Social Influence:Conformity, Compliance, ObedienceMadiha AnasLecturerDepartment of Applied PsychologySchool of Social SciencesBeaconhouse National University

Social Influence

What is Conformity?

Conformity a change in a persons behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group norms. (Myers, 1999)

Or a tendency for people to adopt the behaviour, attitudes and values of other members of a reference group. (Zimbardo, 1995)

Norms = the rules established by a group to regulate the behaviour of its members.

Informational Social Influence We want to be rightwe look to others, whom we believe to be correct, to give us information about how to behave, particularly in novel or ambiguous situations. (The desire to be right)

Normative Social Influence We want to be likedwe conform because we think that others will approve and accept us. (The desire to be accepted)

Conformity: AschCONFORMITY IN AN UNAMBIGUOUS SITUATION.

Solomon Asch (1951) carried out a study to show the pressure which peers can put on you to conform to a wrong norm.

Enter laboratory with 6 other people. Seven of you seated in a series - you are number 6.

Experimenter explains task:a single line on card on left3 lines on card on right.

A B C

A B C

A B C

A B CAsch, 1951

Conformity: AschOne line is same length as line on other card. You and other subjects need only call out, one at a time, which of the 3 lines was the same length. Simple!

You try it out. A is obviously the correct line. The others all agree. This continues until suddenly the others all disagree with what you think is correct!

What do you do? You begin to doubt your own judgement. Nightmare.

The nightmare is the pressure to conform. Actually the other 6 subjects are stooges.

Social Influence: Compliance

ComplianceA change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group pressureSuperficial,public and transitory

A change in behavior due to a direct request from another person.

ComplianceComply with the attempt to influence.Public compliance effect of coercion.Direct requests most common form of compliance and social influence.

Strategies in compliance- Cialdini (1988)Foot-in-the-door (Freedman & Fraser, 1966)Door-in-the-face (OKeefer & Hale, 2001)

Why Compliance?People make direct requests of us all the timesalespeople, peers, friends, familyHonoring those (reasonable) requests helps maintain the social fabrichelping others and anticipating their help in the future makes for good social bonds

ComplianceThe door-in-the-face technique gets people to comply with a request by presenting them first with a large request and then with a smaller, more reasonable request.RS. 1000RS. 950RS. 800

Compliancereciprocity norm: receiving anything positive from another person requires them to reciprocate in response.

ComplianceThe Foot-in-the-Door TechniqueThe foot-in-the-door technique gets people to comply with a small request, followed by a larger request. This is better for long-term compliance.

Social InfluenceObedience

ObedienceDoing something because a legitimate authority figure asked us toLess frequent than conformity or complianceEven persons who possess authority and power generally prefer to exert it through the velvet gloveThrough requests rather than orders

ObedienceObedience behaving as instructed but not necessarily changing your opinions.

Usually in response to individual rather than group pressureObedience is by direction (being directed) whereas conformity is affected by example (or observation).

Why Obedience?Many people have power over uslaw enforcement, parents, militaryFollowing the direct orders of a (legitimate) authority is usually not a matter of debatewhen the officer asks to see your drivers license, its usually prudent to obey

Obedience to AuthorityStanley Milgram (1963, 1974, 1976) examined the power of obedience to authority in social psychologys most famous laboratory experiments. Milgrams results indicate powerful tendency people have to obey authority figures even when their orders go against peoples values and morals.

ObedienceObediencecompliance of person is due to perceived authority of askerrequest is perceived as a commandMilgram interested in unquestioning obedience to orders

Stanley Milgrams StudiesStanley Milgram (1960s)The participant is the teacher, the confederate is the learnerTeacher watches learner being strapped into chair -- learner expresses concern over his heart conditionIf the learner makes an error, the teacher has to shock himwith the level of shock increasing to dangerous and deadly levelsAs the level of shock increases, the teacher can hear the learner is in obvious pain

Stanley Milgrams Studies

Teacher to another room with experimenterShock generator panel 15 to 450 volts, labels slight shock to XXXAsked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes

Stanley Milgram (1963)

Stanley Milgrams Studies1234

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Stanley Milgrams StudiesLearner protests more and more as shock increasesExperimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher is unsure

ObedienceHow many people would go to the highest shock level?65% of the subjects went to the end, even those that protested

Explanations for Milgrams ResultsAbnormal group of subjects?numerous replications with variety of groups shows no supportAll male subjectsPeople in general are sadistic?videotapes of Milgrams subjects show extreme distress

Critiques of Milgram Although 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, there are still ethical issuesDo these experiments really help us understand real-world atrocities?

This photo of Stanley Milgram was scanned in from the Myers text, NOT on the CD Photo scanned in from Gray 3e fig 14.8, NOT on CDFigure adapted from Hockenbury 12.4, was on CDFigure adapted from Hockenbury 12.4, was on CDThis table was adapted from Hockenbury, Table 12.3

Instructor could also tape the confederates responses instead of using this tableThis figure is from the Myers text, adapted from the CD version