Chapter 9: social norms
We are all influenced by the ideas, emotions and behaviours of others. Interaction
between individuals will make their behaviour and thoughts more similar. Social
norms reflect the accepted way of thinking and behaving within a group.
Conformity: the movement of thoughts, feelings and behaviour from individuals
towards group norms.
- sherif’s experiment with the moving dot: the stimulus is ambiguous, there is not a
fixed answer how much the dot is moving. People conform to what the group thinks
because they think if they all say the same, that must be true (private conforming).
- asch’s experiment with different length lines: people adjust their opinion because
there is one fixed correct answer and they don’t want to look stupid so they conform
to the group (public conforming).
descriptive norms: what people really think, feel and do.
prescriptive norms: injunctive norms about how people should behave.
implicit: unwritten, like you say sorry when you bump into someone.
explicit: written laws, like you don’t just go hit people in the face.
Informational influence (mastery): conforming to the group opinion because you
really think that what they think is right, like ducking when a whole group of people
around you also ducks to the ground. Especially when:
you are in an ambiguous situation
you are uncertain about yourself
a lot of people do it
Normative influence (connectedness): conforming to the group opinion because you
want to belong to the group and not stand out. We only conform to relevant
reference groups, who we identify with and people we feel a cohesion with.
Group polarization: when most people in a group already have a certain opinion
about something, and then the group discusses about the subject, the whole group
opinion will shift even more towards the opinion that was already there.
Cults are distanced from the outside world, they are isolated geographically but often
also socially. They follow each other due to informative and normative conformity.
Minority influence tested by Moscovici’s blue/green experiment: minority will
influence you when it is consistent.
, Chapter 10: more norms
Social facilitation: performing better at an easy task when you are observed.
Social inhibition: performing worse at a difficult task because you are observed.
We follow social norms because we are scared of social exclusion, also we respond
with socially undesirable behaviour when someone violates the norms. Following
norms meets our need to belong and valuing me and mine.
restriction of range: having only participants who all score high on factor X and thus
make it impossible to see the real correlation because you only see the end of the
graph line. This is due to a selection bias, where only those people are selected.
How to activate norms:
- direct reminders of the norm (big board with ‘do not litter’) always work well.
- indirect reminders, of how other people behave (like ‘most people reuse towels’
thing in hotel room), small effects that are not always replicated.
Crowd psychology (Le Bon): people in a crowd change from thoughtful, rational
people into impulsive and extreme followers of something. Deindividuation, so all
behaving together as a group, makes the group norm extremely salient.
in order to behave in a group, you need to let go of your own identity
(deindividuation) and identify yourself with the group. The group norm now
becomes more salient and everybody in the group will behave according the
norm.
Social heuristics: simple rules that enable an efficient and accurate way of deciding.
- social proof: usually how other people behave is a guideline for how you should
behave. Boomerang effect is telling someone who uses not a lot of energy and is
below the average, and then he will start using way more energy above average.
- reciprocity: if someone does something for you, you should do something for them
back, used in sale techniques.
door in the face technique: first asking for something really big and then of
course they say no and then asking for a smaller request and then they feel
bad for saying no before so now they say yes.
- commitment and consistency: social interaction is facilitated when commitment is
followed by consistent behaviour.
foot in the door technique: first agreeing with a very small request and then
you say yes to a little larger request easier because then your behaviour is
consistent (no one likes cognitive dissonance).
low balling: get an agreement before telling all the details of an experiment,
so keeping unattractive parts of something secret after someone said yes.
We are all influenced by the ideas, emotions and behaviours of others. Interaction
between individuals will make their behaviour and thoughts more similar. Social
norms reflect the accepted way of thinking and behaving within a group.
Conformity: the movement of thoughts, feelings and behaviour from individuals
towards group norms.
- sherif’s experiment with the moving dot: the stimulus is ambiguous, there is not a
fixed answer how much the dot is moving. People conform to what the group thinks
because they think if they all say the same, that must be true (private conforming).
- asch’s experiment with different length lines: people adjust their opinion because
there is one fixed correct answer and they don’t want to look stupid so they conform
to the group (public conforming).
descriptive norms: what people really think, feel and do.
prescriptive norms: injunctive norms about how people should behave.
implicit: unwritten, like you say sorry when you bump into someone.
explicit: written laws, like you don’t just go hit people in the face.
Informational influence (mastery): conforming to the group opinion because you
really think that what they think is right, like ducking when a whole group of people
around you also ducks to the ground. Especially when:
you are in an ambiguous situation
you are uncertain about yourself
a lot of people do it
Normative influence (connectedness): conforming to the group opinion because you
want to belong to the group and not stand out. We only conform to relevant
reference groups, who we identify with and people we feel a cohesion with.
Group polarization: when most people in a group already have a certain opinion
about something, and then the group discusses about the subject, the whole group
opinion will shift even more towards the opinion that was already there.
Cults are distanced from the outside world, they are isolated geographically but often
also socially. They follow each other due to informative and normative conformity.
Minority influence tested by Moscovici’s blue/green experiment: minority will
influence you when it is consistent.
, Chapter 10: more norms
Social facilitation: performing better at an easy task when you are observed.
Social inhibition: performing worse at a difficult task because you are observed.
We follow social norms because we are scared of social exclusion, also we respond
with socially undesirable behaviour when someone violates the norms. Following
norms meets our need to belong and valuing me and mine.
restriction of range: having only participants who all score high on factor X and thus
make it impossible to see the real correlation because you only see the end of the
graph line. This is due to a selection bias, where only those people are selected.
How to activate norms:
- direct reminders of the norm (big board with ‘do not litter’) always work well.
- indirect reminders, of how other people behave (like ‘most people reuse towels’
thing in hotel room), small effects that are not always replicated.
Crowd psychology (Le Bon): people in a crowd change from thoughtful, rational
people into impulsive and extreme followers of something. Deindividuation, so all
behaving together as a group, makes the group norm extremely salient.
in order to behave in a group, you need to let go of your own identity
(deindividuation) and identify yourself with the group. The group norm now
becomes more salient and everybody in the group will behave according the
norm.
Social heuristics: simple rules that enable an efficient and accurate way of deciding.
- social proof: usually how other people behave is a guideline for how you should
behave. Boomerang effect is telling someone who uses not a lot of energy and is
below the average, and then he will start using way more energy above average.
- reciprocity: if someone does something for you, you should do something for them
back, used in sale techniques.
door in the face technique: first asking for something really big and then of
course they say no and then asking for a smaller request and then they feel
bad for saying no before so now they say yes.
- commitment and consistency: social interaction is facilitated when commitment is
followed by consistent behaviour.
foot in the door technique: first agreeing with a very small request and then
you say yes to a little larger request easier because then your behaviour is
consistent (no one likes cognitive dissonance).
low balling: get an agreement before telling all the details of an experiment,
so keeping unattractive parts of something secret after someone said yes.
