Social Influence, Obedience, and Conformity

Social Influence, Obedience, and
Conformity
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegn
er/shock.mp3

Conformity
• A change in one’s behavior due to the real or
imagined influence of other people.
• What factors influence conformity?
– Ambiguity: use other’s behavior as a cue
– Fear of ridicule, punishment or rejection

Social Influence
• Informational social influence
– Looking to others as a guide for behavior
– Others are used as a source of information
• Normative social influence
– Shared rules for behavior
– Conform to be liked and accepted by others

Information Social Influence
• Uncertain, ambiguous situations when norms
are not known
– Light Movement
– Energy Consumption
– Towel Re-use
– Binge Drinking
• Influence behavior by reducing ambiguity with
regard to norms

Sherif (1936):
Autokinetic Effect

Public compliance vs. Private
• Private acceptance:
• Public compliance:
Acceptance
• Did people really believe the light was moving?
– Sherif cast doubt on public compliance explanation by
asking people to judge the lights again when alone. They
continued to give the group’s answer.
– Suggest that people were relying on each other to define
reality

Factors that increase informational
• Ambiguity
social influence?
• When it is a crisis situation
• When there are experts
• When accuracy is important

When informational social influence
• War of the worlds
backfires: PANIC
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUBisKB5l98&feature=related

When informational social influence
backfires: CONTAGION and ILLNESS
• Bird flu
• Dancing
Plague
of 1518
• Gaseous
Fumes
• Dance
party
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/06/social_contagions.php

Resisting Informational Social
Influence
Ask Yourself:
• Do other people know any more about what is
going on than I do?
• Is an expert handy who should know more?
• Do the actions of other people or experts seem
sensible?
• If I behave the way they do, will it go against my
common sense or against my internal moral
compass, my sense of right and wrong?

Normative Social Influence
• Social Norms: rules a group has for the
acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its
members
• Expectations about how group members should
behave
• Members who do not conform are perceived as
different, difficult, and eventually deviant
• Deviant members can be ridiculed, punished, or even
rejected by other group members
• Norms for dating, class, in the dorm, State fans,
republicans…..

Normative Social Influence
• Asch’ research
– P’s seated with two confederates. Asked to
estimate which lines were of approximately equal
length

Asch’s Research
• 76% went along with group answers at least once
• Conformity decreased when …..??

Question
• Was Solomon Asch’s line experiment a true
experiment?

Promoting beneficial behavior
• Injunctive norms (prescriptive norms):
promise rewards or punishment for behavior
– What people “should” do
• Descriptive norms: inform people about
effective behavior
– What people typically do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf_PE1Ivj4k

Influencing Behavior
• Norms influence behavior to the extent that
they are salient, personally relevant, and/or
personally important
– Descriptive norm:
• People typically eat fruits and vegetables daily
• People typically recycle soda bottles
– Injunctive/Prescriptive norm:
• Women should not sleep around
• You should not throw trash on the ground

Shultz et al., 2007: Energy
consumption
• People divided into 2 groups: below average
consumer/above average consumers
• Random assignment
– Descriptive norm: how much they used, average
use, + tips on conservation
– Descriptive norm plus injunctive norm condition:
all of the above + /
• Boomerang effect vs. success

Energy Consumption
• What other factors in the descriptive norm +
injunctive norm condition might have lead to
its success?

Resisting Social Norms
Resisting and rejection
Some norm violations are acceptable when
loyalty to group
inside allies
lack cohesiveness
Idiosyncrasy credits

Normative social influence exerts
more influence when….
Social Impact Theory
• The strength of the group’s importance, the
groups cohesiveness
• Powerful when we like or admire those in the group
• Its immediacy (proximity in time and space)
• The number of people

Select the scenario that is most likely
to result in conformity using social
impact theory.
a) Two best friends telling you to come to a party even
though you have a paper due tomorrow
b) Potential long term romantic partner suggesting you
have sex without a condom
c) A large group of Taiwanese school children coercing
three other children to smoke cigarettes
d) Six school children are bullying a loner child, they
want a 7 th child to join in the taunting
e) Your entire family want you and your husband to have
a baby.

Conformity Application
• Brainstorm behaviors in which there may be
some ambiguity with regard to social norms
– Eating and Dieting
– Depression or anxiety—rumination and
counterfactual thinking
– Exercising
– Social phobia/social skills
– Bullying
• Let’s vote: Which behavior should we use?

Using Social Influence to Promote
Beneficial Behavior
• Imagine that you are in a position to (therapist, doctor,
school counselor) help people develop healthy
behaviors (or change their maladaptive behaviors).
• Develop a method to reduce ambiguity and change
behavior.
– (Hint: think about Schultz et al., 2007 energy consumption
study)
• Think about how motivation to be accurate or to get
along might influence behavior change.
• I’ll give you 15 minutes in teams, then we’ll discuss our
ideas with the whole class.

Milgram’s Obedience Study
• Participants were recruited via a newspaper ad
• They were told they that the study was
investigating the effects of punishment on
learning
• One person (confederate) was the learner
• The participant was the ‘teacher’ and would read
words to the learner, punishing errors by
administering electric shock
• The device contained thirty numbered switches
ranging from 15 volts to 450 volts.

Milgram’s Study
• The two persons present—the real participant
and the confederate drew slips of paper from
a hat to determine who would be the learner
and who would be the teacher

Milgram’s Study
• The drawing was rigged so that the participant
was always the teacher.
• The teacher was told to deliver a shock to the
learner each time he made an error.
Teachers were told to increase
the strength of the shock
each time the learner
made an error.

Milgram’s Study
• Using the handout, predict what you would do
and what others would do.

Milgram’s Study
• __% showed total obedience—they
proceeded through the entire series to the
450 volt level.
• __% obeyed even when they were required to
force the victim’s hand down on a metal shock
plate
• BBC redo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzTuz0mNlwU&feature=related

Why did people not resist authority?
• The experimenter was fast paced and did not
give the person time to reflect
• Justifying one’s behavior
– Once you give the initial shock……..
• Loss of personal responsibility

Do people obey in ‘real’ life?
• When? Provide some examples
• Under what conditions are people likely to
obey?

Jonestown—People’s Temple
Rwanda
Sudanese Genocide
Armenian Genocide

Milgram 2009
• In a replication study……..do you think rates of
compliance differed significantly from the
original study? Why or why not?

Distinguish between the following
Obedience, conformity, and social influence
Think, pair, share

• Who ya gonna call?
– http://improveverywhere.com/2010/05/18/whoyou-gonna-call/
• Don’t jump
– http://improveverywhere.com/2005/12/10/suicid
e-jumper/

Questions
• It has sometimes been argued that social
influence is the most basic and important
aspect of social behavior. Do you agree? Can
you think of any forms of social behavior (e.g.,
aggression or helping) in which influence does
not play a role?

3 minute reflection: Under what
conditions is someone most likely to
conform to or obey or succumb to social
influence?