Module 5.

1: Social Influence I they elicit envy, also an ambivalent emotion; they admire such
people but also resent them.
I. DEFINING SOCIAL STEREOTYPES
➢ The SCM dimensions derive from the idea that social
➢ Beliefs that various traits or acts are characteristic of cognition focuses on the target’s apparent intent, which
particular social groups. determines social interaction. Other people’s predispositions
➢ The stereotypic beliefs represent subjective estimates of matter to us when we need them, that is, when we as
the frequencies of attributes within social groups, and so individuals or as a group are interdependent with them.
should be expected to “behave like” baserate information ➢ Specific stereotype content in turn predicts specific
within the context of judgments of individuals: emotional prejudices based on social comparison and
specifically, individuating target case information should attributions for outcomes (Fiske et al., 2002). A cooperative
induce subjects to disregard their own stereotypic beliefs. in-group’s or ally’s positive outcome evokes pride, while a
➢ By stereotyping, we infer that a person has a whole competitive out-group’s positive outcome provokes envy. An
range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all ally’s negative outcome evokes pity, whereas a competitor’s
members of that group have. negative outcome provokes contempt.
A. STEREOTYPE CONTENT MODEL (Fiske, 2018) B. PREJUDICE VS. STEREOTYPE (Bernardo, 2021)
➢ Specifies that when someone encounters a new group, ➢ Attitudes toward an individual or group based on
they will stereotype them based on two metrics: membership.
o WARMTH (trustworthiness, sociability) is the ➢ AFFECTIVE RESPONSE: Negative (Contempt/
perceived intent, and how likely they are to provide Envy)/ Positive (Sympathy/ Admiration)
help or inflict harm.
➢ COGNITIVE RESPONSE: Biases, dehumanization,
o COMPETENT (capable, agentic) refers to how
and infrahumanization.
people can enact that intent.
➢ BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE: Highlighting
➢ Depending on the WARMTH-COMPETENCE
stereotypes in talks, jokes; presumptuousness in speech;
CATEGORIZATION, a person will feel a distinct way
avoidance.
about a group, which influences their behavior toward
those individuals. C. DISCRIMINATION VS. STEREOTYPE (Bernardo,
LOW HIGH 2021)
COMPETENC COMPETENC ➢ Behavioral: Exclusionary and harmful actions towards
E (Capability, E (Capability, others.
Assertiveness) Assertiveness)
HIGH Common: Common: ➢ Include verbal denigration or insults; microaggressions;
WARMTH Elderly, Citizens, Middle biased social rewards and punishments; and violence and
(Friendliness, Disabled, Class Ethnicity: extermination.
Trustworthiness) Children Americans,
II. ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
Ethnicity: Canadians,
Italians, Irish Christians A. DEFINING ATTITUDES
Emotions Emotions
➢ Refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors
Evoked: Pity, Evoked: Pride,
Sympathy Admiration toward a particular object, person, thing, or event.
LOW WARMTH Common: Poor, Common: Rich, ➢ Often the result of experience or upbringing, and they
(Friendliness, Homeless, Professionals, can have a powerful influence over behavior. While
Trustworthiness) Immigrants Technical attitudes are enduring, they can also change.
Ethnicity: Experts ➢ A learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way;
Latinos, Ethnicity: this can include evaluations of people, issues, objects, or
Africans, Asians, Jews, events.
