Chapter 8:
Social influence: changing others’ behaviour
Conformity: group influence in action
Social influence: efforts by one or more indiv. To change attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behav.
Of one or others.
Conformity: type of social influence. Indivs. Change attitudes/behav. To adhere to existing social
norms
.
Compliance: form of soc. Influ. Direct requests from one person to another.
Obedience: form of soc. Influ. One person orders one/others to perform action/s and people
comply.
Social norms: rules indicating how indivs. Expected to behave. In specific situations.
This section deals with injunctive norms = tell us what we should do in certain situations
Social norms are detailed/formal/explicit (eg laws of the country) and
unspoken/informal/implicit (eg don’t stare at strangers) which most people obey most of
the time
Why do we conform when we could have personal freedom? Without it, there could be
social chaos
Largely examined by solomon asch (chapter 3) in 1951
What do people usually do when their answers/etc differ from everyone else’s???
Asch asked people which of 3 lines matched std line. Confused them by having his
assistants state their answers (which were wrong) before people gave their answers on
critical trials. Most people went along with false answers = conformity. They felt little
confidence in themselves.
In another study, he had someone break from the others: they either gave correct
answer/answer in the middle of group’s and correct one/even more incorrect answer –
latter 2 breaks found that reduction in conformity was greatest, even more so in last
break = once the group has differences, it’s harder not to conform
Later study, he had people state their answers on paper and not out loud – drop in
conformity as there was no way of telling answers
Nb difference in public conformity (doing/saying like those around us) and private
acceptance (coming to feel/think like others)
? To what extent do people resist or conform?
1. Cohesiveness and conformity: being influenced by those we like
‘cool’ people set trends
Cohesiveness = all factors that bind group members into coherent social entity
When it’s high, we tend to follow (we want to follow the leaders); opposite of when it’s
low, we tend to resist pressure
Cohesiveness influences conformity
2. Conformity and group size: why more is better with respect to social pressure
Initially thought that it increases with group size but only up to about 3 members – then it
levels off/decreases
Now, increase seen in groups of 8+
3. Descriptive and injunctive social norms: how norms affect behaviour
Descriptive norms (dn): norms indicating what most people do in given situation – simply
descriptive
Injunctive norms (in): norms specifying what ought to be done (‘good’/’bad’ behav) in
given situation
, Both dn and in exert strong influence
In believed to be prominent in anti-social behav (eg) because
1. They take attention away from what people are doing to what they should be doing
2. They activate soc motive to what’s right regardless of what others have done/are doing
In not always influential (eg able bodied people parking in disabled people’s parking
when they know they shouldn’t) – it can be weakened or not present at all
Why? Look below
Normative focus theory (nft): theory suggesting that norms influence behav only to extent
that they are focal to persons involved at the time behav occurs
People behave when it’s relevant/significant to them
Study by reno, cialdini and kallgren:
People observed someone picking up litter that wasn’t theirs. Later (in a nutshell), it was
seen that those who saw first action were less likely to litter because norm was salient
Situational norms (sn): norms that guide behaviour in certain situation/environment
Eg lower your voice in hospital and raise it at stadium
Awareness of sn is not nb
Eg study by aarts and dijiksterhuis: people who saw picture of library and told that they’d
visit it later were asked to read out loud 10 words (volume was measured) spoke softer;
compared to those who didn’t expect to visit library and those who saw picture of railway
station – they didn’t lower their voices. They applied theory to people who eat in fancy
restaurants - they acted politely and eat neater
What does this tell us?
1. Sn tell us how to behave in given environments/locations affects behav
2. They exert influence automatically
? Why do we choose to go along or resist? Based on 2 human motives
1. Desire to be liked/accepted
How do we do it?
Appear as similar to others as possible so they can like us/praise us/approve of us/accept
us =
Normative soc inf: involves changing our behav to meet other’s expectations
Eg ‘hot’ rocks
2. Desire to be right/have an accurate understanding of soc world
Informational soc influ (isi): soc influ based on desire to be correct/possess accurate
perceptions of soc world
We use other people’s opinions/actions to guide us, thus forming our soc reality
Isi strong form of conformity because of our want to be accurate
Usually found in situations where we are unsure about ourselves than where we are
confident
Study by baron, vandello and brusman:
Similar to asch study – asked to identify person in line up from drawing. Some were
shown it for (a) 0.5 secs = hard to id, others (b) 5.0 = easier to id. Other side of study
looked at importance of being accurate – some were told that results were not nb, other
told that they were nb.
To measure conformity: 2 assistants point out wrong person + people told that accuracy
is nb. Predicted correctly that a would conform more than b because of their uncertainty.
Also, if they were told that it wasn’t nb = conformity would be the same in both conditions.
Effects of soc influ where there was uncertainty are very powerful =
Study by apanovitch, hobfoll and salovey: people watched gang rape of woman by men,
then they
1. Discussed it
2. Rated victim’s pain
3. Empathy for victim
4. Extent to which men were responsible
Rigged with assistant who either
Social influence: changing others’ behaviour
Conformity: group influence in action
Social influence: efforts by one or more indiv. To change attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behav.
