Download Unit 13 Social Psychology Social Influence pt. 2

What do experiments on conformity and
compliance reveal about the power of social
influence? ….Behavior is contagious. We are
natural mimics..called the chameleon effect.
Normative social influence. Avoid
rejection or gain social approval.
Informational Social Influence: When we
accept others opinions about reality.
Conformity Studies
Adjusting one’s
behavior or thinking
to coincide with a
group standard.
Social psychologist, Stanley Milgram: Situation powerfully influence people. Obedience
highest when: person giving the orders were perceived to be a legitimate authority figure,
when authority figure was supported by prestigious institution, when victim was at a
distance, no role models for defiance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwkMilgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment 2009 1/3
Asch’s Study of Conformity
Asch’s Results
• About 1/3 of the
participants conformed.
• 70% conformed at least
once.
To strengthen
conformity:
•
•
•
•
The group is unanimous
The group is at least three
people.
One admires the group’s status
One had made no prior
commitment
How do groups affect our behavior?
when you are good at
something you do it even better when people are
watching.
Social Loafing
Social Loafing: The tendency for people in a
group to exert less effort when pooling efforts
toward a common goal than if they were
individually accountable.
Sounds like group work to me  Video also
includes a little door in the face 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJ79kAFVho
SouthPark.mov
Deindividuation
People get swept up in
a group and lose sense
of self.
Feel anonymous and
aroused.
Explains rioting
behaviors.
Group Polarization
Groups tend to make more extreme decisions
than the individual.
For example, after a group discussion, people already supportive of a war become more
supportive, people with an initial tendency towards racism become more racist and a group
with a slight preference for one job candidate will come out with a much stronger
preference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7IxGGfpSWk
Pt. 1 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of
Groupthink
• Group members
suppress their
reservations about
the ideas supported
by the group.
• They are more
concerned with
group harmony.
• Worse in highly
cohesive groups.
Funny Elevator Psychology
http://www.guzer.com/videos/elevator-psychology.php
Zimbardo’s Prison Study
• Showed how we
deindividuate AND
become the roles we are
given.
• Philip Zimbardo has
students at Stanford U
play the roles of prisoner
and prison guards in the
basement of psychology
building.
• They were given
uniforms and numbers
for each prisoner.
• What do you think
happened?
Deindividuation
People get swept up in
a group and lose sense
of self.
Feel anonymous and
aroused.
Explains rioting
behaviors.
The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions
shared by a group of people and transmitted from one
generation to the next.
rules for accepted and expected behavior.
the portable buffer zone we like to
maintain around our bodies.