Muslims British, Germans
➢ Beliefs and feelings related to a person or an event
Emotions Emotions
Evoked: Disgust, Evoked: Envy, (often rooted in one’s beliefs and exhibited in one’s
Contempt Jealousy feelings and intended behavior).
➢ Groups seen as warm but incompetent, including older B. COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE
people and people with disabilities, as well as young children. a. AFFECTIVE COMPONENT: How the object, person,
People report pity or sympathy, itself an ambivalent emotion issue, or event makes you feel.
(feeling sorry for someone holds only as long as their status b. BEHAVIORAL COMPONENT: How attitude
remains lower). influences your behavior.
➢ Group stereotypes as cold but competent, which is the c. COGNITIVE COMPONENT: Your thoughts and
opposite kind of ambivalence, including rich people, beliefs about the subject.
businesspeople, and technical experts. People reported that
C. TYPES OF ATTITUDES
 a. EXPLICIT ATTITUDES: Those we are consciously 3. SUBJECTIVE NORMS: The belief about whether most
aware of and that clearly influence our behaviors and people or approve or disapprove of the behavior; related to a
beliefs. person’s beliefs about whether peers and people of importance
b. IMPLICIT ATTITUDES: Unconscious but still to the person think s/he should engage in the behavior.
influence our beliefs and behaviors.
4. SOCIAL NORMS refers to the customary codes of
D. ATTITUDE FORMATION behavior in a group or people or larger cultural context.
➢ Factors that can influence how and why attitudes form:
5. PERCEIVED POWER: The perceived presence of factors
a. EXPERIENCE: Direct personal experience or
that may facilitate or impede performance of a behavior;
result of our observations.
contributes to a person’s perceived behavioral control over
b. SOCIAL FACTORS: Impact of social roles (How
each of those factors.
people are expected to behave in a particular role or
context) and social norms (society’s rules for what 6. PERCEIVE BEHAVIORAL CONTROL: A person’s
behaviors are considered appropriate). perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior
c. LEARNING: Classical Conditioning of interest; varies across situations and actions, which results
d. CONDITIONING: Operant Conditioning in a person having varying perceptions of behavioral control
e. OBSERVATION depending on the situation.
E. ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR ➢ CHANGING ATTITUDES TO MATCH BEHAVIOR
➢ THE PRINCIPLE OF ATTITUDE CONSISTENCY o Reduce tension caused by COGNITIVE
o For any given attitude object, the ABCs of affect, DISSONANCE by changing their attitudes to reflect
behavior, and cognition are normally inline with each their other beliefs or actual behaviors.
other.
➢ THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (Azjen,
1991; Fishbein & Azjen, 1975)
o Intended to explain all behaviors over which people
can exert self-control.
o Key Component: BEHAVIORAL INTENT
F. WHY ATTITUDES CHANGE
▪ Influenced by the attitude about the likelihood that the
behavior will have the expected outcome and the 1. LEARNING THEORY
subjective evaluation of the risks and benefits of that ➢ CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: Used to create
outcome. positive emotional reactions to an object, person, or event
by associating positive feelings with the target object.
➢ OPERANT CONDITIONING: Used to strengthen
desirable attitudes and weaken undesirable ones.
➢ People can change their attitudes after observing the
behavior of others.

2. ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD THEORY

➢ People can alter their attitudes by:
o Being motivated to listen and think about the message,
thus leading to an attitude shift.
o Being influenced by the characteristics of the speaker,
leading to a temporary or surface shift in attitude.
Messages that are thought-provoking and that appeal to
logic are more likely to lead to permanent changes in
attitudes.
CONSTRUCTS:
3. DISSONANCE THEORY
1. ATTITUDES: Degree to which a person has a favorable or ➢ People can change their attitudes when they have
unfavorable evaluation of the behavior of interest; entails a
conflicting beliefs about a topic. In order to reduce the
consideration of the outcomes of performing the behavior.
tension created by these incompatible beliefs, people often
2. BEHAVIORAL INTENTION: Motivational factors that shift their attitudes.
influence a given behavior where the stronger the intention to
III. PERSUASION
perform the behavior, the more likely the behavior will be
performed. A. DEFINING PERSUASION
 ➢ Persuasion serves an important function in a social D. DUAL-PROCESSING MODELS AND HOW WE
society. PROCESS PERSUASION
➢ Persuasion is a symbolic process in which ➢ “WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL-IS GOOD” HEURISTIC
communicators try to convince other people to change o This mental shortcut results in us automatically
their attitudes or behaviors regarding an issue through the connecting the source’s attractiveness with the
transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice. qualities of being good, kind, smart, etc.
o EXAMPLE: THE CASE OF TED BUNDY
B. 12 GOALS FOR PERSUASION ▪ Ted Bundy was a serial killer considered
a. Obtaining Information attractive and would lure women to their deaths
b. Obtaining some Object by asking for help.
c. Obtaining Permission ▪ The women he asked were happy to help; they
d. Getting someone to do a Favor automatically responded to the “what is beautiful-
e. Changing someone’s opinion is-good” heuristic, assuming he was kind and
f. Getting someone to engage in some activity trustworthy and they went to help someone who
g. Buying or selling something would end up killing them.
h. Changing an existing relationship ➢ DUAL-PROCESSING MODEL: ELABORATION
i. Changing someone’s personal habit LIKELIHOOD MODEL
j. Helping the persuader
k. Helping a third party
l. Getting someone to do something against self-interest