Of one or others.
Conformity: type of social influence. Indivs. Change attitudes/behav. To adhere to existing social
norms
.
Compliance: form of soc. Influ. Direct requests from one person to another.
Obedience: form of soc. Influ. One person orders one/others to perform action/s and people
comply.
Social norms: rules indicating how indivs. Expected to behave. In specific situations.
This section deals with injunctive norms = tell us what we should do in certain situations
Social norms are detailed/formal/explicit (eg laws of the country) and
unspoken/informal/implicit (eg don’t stare at strangers) which most people obey most of
the time
Why do we conform when we could have personal freedom? Without it, there could be
social chaos
Largely examined by solomon asch (chapter 3) in 1951
What do people usually do when their answers/etc differ from everyone else’s???
Asch asked people which of 3 lines matched std line. Confused them by having his
assistants state their answers (which were wrong) before people gave their answers on
critical trials. Most people went along with false answers = conformity. They felt little
confidence in themselves.
In another study, he had someone break from the others: they either gave correct
answer/answer in the middle of group’s and correct one/even more incorrect answer –
latter 2 breaks found that reduction in conformity was greatest, even more so in last
break = once the group has differences, it’s harder not to conform
Later study, he had people state their answers on paper and not out loud – drop in
conformity as there was no way of telling answers
Nb difference in public conformity (doing/saying like those around us) and private
acceptance (coming to feel/think like others)
? To what extent do people resist or conform?
1. Cohesiveness and conformity: being influenced by those we like
‘cool’ people set trends
Cohesiveness = all factors that bind group members into coherent social entity
When it’s high, we tend to follow (we want to follow the leaders); opposite of when it’s
low, we tend to resist pressure
Cohesiveness influences conformity
2. Conformity and group size: why more is better with respect to social pressure
Initially thought that it increases with group size but only up to about 3 members – then it
levels off/decreases
Now, increase seen in groups of 8+
3. Descriptive and injunctive social norms: how norms affect behaviour
Descriptive norms (dn): norms indicating what most people do in given situation – simply
descriptive
Injunctive norms (in): norms specifying what ought to be done (‘good’/’bad’ behav) in
given situation
, Both dn and in exert strong influence
In believed to be prominent in anti-social behav (eg) because
1. They take attention away from what people are doing to what they should be doing
2. They activate soc motive to what’s right regardless of what others have done/are doing
In not always influential (eg able bodied people parking in disabled people’s parking
when they know they shouldn’t) – it can be weakened or not present at all
Why? Look below
Normative focus theory (nft): theory suggesting that norms influence behav only to extent
that they are focal to persons involved at the time behav occurs
People behave when it’s relevant/significant to them
Study by reno, cialdini and kallgren:
People observed someone picking up litter that wasn’t theirs. Later (in a nutshell), it was
seen that those who saw first action were less likely to litter because norm was salient
Situational norms (sn): norms that guide behaviour in certain situation/environment
Eg lower your voice in hospital and raise it at stadium
Awareness of sn is not nb
Eg study by aarts and dijiksterhuis: people who saw picture of library and told that they’d
visit it later were asked to read out loud 10 words (volume was measured) spoke softer;
compared to those who didn’t expect to visit library and those who saw picture of railway
station – they didn’t lower their voices. They applied theory to people who eat in fancy
restaurants - they acted politely and eat neater
What does this tell us?
1. Sn tell us how to behave in given environments/locations affects behav
2. They exert influence automatically
? Why do we choose to go along or resist? Based on 2 human motives
1. Desire to be liked/accepted
How do we do it?
Appear as similar to others as possible so they can like us/praise us/approve of us/accept
us =
Normative soc inf: involves changing our behav to meet other’s expectations
Eg ‘hot’ rocks
2. Desire to be right/have an accurate understanding of soc world
Informational soc influ (isi): soc influ based on desire to be correct/possess accurate
perceptions of soc world
We use other people’s opinions/actions to guide us, thus forming our soc reality
Isi strong form of conformity because of our want to be accurate
Usually found in situations where we are unsure about ourselves than where we are
confident
Study by baron, vandello and brusman:
Similar to asch study – asked to identify person in line up from drawing. Some were
shown it for (a) 0.5 secs = hard to id, others (b) 5.0 = easier to id. Other side of study
looked at importance of being accurate – some were told that results were not nb, other
told that they were nb.
To measure conformity: 2 assistants point out wrong person + people told that accuracy
is nb. Predicted correctly that a would conform more than b because of their uncertainty.
Also, if they were told that it wasn’t nb = conformity would be the same in both conditions.
Effects of soc influ where there was uncertainty are very powerful =
Study by apanovitch, hobfoll and salovey: people watched gang rape of woman by men,
then they
1. Discussed it
2. Rated victim’s pain
3. Empathy for victim
4. Extent to which men were responsible
Rigged with assistant who either
