Download Social Influences on Behavior

Social Influences on Behavior
Mr. Koch
AP Psychology
Andover High School
How do groups influence our
behavior?
Deindividuation
– Phenomenon when a person becomes “submerged
in a group” and loses sense of individuality
– Tend to do things would not normally do when
alone (feel anonymous)
How do groups affect our
performance?
Social influences on motivation
• Norman Triplett (1897)
– Noticed bicycle racers tended to go faster when
others were present
– Experiment – 3 conditions:
– Race alone against clock
– With another cyclist, but not competing
– With another cyclist, in competition
• Result: went faster with another cyclist,
regardless of competition
– Found similar results in experiment
with adolescents winding fishing reels
• Robert Zajonc
– “Social facilitation” vs. “Social impairment”
• Presence of others increases general level of arousal
• Arousal increases tendency to perform behaviors
that are most dominant (the ones we know best)
– Improves performance for easy, familiar tasks
– Performance may suffer for hard, unfamiliar tasks
• “Social Loafing”
– Exerting less effort when performing a group task than
when performing the same task alone
– Harder to evaluate the performance of individuals when in group
– Rewards may come to group regardless of individual giving more
effort
– Group’s rewards usually divided equally rather than by effort
How do groups influence our
decision-making?
• Group polarization
– Interaction and discussion of individuals in a group
with similar beliefs/attitudes tends to make these
beliefs/attitudes more extreme
• “risky shift” and “conservative shift”
• Groupthink
– A pattern of thinking in which
group members fail to
realistically evaluate the wisdom
of various options and decisions
– Likely when place higher
value on reaching
decision/consensus than
assuring decision is right
– Best way to avoid is by
encouraging diverse
perspectives and dissent to
be expressed
Conformity
• Changing one’s behavior or beliefs to match those of
others, generally as a result of real or imagined,
though unspoken group pressure
– Compliance – adjusting ones behavior because of an
explicit or implicit request
Solomon Asch’s
Conformity Study
• Subjects asked to pick which of 3
lines was same size as standard line
– Didn’t realize that other subjects in
panels were confederates
– On 6 trials, confederates would choose
the correct answer
– But on 12 of the trials, created “social
reality” by all choosing the wrong line
Asch’s Conformity Study
• Control condition – less than 1% of participants ever
made a mistake
• Experimental condition – about 70% made at least one
error by conforming to the group norm
• Conformed on over 1/3 of all responses
• Why did they conform?
– Public conformity
• Didn’t believe, but saw it as socially desirable thing to do
– Private acceptance
• Saw others’ responses as legitimate evidence of reality, were convinced
their own perceptions were wrong, and changed their minds
Asch Conformity Study
Factors influencing conformity
• Ambiguity
– When something is less certain, rely more on other’s opinions
• Group Size and Unanimity
– More powerful at 3 people or more
– If even one person disagrees, greatly reduces conformity (<10% in Asch study)
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Social Status
Prior commitment
Culture that promotes importance of social standards
Research has shown no legitimate gender-based differences
“Minority influence” – much more rare, but can be powerful