C. 15 APPROACHES TO REACH PERSUASION

GOALS

1. ASKING: No reason for the request is given.

2. INVOKING PERSONAL EXPERTISE: Because the

persuader is an expert, you should adopt their attitude.

3. INVOKING PERSONAL NEED: That is, the

persuader’s need.

4. BUTTERING UP: The persuader makes the person feel

wonderful for important. o CENTRAL ROUTE (SYSTEMATIC
PROCESSING)
5. INVOKING ROLE RELATIONSHIPS: “You’re not ▪ Occur when we carefully consider the message
a true friend unless you do this for me.” content.
6. BARGAINING FOR THE FAVOR ▪ Motivated by PERSONAL RELEVANCE.
▪ Motivated by the NEED FOR COGNITION.
7. INVOKING A NORM: “Everybody’s doing it.” • Enjoyment from engaging in effortful
cognitive activity
8. INVOKING MORAL PRINCIPLE: “It’s the right • Individuals who score high on the need for
thing to do.” cognition measure spend more time carefully
9. INVOKING ALTRUISM: “I’m not asking for myself, processing the messages, following the central
it’s for the people I will be able to help if you grant the route to persuasion.
request.” o PERIPHERAL ROUTE (HEURISTIC
PROCESSING)
10. OFFERING A BRIBE: A rebate for the purchase. ▪ Consider the context or situation that the message
is delivered in is more important than the actual
11. EMOTIONAL APPEALS: The persuader sulks
message.
hoping the target will feel guilty.
▪ These context or situational cues trigger automatic
12. PERSONAL CRITICISM: “You’re lazy, you never responses and we quickly move forward in our
want to do anything.” lives.
▪ We need to examine the persuasion situation more
13. DECEPTION: Tricking the person into granting the closely to understand exactly when our persuasive
request. attempts will be most successful.
o Our motivations in persuasion will determine which
14. THREAT
path we want out audience to follow. If we want a more
15. PHYSICAL FORCE permanent attitude change, we will want the person or
 group we are attempting to persuade to follow the pay attention to the message when it is personally
central route. If we need them to go along right now or relevant to us.
buy something once, then the peripheral route is a good • They may need the time to think about what is
choice. being said and may therefore be persuaded by solid
arguments.
E. FACTORS THAT LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL ▪ EMOTION-BASED APPEALS
PERSUASION • Individuals following the peripheral route.
1. PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATORS o TYPE OF EMOTIONAL APPEALS
o COMMUNICATOR/ SOURCE CREDIBILITY ▪ EVOKING GOOD FEELINGS IN OUR
▪ PERCEIVED EXPERTISE AUDIENCE
• Defined as someone perceived to be both • When we make our audience feel good, we
knowledgeable on a topic and can share accurate increase their positive thoughts and through
information with us. association, we make a connection for them of good
• In situations where we have low personal feelings and the message.
relevance or ability to process the message, it serves • When we are in a good mood, we are more likely
as a peripheral cue. to rely on the peripheral route, we do not spend
• Expertise will trigger us to automatically go along much time thinking about the message.
with the persuasive attempt because we believe that • When people are unhappy, they spend more time
this person knows what they are talking about. ruminating or going over and over things, they are
▪ PERCEIVED TRUSTWORTHINESS not persuaded by weak arguments.
• Research has found that when we do not feel like ▪ ELICITING FEAR
the person has anything to gain and that they are • Fear can be very effective most of the time.
sincere, this is a strong indication of persuasion. • Fear, however, does not work when you are trying
• If people view someone as trustworthy, they will to convince people to do something that makes
automatically be persuaded by the attempt. them feel good nor does it work when you use too
However, if the source is viewed as untrustworthy, much of it and do not give the audience a solution
even people who have a low need for cognition will to avoid fear and it would make it easier for the
engage in a similar amount of message analysis as audience to deny and continue the behavior.
individuals who are high in need for cognition. • Fear and humor combined have also been found to
o COMMUNICATOR/ SOURCE ATTRACTIVENESS be more persuasive.
▪ PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS o THE WAY THE MESSAGE IS PRESENTED
• Research has found that people associate talent, ▪ FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR PHENOMENON
kindness, honesty, and intelligence with beauty • The communicator will first make a small request
(Eagly et al, 1991). These same studies have been and once you agree to the small request, the
done in a variety of contexts and individuals who communicator will ask for something larger.
are highly attractive are more likely to be voted for, • The person’s goal is the larger request, but in
hired for a job, and granted leniency in the judicial order for you to agree to it, they are using a strategy
system. that plays on our need to be consistent.
• When we are not motivated and able to think • Once we have made a commitment, we will feel
