Transcript Chapter Seven

PSY 321
Social Influence: Compliance,
Conformity, & Obedience
Dr. Sanchez
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Today’s Outline
• Compliance
– Techniques and Experiments
• Conformity
– Techniques and Experiments
• Majority vs. Minority Influence
• Obedience
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Compliance
• Changes in behavior that are elicited by
_______________.
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The Language of Requests
• Talking fast and catching people off guard
can improve compliance rates.
• People can be disarmed by the simple
______________.
• How you ask for something can be more
important than what you ask for.
• Langer: We often respond _______________
________ without fully processing the
information they are supposed to convey.
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The language of requests: Experiment
Langer et al., 1978
• IV: Request did or did not include a
reason
o “I have five copies. May I use the Xerox
machine?”
o “I have five copies. May I use the Xerox
machine, because I’m in a rush?”
o “I have five copies. May I use the Xerox
machine, because I have to make copies?”
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Langer et al. (1978)
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?
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Breaking the Mindless Routine
(Santos et al. 1994)
80
70
60
Percentage
That Complied
50
40
30
20
10
0
25Cents
17Cents
Spare Change???
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________________________
• The powerful norm of ________________
dictates that we treat others as they have
treated us.
 This norm leads us to feel obligated to repay
for acts of kindness, even when unsolicited.
 Example: writing “thank you” on back of
check increases tip
 Coca-Cola study
• Results are relatively short-lived.
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Sequential Request Strategies:
Foot-in-the-Door Technique
• Person begins with a _______ request;
secures agreement; then makes a
separate ______ request.
• Why is it effective?
 ________________
 ________________
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Foot-in-the-Door: Experiment
Freedman & Fraser, 1966
• IV: Small request first, or not
• Initial request (small):
– By phone, asked women to complete short survey on
household products
• Intrusive request (big):
– 3 days later, asked women to allow a few men into
the house for 2 hours to rummage through drawers
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Freedman & Fraser (1966)
60
50
40
Percent That
Complied
30
20
10
0
Intrusive Only
Initial, then Intrusive
Request Made
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Sequential Request Strategies:
Low-Balling
• Person secures agreement with a request
and then increases the size of that request
by ____________________.
• Why is it effective?
• _________________________
• _________________________
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Low-balling: Experiment
Cialdini et al., 1978
• Asked intro psych students to participate
in experiment
• IV: low-balling or upfront
– half were told in advance that it would start at
7am;
– half were told after agreeing that it would
start at 7am
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Cialdini et al. (1978)
60
50
40
Percent That
30
Volunteered
20
10
0
Told 7 a.m. First
Told 7 a.m. Later
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Sequential Request Strategies:
Door-in-the-Face Technique
• Person begins with a
___________________; then follows that
up with a more moderate request.
• Why is it effective?
– ___________________
– ___________________
– ___________________
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Door-in-the-Face Technique: Experiment
Cialdini et al., 1975
• IV: Large request first?
• Asked students to volunteer for 2 hrs/week for 2 yrs
to work with juvenile delinquents
• Or no large request first
• Followed by smaller request: Will you escort
juvenile delinquents to zoo?
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Cialdini et al. (1975)
50
40
Percent That
30
Agreed
20
10
0
Real Request Only
After Declining Initial
Request
Willing to Take Delinquents to the Zoo?
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Sequential Request Strategies:
That’s Not All, Folks!
• Person begins with a somewhat inflated
request; then immediately decreases the
apparent size of the request by offering a
discount or bonus.
• Why?
– _________________________
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That’s-Not-All Technique: Experiment
Burger, 1986
• IV: Did the deal get “sweeter”?
– ½ of Ps told cupcakes cost 75 cents
– ½ of Ps first told cupcakes cost $1, then told
the price would be reduced to 75 cents
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Burger (1986)
80
70
60
50
Sales
40
30
20
10
0
75 Cents
Reduced to 75 cents
Price of Cupcakes
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Sequential Request Strategies
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Assertiveness: When People
Say No
• To be able to resist the trap of compliance
techniques, one must:
o Be vigilant.
o Not feel indebted by _______________.
• Compliance techniques work smoothly
only if they are hidden from view.
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Conformity
• Tendency to change perceptions, opinions,
or behavior in ways that are
___________________________.
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The Chameleon Effect
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Conformity: Autokinetic Phenomenon
• Sherif (1935, 1937)
• Study of “norm formation”
• Dark room, pinpoint of light appears 15
feet in front of you
• Asked, “How far did light move?”
• First time, you’re alone
• Subsequent times, you’re with others (this
is the IV)
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A Classic Case of Suggestibility
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Conformity: Asch Line-Matching
• P surrounded by 6 confederates
• Asked to judge length of a line
• IV: Confederates give correct or incorrect
answer
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Line Judgment Task Used in Asch’s
Conformity Studies
Asch, 1955.
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What Did Asch’s Participants Do?
• Participants went along with the clearly
incorrect majority _____ of the time.
• _____ of the participants NEVER
conformed.
• Of the conformists, _____ conformed for
at least half of the critical presentations.
