Social influence – How do others affect you?

Welcome to Social Influence!

Have you ever wondered why you might act differently when you're with your friends compared to when you're alone? Or why people sometimes stand by and watch during an emergency instead of helping? This chapter is all about Social Influence. We will explore how the people around us—whether they are friends, strangers, or authority figures—shape our behavior. Don't worry if some of these terms seem new; we'll break them down step-by-step!

1. The Big Four Terms

Before we dive deep, let's look at the four main ways people affect us. Think of these as the "vocabulary foundations" for this chapter.

• Obedience: This is following a direct order from someone you see as an authority figure (like a teacher, a police officer, or a parent). You do it because you feel you have to.
• Conformity: This is "fitting in." It’s when you change your behavior or beliefs to match the rest of a group. No one told you to change; you just did it to be like everyone else.
• Deindividuation: This happens when you are in a large crowd and lose your sense of individual identity. You feel "anonymous," which can lead to behaving in ways you never would alone (like at a rowdy football match).
• Bystander Effect: This is the strange phenomenon where the more people there are watching an emergency, the less likely any one person is to help.

Quick Review Box:
Obedience = Following orders.
Conformity = Fitting in.
Deindividuation = Losing yourself in a crowd.
Bystander Effect = Not helping because others are there.

2. Bystander Intervention: Why do we help (or not)?

When someone is in trouble, psychologists call our decision to help bystander intervention. Whether we step in depends on two types of factors.

Situational Factors (The environment around you)

• Diffusion of Responsibility: In a crowd, we feel less "responsible" for helping because we assume someone else will do it. Analogy: Imagine a group chat with 50 people. If someone asks a question, you might not answer because you think, "Someone else will surely reply."
• Pluralistic Ignorance: We look at others to see how to react. If everyone else looks calm, we assume it’s not a real emergency.
• Cost of Helping: We weigh the risks. Will I get hurt? Will I be late for school? If the "cost" is too high, we often keep walking.

Personal Factors (Things about you)

• Competence: If you know first aid, you are much more likely to help in a medical emergency because you feel capable.
• Mood: We are more likely to help others when we are in a good mood!
• Similarity: We are more likely to help people who we perceive as being "like us" (e.g., wearing the same school uniform or supporting the same team).

Key Takeaway: We don't just help because we are "nice" people. The situation and our own skills play a massive role in whether we step up.

3. Conformity: The Power of the Majority

Why do we all start wearing the same style of trainers? That’s conformity.

Factors Affecting Conformity

• The Situation: Conformity increases if the task is difficult (because we aren't sure of the answer) or if the group is large. However, if even one other person disagrees with the group, conformity drops massively!
• Personality: People with low self-esteem are more likely to conform because they want to be liked. Also, people with an Internal Locus of Control (who believe they are in charge of their own lives) conform less than those with an External Locus of Control.

Did you know? Psychologists found that if you have to write your answer down privately rather than saying it out loud, you are much less likely to conform to what others are saying.

4. Obedience: Following the Leader

Obedience isn't always bad (we need to obey traffic lights!), but blind obedience to bad orders can be dangerous.

Factors Affecting Obedience

• The Situation: We are more likely to obey if the authority figure is wearing a uniform or if they are standing close to us (proximity). We are also more likely to obey if we are in a prestigious setting (like a famous university).
• Personality: Some people have an Authoritarian Personality. These individuals tend to be very respectful of authority and are more likely to follow orders without questioning them.

How to Prevent Blind Obedience

How do we stop people from following "bad" orders? Psychology suggests:
1. Social Support: Having a "partner" who also refuses to obey makes it much easier to say no.
2. Distance: Being further away from the authority figure reduces their influence.
3. Education: Learning about these psychological studies helps people recognize when they are being unfairly pressured!

Key Takeaway: Obedience is often about the power of the situation (like a uniform) rather than just being a "weak" person.

5. Crowd Behavior: Pro-social vs. Anti-social

When we get into a group, our behavior changes. This is collective behavior.

• Anti-social Behavior: This is behavior that is unhelpful or destructive to society (like rioting or looting). This often happens due to deindividuation—people feel they won't be caught.
• Pro-social Behavior: This is behavior that is helpful and kind (like a crowd of people working together to lift a car off a trapped cyclist). Being in a crowd can sometimes bring out the best in us if the group's "norm" is to be helpful.

Common Mistake: Many students think being in a crowd always leads to bad behavior. That’s not true! Crowds can be incredibly pro-social and heroic depending on the situation.

6. The Core Studies (The "Must-Know" Research)

For your exam, you need to know these two studies inside out. Use the APRC method: Aim, Procedure, Results, Conclusions.

Study 1: Piliavin et al. (1969) – Subway Samaritan

Aim: To see how different variables affect helping behavior in a real-life setting.
Procedure: Researchers acted out collapses on a New York subway. They changed the "victim" to be either drunk (carrying a bottle in a brown bag) or ill (carrying a cane).
Results: The "ill" victim received help 95% of the time, while the "drunk" victim only got help 50% of the time. Helping was faster when there were more people (which actually goes against the bystander effect!).
Conclusion: We are more likely to help those we think "deserve" it (the ill person) than those we blame for their own trouble (the drunk person).

Study 2: Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo (1973) – Stanford Prison Experiment

Aim: To see if people would conform to the social roles of "Guard" or "Prisoner."
Procedure: 24 male students were randomly assigned to be either a guard or a prisoner in a fake basement prison. Guards were given uniforms and sunglasses; prisoners were given smocks and numbers.
Results: The study had to be stopped after only 6 days (instead of 14). The guards became aggressive and cruel, while the prisoners became passive and stressed.
Conclusion: People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, even if it leads to behavior they wouldn't normally show.

Quick Review Box:
Piliavin: Helping on a subway. People help the "ill" more than the "drunk."
Zimbardo: People conform to roles (Guards vs. Prisoners) very quickly.

7. Issues and Debates: Society and Culture

Does social influence work the same way everywhere in the world? Not exactly!

• Society and Social Issues: These are problems that affect many people within a society (like how a whole town might react to a new law).
• Culture: This refers to the shared beliefs and values of a group of people.
• Individualist Cultures (like the UK or USA) value independence. People here are often less likely to conform.
• Collectivist Cultures (like China or Japan) value the group over the individual. People here are often more likely to conform to maintain group harmony.

Memory Aid: Individualist = "I am me." Collectivist = "Community first."

Final Summary Takeaway

Social influence shows us that we are not islands. Our choices to help (bystander intervention), to follow orders (obedience), to fit in (conformity), or to lose ourselves in a group (deindividuation) are all shaped by the world around us. When you sit your exam, always ask yourself: Is this person acting because of their personality or because of the situation they are in?