deeply, we follow the peripheral route, and this is pressure to remain consistent and avoid and the
when peripheral cues like appearance can have the unpleasant feeling of hypocrisy.
greatest impact on persuasion. ▪ LOWBALLING
▪ LIKEABILITY • The communicator will put forward an attractive
• One of the things that can increase likeability is offer, one that is hard to say no to, once the offer is
SIMILARITY, we like people who are like us. agreed to, you will come up with new reasons for
• This includes sharing opinions, personality traits, why you are glad you made the commitment to this
background, lifestyle, and even when people mirror offer.
our behavior, posture, and facial expressions. • The original offer is removed and the whole
reason you went along with it was because of that
2. PERSUASIVE MESSAGES: TYPES OF MESSAGE desirable offer and now it is gone.
CONTENT • Instead of getting upset or changing your mind,
o SOLID ARGUMENTS VS. EMOTION-BASED you go along with it and are happy about it.
APPEALS ▪ DOOR-IN-THE-FACE
▪ SOLID ARGUMENTS • Something large is presented and the metaphorical
• Audiences who are motivated and able follow the door is slammed in your face because the request is
central route of persuasion they are motivated to too big; then you knock and offer a smaller request,
 which is usually accepted. The smaller request is ➢ Power that is based on the ability to create negative
what you really are trying to get. outcomes for others, for instance by bullying, intimidating,
• RECIPROCITY is a peripheral cue; when or otherwise punishing.
someone does something for us, we feel indebted to ➢ Effective only when the person being influenced is
them and want to immediately return to equity in dependent upon the powerholder; coercion works only if
our relationship. the person being influenced does not leave the group
• PERCEPTUAL CONTRAST deals with the entirely – people who are punished too much are likely to
change in perception related to how things are look for other situations that provide more positive
presented. The second presentation of the smaller outcomes.
item after the large item changes our perception and ➢ Coercion is more difficult to use since it often requires
we now see it as smaller than if we had just been
energy to keep the person from avoiding the punishment
presented with the small item alone.
by leaving the situation altogether. It is less desirable for
o ONE-SIDED vs. TWO-SIDED APPEALS
both the powerholder and the person being influenced
▪ ONE-SIDED APPEAL
because it creates an environment of negative feelings and
• Work best when the audience agrees with you but
distrust that is likely to make interactions difficult,
it can be the wrong choice if the audience processes
undermine satisfaction, and lead to retaliation against the
through the central route. It will motivate them to
powerholder.
seek out the other side and could result in trust
issues. 3. LEGITIMATE POWER
▪ TWO-SIDED APPEAL ➢ Authority that comes from a belief on the part of those
• Most effective and enduring when the audience being influenced that the person has a legitimate right to
disagrees with you, it can be useful right from the demand conformity.
start to address the opposing side and then present ➢ Power vested in those who are appointed or elected to
your argument. positions of authority and their power is successful because
Module 5: Social Influence II members of the group accept is as appropriate.
➢ Individuals with legitimate power can exert substantial
I. SOCIAL POWER influence on their followers and may not only create
➢ The ability of a person to create conformity even when changes in the behavior of others but also the power to
the people being influenced may attempt to resist those create and change the social norms of the group.
changes. ➢ Power is given to the authority figure because of laws
or elections, or as part of the norms, traditions, and values
A. TYPES OF SOCIAL POWER (Raven & French, 1959;
of the society.
Raven, 1992)
➢ In other cases, legitimate power comes more informally,
1. REWARD POWER because of being a respected group member. People who
➢ The ability to distribute positive or negative rewards. contribute to the group process and follow group norms
➢ Occurs when one person can influence others by gain status within the group and therefore earn legitimate
providing them with positive outcomes. power.
➢ The variety of rewards that can be used by the powerful 4. REFERENT POWER
is almost endless and includes verbal praise or approval, ➢ Influenced based on identification with, attraction to, or
the awarding of status or prestige, and even direct financial respect for the powerholder.
payment.
➢ An ability to influence others because they can lead
➢ The ability to wield reward power over those we want
those others to identify with them.
to influence is contingent on the needs of the person being
➢ The person who provides the influence is:
influenced.
o A member of an important reference group – someone
➢ Power is greater when the person being influenced has a
we really admire and attempt to emulate.
strong desire to obtain the reward, and power is weaker
o A charismatic, dynamic, and persuasive leader
