
3. Internalisation: This is the deepest level. You genuinely accept the group's norms. You change your behavior in public AND your private beliefs. This change is usually permanent.
Example: living with roommates who are vegan, and you eventually decide that veganism is the right way to live, even after you move out.
Explanations for Conformity: NSI vs. ISI
Why do we do it? Deutsch and Gerard suggested two main reasons:
Normative Social Influence (NSI): The desire to be liked. We conform to fit in and avoid rejection. This usually leads to compliance.
Informational Social Influence (ISI): The desire to be right. We look to others for information when we are unsure of what to do. This usually leads to internalisation.
Quick Review: If you look at others to see which fork to use at a fancy dinner, that's ISI. If you smoke because your friends do (even though you hate it), that's NSI.
2. Asch’s Research: The Power of the Group
Solomon Asch (1951) did a famous study where participants had to match a "standard line" to three "comparison lines." The answer was obvious, but the "confederates" (actors) all gave the wrong answer.
Variables Affecting Conformity
Asch changed the setup to see what made people conform more or less:
1. Group Size: With only 1 or 2 confederates, conformity was low. With 3 confederates, it rose to about 32%. Adding more people after 3 didn't make much difference.
2. Unanimity: If just one actor gave the right answer (a "dissenter"), conformity dropped significantly. The "rebel" gave the participant social support.
3. Task Difficulty: When the lines were made more similar (harder to judge), conformity increased. This is because we become less sure of ourselves and look to others for the answer (ISI).
Key Takeaway: We are most likely to conform when the group is unanimous and the task is difficult!
3. Conformity to Social Roles: Zimbardo
Social Roles are the "parts" people play as members of various social groups (e.g., student, teacher, guard). Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment showed how quickly people conform to these roles.
Participants were randomly assigned to be "prisoners" or "guards" in a mock prison. Within days, the guards became aggressive and the prisoners became submissive. The study had to be stopped after 6 days instead of 14 because it became too dangerous.
The Lesson: The situation (the prison environment) was so powerful that it made "normal" people act in extreme ways.
4. Obedience: Following Orders
Obedience is different from conformity. Conformity is about following the "peers" (people like you); obedience is about following an authority figure.
Milgram’s Shock Study
Stanley Milgram (1963) asked participants to give (fake) electric shocks to a "learner" every time they got a question wrong. The shocks went up to 450 volts (labeled "Danger: Severe Shock"). To everyone's surprise, 65% of participants went all the way to 450V just because an experimenter told them to.
Situational Variables (Why did they obey?)
1. Proximity: When the teacher and learner were in the same room, obedience dropped. When the experimenter gave orders over the phone, it dropped even more.
2. Location: When the study moved from prestigious Yale University to a run-down office, obedience dropped slightly.
3. Uniform: When the experimenter wore a lab coat, obedience was high. When he wore "everyday clothes," obedience dropped significantly.
5. Explanations for Obedience
Social-Psychological Factors
Agentic State: This is a mental state where we feel we are "agents" for someone else. We feel no personal responsibility for our actions because we are "just following orders." The opposite is the Autonomous State, where we feel responsible.
Legitimacy of Authority: We are more likely to obey people we perceive as having power within a social hierarchy (e.g., police, doctors, teachers).
The Dispositional Explanation: The Authoritarian Personality
Some psychologists argue that obedience isn't just about the situation, but about personality. Adorno used the F-scale (Fascism scale) to measure this. People with an Authoritarian Personality tend to:
• Be very submissive to those in power.
• Be dismissive of those they see as "inferior."
• Have very black-and-white thinking (right vs. wrong).
Memory Aid: Think of Situational = Settings (where you are) and Dispositional = Deep-down (who you are).
6. Resistance to Social Influence
Why do some people say "No"?
1. Social Support: If you have an ally (someone else who resists), it builds your confidence to resist too. We saw this in Asch’s study when a dissenter broke the unanimity.
2. Locus of Control (LOC): This refers to how much control you think you have over your life.
• Internals: Believe they are responsible for what happens to them. They are more likely to resist social influence.
• Externals: Believe things happen due to luck or outside forces. They are more likely to conform or obey.
7. Minority Influence
How does a small group (the minority) change the minds of the majority? Moscovici suggested three key factors:
1. Consistency: The minority must keep saying the same thing over time (diachronic consistency) and all agree with each other (synchronic consistency).
2. Commitment: The minority should take risks or make sacrifices (e.g., protesting in the rain). This shows they are serious (the augmentation principle).
3. Flexibility: Being too rigid can be off-putting. The minority needs to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter-arguments.
Mnemonic: Remember C-C-F (Consistency, Commitment, Flexibility).
8. Social Influence and Social Change
Social change is when a whole society adopts a new belief or behavior (e.g., the Civil Rights Movement or Recycling).
The Process of Social Change:
1. Drawing Attention: The minority highlights an issue.
2. Consistency: They stick to their message.
3. Deeper Processing: The majority starts to actually think about the issue.
4. Augmentation Principle: The minority takes risks to show commitment.
5. The Snowball Effect: More and more people switch to the minority view until it becomes the majority view.
6. Social Cryptoamnesia: People remember that change happened, but forget exactly how or who started it!
Key Takeaway: Minority influence is the "seed" that eventually grows into major social change through consistency and the snowball effect!
Don't worry if this seems tricky! Just remember that most of these topics are trying to answer the same question: "What makes us follow others, and what makes us stand our ground?"