– The rest conformed on an
____________basis.
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Sherif’s vs. Asch’s Studies
• Sherif: Because of _____________,
participants turned to each other for
guidance.
• Asch: Found self in ____________
position.
– Obvious that group was wrong
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Why Do People Conform?
•
Influence: People conform
because they believe others are correct in
their judgments
– Sherif autokinetic effect
– 2 heads better than one?
– Implications for eyewitness testimonies
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Why Do People Conform?
• __________ Influence: People conform
because they fear the consequences of
appearing deviant.
– Asch line-matching
– Effects of Ostracism
• Cyberball
• “Minority Slowness Effect”
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Types of Conformity
• ________ Conformity: Changes in both overt
behavior and beliefs.
– Sherif autokinetic effect
– Enduring conformity
• ______Conformity: Superficial change in overt
behavior only.
– Asch line-matching
– If wrote answers privately, effect went away
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Distinguishing Types of Conformity
From Robert Baron et al., (1996) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 915-927. Copyright (c) 1996
by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
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Model of the Types of Conformity
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Majority Influence: Group Size
• Conformity increases with __________ -but only up to a point.
• Why?
– Law of “__________________”?
– Perception that others are either in “collusion”
or “spineless sheep”?
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Majority Influence:
Awareness of Norms
• Conform only when know about and focus
on __________.
• Often misperceive what is normative.
– Pluralistic ignorance
– 1) members of a group who think that they
have different perceptions, beliefs, or
attitudes from the rest of the group
– 2) adjust their attitude
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Majority Influence:
Having an Ally in Dissent
• When there was an ally in Asch’s study,
conformity dropped by almost ______
• Why does having an ally reduce majority
influence on our behavior?
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Majority Influence and
Gender Differences***
• IV: Masculine, Feminine, or Stereotype
Neutral Q’s
• DV: Percent agreeing w/majority response
• Results?
– Men conformed more to feminine qs
– Women conformed more to masculine qs
– No difference on neutral items
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Majority Influence and
Gender Differences
• Conceptual IV: Social Pressure
• IV: Public v. Private
• DV: Percent agreeing w/majority response
• Results?
• ______________________________
• Why?
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Majority Influence and
Gender Differences
• Sex differences appear to depend on:
– ___________________________
– ___________________________.
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Majority Influence and Culture
• Cultures differ in the extent to which
people adhere to social norms.
• What determines whether a culture
becomes individualistic or collectivistic?
– The__________ of the society.
– The __________of the society.
– The __________ of the society.
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Individualistic / Collectivistic
•
•
•
•
•
US
Australia
Great Britain
Canada
Netherlands
• Asia
• Africa
• South America
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Minority Influence
• Def. Process by which
____________________
• Moscovici: Nonconformists derive power
from the ________ of their behavior.
– “Consistent dissent” approach
– “The color study”
• Why?
• Limitation = “Us” not “Them”
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Minority Influence
• Hollander: Minorities influence by first
____________________ credits.
– “First conform, then dissent” strategy.
• Why?
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How Does Minority Influence
Work?
• Does minority influence work just like the
process of conformity?
• Dual Process Approach
– Because of their power and control, majorities
elicit public conformity through
_____________________________.
– Because seen as seriously committed to their
views, minorities produce
________________________________.
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Majority vs. Minority Influence
• Relative impact of each depends on whether the
judgment that is being made is
___________________
– Fact = Majority Rules
– Opinion = Minority & Majority influence
• The relative effects of majority and minority
viewpoints depend on _____________________
– Direct, public measures vs. more indirect, private
measures of conformity.
• Benefits of minority influence
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Obedience
• Behavior change produced by
____________________ of authority
• Remember:
– Compliance is a behavior change elicited by a
direct request
– Conformity is a change of perceptions,
opinions, or behaviors in ways that are
consistent with group norms
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The Continuum of Social Influence
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Milgram’s Research: Forces of
Destructive Obedience
• Conducted his experiments during the
time that Adolph Eichmann was being
tried for Nazi war crimes.
• Symbols of authority
• His unorthodox methods have been the
subject of much ethical debate.
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The Prods Used in Milgram’s
Experiment
• “Please continue (or please go on).”
• “The experiment requires that you
continue.”
• “It is absolutely essential that you continue.”
• “You have no other choice; you must
go on.”
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Milgram’s Baseline Results
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The Obedient Participant
• No gender differences observed in level of
obedience.
• Milgram’s basic findings have been
replicated in several different countries
and among different age groups.
• Milgram’s participants were tormented by
experience.
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Are We All Nazis?
• No, an individual’s character can make a
difference.
• Authoritarian Personality: Submissive
toward figures of authority but aggressive
toward subordinates.
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Factors That
Influence Obedience
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Important Factors That
Influence Obedience
• _____________________________ of the
authority figure.
• The victim’s _______________.
• The experimental procedure.
– Participants were led to feel relieved of
personal responsibility for the victim’s welfare.
– Gradual escalation was used.
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Defiance: When People Rebel
• Social influence can also breed rebellion
and defiance.
• Having allies gives individuals the courage
to disobey.
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