when the individual does not need the reward.
o A person who is particularly attractive or famous.
➢ Because the change in behavior results from reward
➢ Referent power generally produces private acceptance
power is driven by the reward itself, its use is usually more
rather than public conformity.
likely to produce public conformity than private
➢ The influence brought on by referent power may occur
acceptance.
in a passive sense because the person being emulated does
2. COERCIVE POWER not necessarily attempt to influence others, and the person
➢ The ability to dispense punishment. who is being influenced may not even realize that the
influence is occurring.
 ➢ The person with referent power may make full use of o Drivers stop at red lights because they accept that not
his or her status as the target of identification or respect to doing so is dangerous.
produce change.
2. COMPLIANCE (GROUP ACCEPTANCE)
➢ Referent power is a particularly strong source of
➢ Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with
influence because it is likely to result in the acceptance of
an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing.
the opinions of the important other.
➢ Conformity to an expectation or a request without really
5. EXPERT POWER believing in what you are doing; it is an insincere, outward
➢ Power that comes from other’s beliefs that the conformity.
powerholder possesses superior skills and abilities. ➢ People might comply primarily to reap a reward or
➢ Represents a type of informational influence based on avoid punishment – for example, you might have followed
the fundamental desire to obtain valid and accurate your high school’s dress code even though it was dumb,
information, and where the outcome is likely to be private because that was better than detention.
acceptance.
3. IDENTIFICATION (GROUP MEMBERSHIP)
➢ Conformity to the beliefs or instructions of doctors,
➢ Individuals conform to the expectations of a social role,
teachers, lawyers, and computer experts is an example of
e.g., nurses, police officers.
expert influence; we assume that these individuals have
valid information about their areas of expertise, and we ➢ When an individual accepts influence because he wants
accept their opinions based on this perceived expertise to establish or maintain a satisfying self-defining
(particularly if their advice seems to be successful in relationship to another person or group.
solving problems). ➢ It is like compliance as there does not have to be a
➢ Expert power is increased for those who possess more change in private opinion.
information about a relevant topic than others do because 4. INGRATIATIONAL
the others must turn to this individual to gain information. ➢ When a person conforms to impress or gain favor/
II. DEFINING CONFORMITY acceptance from other people.
➢ The overall term for acting differently due to the ➢ It is like normative influence but is motivated by the
influence of others. need for social rewards rather than the threat of rejection,
➢ It is not limited to acting as other people act; it is also i.e., group pressure does not enter the decision to conform.
being affected by how they act. 5. OBEDIENCE
➢ A change in behavior or belief to accord with others. ➢ A type of compliance involving acting in accord with a
➢ People conform to social influence in part to meet the direct order or command. ➢ Complying with a direct
cognitive goals of forming accurate knowledge about the command.
world around us.
➢ It involves an affective process; people want to be liked B. EXPLANATIONS OF CONFORMITY (Deutsch &
and accepted by others and may sometime behave in ways Gerrard, 1955)
that they might not really have wanted to if they had
1. NORMATIVE CONFORMITY
thought about them more carefully.
➢ Yielding to group pressure because a person wants to fit
A. VARIETIES OF CONFORMITY in with the group.
➢ Conforming because the person is scared of being
1. ACCEPTANCE (INTERNALIZATION)
rejected by the group.
➢ Conformity that involves both acting and believing in
➢ This type of conformity usually involves compliance –
accord with social pressure.
where a person publicly accepts the views of a group but
➢ Occurs when a person genuinely believed in what the privately rejects them.
group has persuaded to do – he inwardly and sincerely
believed that the group’s actions are right. 2. INFORMATIONAL CONFORMITY
➢ A person publicly changes their behavior to fit in with ➢ This usually occurs when a person lacks knowledge and
the group, while also agreeing with them privately. looks to the group for guidance.
➢ This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs ➢ When a person is in an ambiguous (i.e., unclear)
of the group become part of the individual’s own belief situation and socially compares their behavior with the
system and may therefore result to a more permanent group.
change in behavior. ➢ This type of conformity usually involves internalization
➢ EXAMPLE: – where a person accepts the views of the groups and
o People exercise because they accept that exercise is adopts them as an individual.
healthy.
C. CLASSIC CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE
STUDIES

