CONFORMITY

Chapter 7

Types of Social Influence

Social Influence as “Automatic”  Chartrand & Bargh  The Chameleon Effect: nonconscious form of imitation

Conformity  The tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms.

 Sherif (1936)  Autokinetic effect

Asch

Two Types of Conformity

Majority Influence  What situational factors make us more or less likely to conform?

 Group size  Awareness of the norms  A fellow dissenter  Difficulty of the task

Majority Influence  What personal factors make us more or less likely to conform?

 Age differences  Gender differences  Cultural influences  Self-esteem

Minority Influence  The process by which dissenters produce change in a group.

 Moscovici: Consistency strategy  Hollander: Idiosyncrasy credits  Do majorities and minorities exert influence in different ways?

Compliance  Changes in behavior that are elicited by direct requests.

Percentage That Complied

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

No Reason Reason Given Irrelevant Reason May I Use the Xerox Machine?

Compliance How do we get trapped into compliance?

 The Norm of Reciprocity  Treat others as they have treated you  Feeling obligated to return a favor

Cialdini (2001)  Principles of Influence  Reciprocation  Scarcity  Authority  Commitment  Liking/friendship  Consensus/social validation

Sequential Request Strategies  The foot-in-the-door: Get someone to comply with a small request first.

 Request shift: small large

Sequential Request Strategies  Low-balling: Increase the size of the request by revealing hidden costs.

 Request shift: small large

60 50 40

Percent That Volunteered

30 20 10 0

Told 7 a.m. First Told 7 a.m. Later

Sequential Request Strategies  Door-in-the-face: Start with a request that is so large that it is rejected.

 Request shift: large small

50 40

Percent That Agreed

30 20 10 0

Real Request Only After Declining Initial Request Willing to Take Delinquents to the Zoo?

Sequential Request Strategies Request shift: large small  That’s-not-all: Start with inflated request, then decrease its size by offering a discount.

Sales

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

75 Cents Reduced to 75 cents Price of Cupcakes

Sequential Request Strategies

Assertiveness When do people say NO?

Just Say No Training Is there an unintended message?

Petrified Forest National Park “Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time.”

Obedience  Behavior change produced by the commands of authority  Milgram’s research  The basic procedure  65 percent of participants delivered the ultimate punishment of 450 volts.

The Learner’s Protests in the Milgram Experiment From Experiment 5: New Base Line Condition, The Learner's Schedule of Protests from Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram, 1974, pp. 56-57.

Factors that Influence Obedience

Would you have obeyed?

Replicating Milgram Meeus & Raaijmakers (1986) Burger (2009)

Social Impact Theory (Latane)  Social influence depends on:  Strength of a source (status, ability, relationship to target)  Immediacy (source’s proximity in time and space to target)  Number of source persons relative to target persons