Transcript Conformity: Influencing Behaviour

•GROUP
BEHAVIOUR
Conformity: Influencing
Behaviour
• Conformity: A change in behaviour due
to real / imagined influence of other
people
• History has shown that people will
conform in extreme ways
Examples?
Jonestown
Jim Jones
Jonestown
• People’s Temple was formed in Indianapolis
during the 1950’s
• Cult Leader-Jim Jones
• After several investigations, Jones decided to
create a “utopian community in Guyana, where
he would further cement his power over his
members and far way from U.S. authorities
• In 1978, Jones leased 300 acres from the Guyana
Government, creating Jonestown
Jonestown
• Jonestown population increased from 50
members in 1977, to 900 in 1978
• Many members of the Peoples Temple
believed Guyana would be as Jones
promised a “paradise”
• Instead there was very hard work and lack
of food
• Armed guards patrolled the compound
Jonestown
• Members who attempted to escape were drugged
to the point of incapacitation
• Imprisoned 2 by 1.2 by 1 m plywood box
• Children and adults were made to address Jones
as “Dad” or “Father”
• Children were only allowed to see their parents at
night briefly
• Congressman Leo Ryan visited in 1978, to
investigate claims made by families
Jonestown
• Jones instructed followers to not speak to
Ryan, except a few trusted people
• Jones gave permission to members to leave
who wanted to
• Jones’s armed guards opened fire on the
plane, killing Ryan and one defector
• After the shootings, Jones decided to start a
mass suicide
Jonestown
• As they knew the Guyanese Defence Force
would be coming soon
• Many who tried to escape were killed by
Jones armed guards
• Hours after the mass suicide 913, of the
1110 inhabitants were dead, including 276
children
Heaven’s Gate
• Was the name of a cult co-led by Marshall
Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles
• Created in 1970’s
• Applewhite convinced thirty-eight
followers to commit suicide
Heaven’s Gate
• Heaven's Gate members believed that
Hale-Bopp, an unusually bright comet, was
the sign that they were supposed to shed
their earthly bodies (or "containers") and
join a spacecraft traveling behind the
comet that would take them to a higher
plane of existence.
Comet-Hale-Bopp
WHAT MAKES US CONFORM?
Conversions
A sudden shift in meaning of their
lives based on new knowledge they
have received from a group.
• New beliefs are seen as a better
solution to life’s problems
Crisis
• An individual is faced with a
frightening, potentially dangerous
situation to which he/she is ill-equipped
to respond
War of the Worlds
• The day that panicked
America
• October 31, 1938
Hurricane Katrina
Conformity
Contagion
• Rapid transmissions of emotions or
behaviour through a crowd (riots,
mobs)
• Any time an individual is faced with
ambiguous situation, they will most
likely rely on interpretations of others
• Conformity: A person changes
attitude or behaviour on his/her own
to fulfill social norms
• Compliance: Person changes
attitude or behaviour in response to
another's direct request
• Obedience: Person obeys a direct
order from another to perform an
action
Conformity (2 types)
• Informational Social
Influences (ISI) #1
• Normative Social
Influences #2
Informational social influences (ISI)
• When we do not know how to behave, we copy
other people.
• They thus act as information sources for how to
behave as we assume they know what they are
doing.
• Because we care a great deal about what others
think about us, this provides a safe course of action
as they cannot criticize us for our actions.
• Private acceptance occurs when we
genuinely believe the other person is right.
This can lead to permanent changes in
beliefs, values and behaviours.
• Public compliance occurs when we copy
others because we fear ridicule or rejection if
we behave otherwise.
• Ex: Cliques
Informational Social Influence
occurs most often when:
• The situation is ambiguous
• There is a crisis
• Others are experts. If we accept the
authority of others, they must know
better than us.
• Examples: Sherif
Sherif Experiment
• Sherif's experiment involved the so-called autokinetic
effect whereby a point of light in an otherwise totally
dark environment will appear to move randomly.
• You may have experienced the effect yourself when
looking at the stars.
• Subjects were invited to estimate the amount of
'movement' they observed. They made their estimates in
groups where each member could hear the others'
estimates. Ultimately, the group members' estimates
converged on a middle-of-the-road 'group estimate'. This
would appear to show an urge to conform.
When informational conformity
backfires
• Look at War of the Worlds
• Mass psychogenic illness
When groups of people (such as a class
in a school or workers in an office) start
feeling sick at the same time even though
there is no physical or environmental reason
for them to be sick.
Resistance to ISI
• War of the Worlds
– Some checked other stations and realized
that this was just a well-done show
• We decide to conform based on our
definition of reality (if you accept
another’s definition of the situation, you
will see world as they do and vice
versa)
Normative Social Influence
• The need to be liked, accepted by
others.
• Where we conform to what we believe
to be the social norms of the group in
order to be accepted by them.
• We are social beings and positive
interactions are crucial
• Ex: Asch
Asch Experiment
Asch Experiment
• In Asch's experiment, a group of people were seated
around a table. Of these all but one were actually the
experimenters confederates. The group was shown a
display of vertical lines of different lengths and were
asked to say which of the lines (card B) was the same
length as another standard line (card A). One after
another, the members of the group announced their
decision. The confederates had been asked to give the
incorrect response. The subject sat in the next to last seat
so that all but one had given their obviously incorrect
answer before s/he gave hers/his. Even though the correct
answer was always obvious, the average subject
conformed to the group response on 32% of the trials and
74% of the subjects conformed at least once.