1. MUZAFIR SHERIF’S STUDIES OF NORM

FORMATION: AUTOKINETIC EFFECT
EXPERIMENT
➢ The aim of the study is to demonstrate that people
conform to group norms when they are put in an
ambiguous (i.e., unclear) situation. ➢ RESULTS:
➢ The experiment assessed suggestibility regarding o Asch measured the number of times each participant
seeming movement of light. conformed to the majority view.
➢ AUTOKINETIC EFFECT o On average, about one third (32%) of the participants
o A small spot of light (projected onto a screen) in a who were placed in this situation went along and
dark room will appear to move, even though it is still conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the
(i.e., it is a visual illusion). critical trials.
o When the participants of the study were individually o Over the 12 clinical trials, about 75% of participants
tested their estimates on how far the light moved varied conformed at least once, and 25% of participants never
considerably. conformed.
o When tested in groups of three, Sherif manipulated ➢ People conform for two main reasons:
the composition of the group by putting together two o NORMATIVE INFLUENCE: The need to fit in
people whose estimate of the light movement when with the group.
alone was very similar, and one person whose estimate o INFORMATIONAL INFLUENCE: The belief that
was very different. Each person in the group had to say the group is better informed than they are.
aloud how far they thought the light moved. ➢ REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES:
o RESULTS: o Peer Pressure
▪ Sherif found that over numerous estimates (trials) o Fads
of the movement of light, the group converged to a
3. STANLEY MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE STUDIES
common estimate.
▪ The person whose estimate of movement was ➢ Experiment that focused on the conflict between
greatly different to the other two in the group obedience to authority and personal conscience.
conformed to the view of the other two. ➢ The participants were paired with another person, and
▪ People would always tend to conform rather than they drew lots to find out who would be the ‘learner’ and
make individual judgments. who would be the ‘teacher’. The draw was fixed so that the
➢ REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES: participant was always the teacher, and the learner was one
o Interpreting events differently after hearing from of Milgram’s confederates.
others. ➢ The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every
o Appreciating a tasty food that others love. time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of
➢ MASS HYSTERIA: Suggestibility to problems that shock each time. There were 30 switches on the shock
spreads throughout a large group of people. generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450
(danger – severe shock).
➢ CHAMELEON EFFECT: Our natural mimicry of
others’ postures and language generally elicits liking – ➢ The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose),
except when echoing others’ negative expressions, such as and for each of these, the teacher gave him an electric
anger. shock. When the teacher refused to administer a shock, the
2. SOLOMON ASCH’S STUDIES OF GROUP experimenter was to give a series of orders/ prods to ensure
PRESSURE they continued.
➢ Solomon Asch conducted an experiment to investigate ➢ RESULTS:
the extent to which social pressure from a majority group o 65% of participants (i.e., teachers) continued to the
could affect a person to conform. highest level of 450 volts.
➢ The experiment used a line judgment task where Asch o All the participants continued to 300 volts.
put a naïve participant in a room with seven confederates. ➢ Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an
The confederates had agreed in advance what their authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent
responses would be when presented with the line task. human being.
o Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way
➢ There were 18 trials in total, and the confederates gave
we are brought up.
the wrong answer on 12, Asch was interested to see if the o People tend to obey orders from other people if they
real participant would conform to the majority view. recognize their authority as morally right and/or legally
based. This response to legitimate authority is learned in a
 variety of situations, for example in the family, school, and o People high in openness to experience are less likely
workplace. to conform.
➢ ETHICAL ISSUES:
o DECEPTION: The participants believed they were 2. CULTURE
shocking a real person and were unaware the learner ➢ Conformity rates are higher in collectivistic countries.
was a confederate of Milgram’s. ➢ Conformity supports social norms regarding food
o PROTECTION OF PARTICIPANTS: Participants preparation, hygiene, public health, and contact with
were exposed to extremely stressful situations that may unknown people.
have the potential to cause psychological harm. Many ➢ The working-class people tend to prefer similarity to
of the participants were visibly distressed. others, whereas the middle-class more strongly preferred to
o RIGHT TO WITHDRAWAL: The researchers see themselves as unique
should make it plain to participants that they are free to
withdraw at any time (regardless of payment). F. RESISTING SOCIAL PRESSURE
D. FACTORS AFFECTING CONFORMITY (Asch, 1956)
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTANCE (Brehm, 1966)
1. GROUP SIZE ➢ A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom;
➢ The bigger the majority group (no. of confederates), the the need for freedom is activated whenever people feel a
more people conformed, but only up to a certain point. restriction put upon their actions or opinions.
➢ According to Hogg & Vaughan (1995), the most robust ➢ Arises when someone threatens our freedom of action;
finding is that conformity reaches its full extent with 3-5 people usually respond to a restrictive force by fighting
persons majority, with additional members having little back against it, resisting attempts at influence.
effect. ➢ Aroused whenever a person is given a direct order or
told that an activity is not possible or not allowed.
2. LACK OF GROUP UNANIMITY/ PRESENCE OF AN ➢ When pushed, people tend to push back. When told they
ALLY
cannot have something, people tend to want it.
➢ As conformity drops off with five members or more, it
may be that it’s the unanimity of the group (the 2. ASSERTING UNIQUENESS
confederates all agree with each other) which is more ➢ People feel better when they see themselves as
important than the size of the group. moderately unique and act in ways that will assert their
➢ The absence of group unanimity lowers overall individuality.
conformity as participants feel less need for social ➢ Individuals who have the highest “need for uniqueness”
approval of the group. tend to conform the least.
3. COHESIVENESS
➢ The extent to which members of a group are bound
together, such as attraction to one another.
➢ The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains
over its members.

4. DIFFICULTY OF TASK
➢ When people are uncertain, it seems they look to others
for confirmation.
➢ The more difficult the task, the greater the conformity.

5. ANSWER IN PRIVATE
➢ When participants are allowed to answer in private (so
the rest of the group does not know their response)
conformity decreases.
➢ In private, the fewer group pressure and normative
influence, the weaker is the social power, as there is no
fear of rejection from the group.

E. WHO CONFORMS?

1. PERSONALITY
➢ OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
o A personality trait connected to creativity and
socially progressive thinking.