Social Influence 1: Conformity

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Social Influence 1Conformity

• 21 January 2004

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Why Conform?

• Our sanity depends to some degree on the belief
  that everyone sees the same world that we see
  
• If this belief is challenged, wed rather change
  what we see (or what we say we see) than admit to
  ourselves (or others) that we see a different
  world

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Conformity

• Conformity
• Acting at odds with your beliefs or perceptions
  because of pressure from others
  
• Compliance vs internalization
• Normative vs. Informational pressure/influence
• Cialdini littering experiment
• Drisball Muller jaywalking experiment

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Jaywalking (Drisball Muller)
45
40
35
30
jaywalking
25
20
15
10
5
JW
BL
No JW
5

• Solomon Asch
• Compliance in an
• Unambiguous
• Situation

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Asch Line Judgment Experiments
Stimulus
A
B
C
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You cannot be serious!
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Asch

• Results
• 33 went along with the group on a majority of
  the trials
  
• 25 remained completely independent
• 75 conformed at least once
• When tested alone (no confederates), subjects got
  more than 98 of the judgments correct
  
• When tested with confederates, they only got 66
  of the judgments correct

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Why conform?

• Confusion
• Informational pressure
• Embarrassment
• Normative pressure
• 2 more versions of the experiment
• Compliance, NOT internalization

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Sherif (1936)

• Ambiguous situation
• Autokinetic effect
• Informational pressure 1 year follow-up
• Internalization, NOT compliance
• Version B of the experiment and what that tells
  us
  

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How to reduce conformity?

• Preferences vs Facts
• Crutchfield (1955)
• Asch-type paradigm but with drawings
• No conformity
• Why?
• Lone Dissenters
• Devils advocates
• Other versions of Asch

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Minority Influence

• How do minority groups change things?
• Moscovici experiment a minority of confederates
  give a plausible but incorrect answer in front of
  a majority of subjects
  
• Minorities must be consistent
• Direct effect
• Latent effect

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Moscovici DataDirect Effect
9
8
7
6
Ss saying green
5
4
3
2
1
consistent
inconsistent
not present
Confederates