Fashion and Fads 50s, 60s, 70s,
80s
90s
2000’s
?
Compliance
• A change in behaviour due to a direct
request from another person
• It is more efficient for us to follow social
norms quickly and automatically; causes
fewer hassles
• Following such norms is called “mindless
conformity”
Cialdini’s 6 principles of
Compliance
Cialdini studies compliance techniques
and suggested that there are 6 wellknown norms on which many
compliance techniques are based.
1. Reciprocity
• Norm: if someone does you a favour,
reciprocate.
• Lending money
2. Social Validation/Social
Proof
• Norm: If you are unsure of how to act, do
what everyone else is doing.
•
•
•
•
TV show laugh tracks
Ex: everyday, people just like you are…
Millions have tried the ___
Any ad that has actors
playing “regular people”
3. Consistency
• Norm: People should be true to their attitudes and
prior behaviors, and not contradict themselves.
• Four-walls technique:
• Surround people with their own attitudes
• To sell Encyclopedias:
• -Are your children important to you?
• -Is your children’s education important to you?
• Would you do whatever you could to aid in your
child’s education?
• Then how could you not buy these encyclopedias?
3. Consistency
• Foot-in-the door technique:
• Get the person to commit to a less
expensive product, then change to a more
expensive product (more quantities)
4. Liking
• Norm: If you like someone you should
help him or her out.
• Ad examples: sports stars
• Canadian Elections study (1974)
5. Scarcity
• Norm: Scarce things are more valuable
• Scarcity has been called the principle that
drives all economic behaviour.
• Ex: Limited time offer…
• Act now, while supplies last…
• Limit 2 per customer…
• One-day sales…
• Before time runs out…
6. Obedience to Authority
• Norm: do what
authority figures say
• Ad example: 9 out
of 10 dentists agree
• Using athletes to
sell sport-specific
products
Obedience to Authority
• Usually refers to people's willingness to obey
direct requests or commands.
People will often obey those who are in
authority over them.
Sometimes this type of behaviour is cause for
concern.
• Milgram experiment
Stanley Milgram Experiment
• 1960’s, Stanley Milgram, Psychologist, Yale
University
• Conducted a series of experiments on obedience
• Volunteers were told they were part of a new
experiment to test the effects of punishment on
learning
• They were to teach a list of 40 matching words to
a learner who was to memorize them
Stanley Milgram Experiment
• The learner was strapped to an “electric
chair” in an opposite room, where the
teacher could hear the responses with an
intercom
• Each time the learner made a mistake, the
teacher was to administer an electric shock
starting at 30 volts for the first error and
increasing with each error, up to 450 volts
Stanley Milgram Experiment
• The series of switches on the “shock generator”
were labeled from “Slight Shock” through
“Danger: Severe Shock”
• 300 volts=more than twice the household AC
Voltage
• The teachers were told that the shocks might be
painful but were not dangerous
• Unknown to the teachers, the learners were fake
participants coached by Milgram
Stanley Milgram Experiment
• If at any time the subject indicated his
desire to halt the experiment, he was given
a succession of verbal prods by the
experimenter, in this order:
• Please continue.
• The experiment requires that you continue.
• It is absolutely essential that you continue.
• You have no other choice, you must go on.
Stanley Milgram Experiment
Stanley Milgram Experiment
Stanley Milgram Experiment
Stanley Milgram Experiment
Stanley Milgram Experiment
• What were the results:
• Did teachers actually try to shock the
learners? Explain Using p.268-269
Obedience to Authority
• Can be serious and tragic.
• Atrocities in the 20th Century include
Germany, and Rwanda
What happens when people
don’t conform?
• Three steps: monitoring, convincing,
rejecting takes place
Jury wanted one juror removed and the foreperson wrote: “On
behalf of the 11 jurors, we are in agreement that Juror No. 373
cannot comprehend anything that we’ve been trying to
accomplish. We tried patiently to talk and work with her, all to
no avail! She doesn’t use common sense. Lastly, just when
we’ve made progress in final decisions, she is totally oblivious
to what we’ve discussed and decided.”
When Do We Not Conform?
• Behaviour that greatly restricts the need to
be an "individual"
• Some people are very reactive to
infringements upon their individuality or need
to be in control.
• Behaviour that shows that you are exactly
like others is avoided
• Behaviour that greatly restricts degrees of
personal freedom
How Do We Perceive Our
Own Conformity?
• Invariably we come up with
justifications for it
• Examples:
It was for the greater good of the
group
Didn't want to embarrass others
ASSIGNMENT:JOURNAL
ENTRY
Day of Nonconformity
• Your challenge will be to live each minute of
a day in a way that is as uninfluenced as
possible by conformity pressures: to appear
cool, fit in with a group, or go along with
others to be liked or accepted. In other
words, for a full 12-hour period you should
live in a way that is true to yourself, while not
infringing on the rights of others.