Outline

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Outline

• Discuss paper assignments
• Student input on aesthetics rsch.
• Social Influence

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Social Influence
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Social Influence and Conformity

• Social Influence
• How individual behavior is influenced by other
  people and groups
• Conformity
• Tendency to change our behavior/beliefs/perception
  s in ways that are consistent with group norms
• Norms Accepted ways of thinking, feeling,
  behaving

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Why Do We Conform to the Group?

• 1) Informational influence
• Look to others for information
• EXAMPLE Sherif's (1936) autokinetic effect
  studies

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Conformity with the Autokinetic Task
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Whats Going On?

• People need to be certain confident in the
  correctness of their actions
• The situation was ambiguous and uncertain
• People looked to others to help define reality
• Once developed, the norm persists beyond the
  immediate situation

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Ambiguity and the Desire to be Accurate

• High motivation to be accurate
• Increases conformity in people who are uncertain
  about their judgments or opinions.
• Decreases conformity in people who are certain.

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Ambiguity and the Desire to be Accurate

• Baron, Vandello, Brunsman (1996) asked groups
  of students to choose a criminal suspect from a
  line-up.
• Some saw the pictures so quickly it was hard to
  be certain about their judgments. Others had
  ample time.
• In addition, some students were motivated to be
  accurate with the promise of a 20 prize others
  had no incentive (were not motivated to be
  accurate).

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Baron et al. (1996) Conformity (or not) to an
incorrect majority opinion as a function of
motivation and task- difficulty (uncertainty)
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Newcomb

• All conformity experiments are not artificial
• Newcombs Bennington College Study
• Women at Bennington college in Vermont during the
  1930s
• Assess conservatism vs. liberalism
• Women became increasingly more liberal as they
  progressed from freshmen to senior year
• Attitude change was particularly strong in women
  who strongly identified with college groups
  (e.g., faculty, upperclassmen)

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Newcomb Bennington Political Norms
More conservative
Mean Attitude Score
More liberal
Class
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Newcomb Bennington Political Norms
More conservative
Mean Attitude Score
More liberal
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Informational Social Influence

• Informational influence likely to lead to private
  acceptance (conversion) of what is correct
• When Will People Conform to Informational Social
  Influence?
• 1. Ambiguous Situation
• 2. Crisis Situation
• 3. Others Are Experts

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Why Do We Conform to the Group?

• "Do as most do, and people will speak well of
  thee"
• -Thomas Fuller
• 2) Normative influence
• We want to be liked, accepted and to fit in
• We dont want to look foolish
• EXAMPLE
• Aschs (1950s) conformity studies

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Asch's (1955) Conformity Studies
1 2 3
Standard Line
Comparison Lines
Trial 1
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Asch's (1955) Conformity Studies
1 2 3
Standard Line
Comparison Lines
Trial 2
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Asch's (1955) Conformity Studies
1 2 3
Standard Line
Comparison Lines
Trial 3
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Asch's (1955) Conformity Studies

• Procedures
• One subject, six or more confederates
• Which line is the same length as the standard?
• People reported answers out loud, one at a time
• Subject always last
• On 12 of 18 trials, confederates answered
  incorrectly

• Results

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Normative Social Influence

• The group exerts normative influence by
  instilling a fear of appearing deviant
• Likely to leads to public conformity (compliance)
  (surface behavior change) in people

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Two Types of Social Influence

• Informational influence
• A person uses his or her peers as a source of
  information
• Interprets events in the light of social reality
  
• Often seen in ambiguous situations
• EG Sherif, Newcomb
• Normative influence
• A person adopts the behavior of his or her peers
• to secure social acceptance or avoid social
  rejection
• EG Asch
• Proposed that conformity in Sherif situation
  resulted from ambiguity of stimulus
• Hence, created unambiguous test situation in
  which conformity should be unlikely

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Factors that Influence Conformity

• Group characteristics
• Size
• Conformity increases as majority increases from
  1-4
• Little if any further increase for majorities of
  5-12

Conformity as a Function of Group Size in Aschs
Paradigm
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Factors that Influence Conformity

• Group characteristics
• An ally in dissent
• One correct dissent reduces conformity rates
  markedly
• Even one incorrect dissent is as effective

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Factors that Influence Conformity

• Sex differences
• Early evidence women conformed more than men
• In general, sex differences are weak and
  unreliable
• Depends on type of task
• Stereotypically male or female
• Observed or not observed task

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Reinterpreting Non-Conformity in Males

• Eagly et al. (1981)
• Conformity is in part a form of impression
  management
• Men, rather than simply being more independent,
  desire to be perceived as independent by others
• Suggests men will be more sensitive than women to
  being observed by others
• Use informational conformity task
• Answers observed or not observed by others

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Eagly et al. (1981)
Tentative interpretation Mens apparent
non-conformity is a way of conforming to social
expectations for males.
showing conformity
Experimental Condition
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Factors that Influence Conformity

• Cultural Differences in Conformity
• Cultural orientations
• Individualism
• emphasizes independence, autonomy, and
  self-reliance
• Collectivism
• emphasizes interdependence, cooperation, and
  social harmony
• Conformity rates are generally higher in
  collectivist cultures
• Berry (1967) Cultures differ
• in the degree to which individual judgment is
  valued
• and in the consequences for non-conformity
• Western individualistic (Scotland)
• Non-western individualistic (Baffin Island
  Innuit)
• Non-western collectivist (Temne of Sierra
  Leone)
• Note
• used variant of original Asch line-judgment task

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Cross-Cultural Differences in Conformity (Berry,
1967)
Related evidence Conformity for Chinese gt
American (Huang Harris, 1973) Conformity for
Japanese gt American (Matsuda, 1985)
Mean of Conforming Trials
Culture
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Class Discussion

• Sometimes we value conformity, encouraging people
  to be a good team player and criticizing
  nonconformists as deviants or rebels. Sometimes
  we complain about conformity, encouraging people
  to stand up for themselves and criticizing
  conformists for going along with the crowd. Use
  specific examples to discuss the pros and cons of
  conformity.