Chapter 8:

Social
INFLUENCE
CHANGING OTHERS’ BEHAVIOR
 Objectives
Compliance
• Discover why we • Factors that cause
conform. • Know the Weapons of Destructive Obedience
• Factors affecting Influence • How to resist D.O.
Conformity • Know the Persuasive • Stanley Milgram’s
• Asch’s Experiment Psychological Experiment
Manipulation
Techniques

Conformity Obedience
Social Influence
— Efforts by one or more individuals to
change attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or
behaviors of one or more others.
CONFORMITY

• To conform is to adjust your actions to a norm.

COMPLIANCE

• To comply is to come to an agreement about a course

of action.

OBEDIENCE

• To obey is to do as an authority figure commands

regardless of personal preference.
► When have you gone along
with something that others
have said, just because you
didn’t want to stand out?
Conformity
• Change induced by general rules
concerning what behavior is
appropriate or required in a given
situation.

• Pressure to behave in ways that are

viewed as acceptable or appropriate
by a group or society generally.
Social Norms
— Rules indicating how individuals are
expected to behave in specific
situations.
Autokinetic Phenomenon (Muzafer Sherif)

o The apparent movement of a single stationary

source of light in a dark room.
o Often used to study the emergence of norms
and social influence.

► “When placed in a dark tunnel, tendency is to

move towards the light, same goes for norm
because people don’t know what to do without
rules so they follow if there is one.”
Factors Affecting Conformity

Cohesiveness Group Size

Situational
Social Norm
Norm
Factors Affecting Conformity

► Cohesiveness
— The extent to which we are attracted to
a social group and want to belong to it.
Factors Affecting Conformity

► Group Size
— The larger the group (8 or more), the
greater the number of people who behave
in some specific way, the greater our
tendency to conform.
Factors Affecting Conformity

► Social Norms
o Descriptive Norms
— What most people do in a given situation.
o Injunctive Norms
— What is ought to be done,
what is approved or disapproved
behavior in given situation.
Factors Affecting Conformity

► Situational Norms
— Norms that guide behavior in a certain
situation or environment.
Social Roots of Conformity
Why do people choose to go along? It is because of two
factors:

Normative Social Influence

• The desire to be liked.

Informational Social Influence

• The desire to be right.
First

The need to maintain Individuality.

Second Factors why we

choose not to
The desire for personal control. conform

Third

Norms that encourage individualism.

 First

Must be consistent in their opposition.

Factors in
Second which the
Must avoid appearing rigid or dogmatic Minority can
Third sometimes
Argue for a position that is consistent with
current social trends. (e.g. Nature advocates)
influence the
Majority
Conformity
• Solomon Asch (1955)
studied conformity to
see if people would
conform to an
obviously wrong
opinion.
• 1/3 of participants
went along with the
obviously incorrect
consensus.
CONFORMITY
• Participants on Asch’s experiment
conformed because of the normative
social influence.
• They did not want to stand out from the
group and face possible ridicule; they
wanted to be part of the in-group.
 Compliance
• Discover why we • Factors that cause
conform. • Know the Weapons of Destructive Obedience
• Factors affecting Influence • How to resist D.O.
Conformity • Know the Persuasive • Stanley Milgram’s
• Asch’s Experiment Psychological Experiment
Manipulation
Techniques

Conformity Obedience
COMPLIANCE
• Change in behavior, generally
produced by a request.
• Direct efforts to get others to
change their behavior in
specific ways.
ROBERT B.
CIALDINI, PH. D.
• Regents’ Professor Emeritus of
Psychology and Marketing
at Arizona State University.
• He is best known for his book
on persuasion and marketing,
Influence: The Psychology of
Persuasion. Influence has sold
over 2 million copies and has
been translated into
twenty-six languages.
 Reciprocati
on

Scarcity Commitment

Weapons
of
Influence

Authority Social Proof

Liking
RECIPROCATION
“The Old Give and Take… and
Take.”
COMMITMENT OR
CONSISTENCY

“Hobgoblins of the Mind.”

SOCIAL PROOF
“Truths are Us.”
 LIKING
OR
FRIENDSHIP
“The Friendly Thief.”
AUTHORITY
“Directed
Deference.”
SCARCITY
“The Rule of the Few.”
Persuasive psychological
manipulation techniques
• Techniques used by compliance
professionals (e.g. salespeople,
recruiters, marketers, media, etc.).
• Can be used for manipulative purposes.
 FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR
► — Consists in getting a “YES” to a low cost
action, difficult to be refused, in order to
get a “YES” to a much more costly one.
LOWBALL technique
► — Gaining compliance in which, when
the target person agrees, the requester
would change the deal to a more
disadvantageous place for the target
person.
 Door-in-the-face
► — Consists in getting a “NO” to a costly
request, impossible to be accepted or
even unrealistic, in order to get a “YES”
to a much more reasonable one.
THAT’S-NOT-ALL technique
► — Gaining compliance in which the
requester offers additional benefits to
target people before they have
decided whether to comply or reject
specific requests.
 FOOT-IN-THE-MOUTH
► —Consists in preceding the request by a
form of address. Asking how are they. It
catches the person on a personal level.
EXAMPLE:
► Person 1: You look blooming today.
► Person 2: Why, thank you. (flattered)
► Person 1: How are you? You seem happy!
► Person 2: Oh yes I am!
► Person 1: That’s good to know! You go have a good day. ☺
► Person 2: Thank you.
► Person 1: Oh, by the way, could you lend me 150 pesos,
because […]

► See how the “BECAUSE” technique is also utilized.

“BECAUSE” Technique
► —People are more compliant when you
give people a reason for why you want
them to do something.
PLAYING-HARD-TO-GET
► — Increasing compliance by suggesting
that a person or object is scarce or hard to
obtain.
DEADLINE TECHNIQUE
► — Increasing compliance by suggesting
that they only have limited time to take
advantage of some offer or to obtain
some item.
 FEAR-THEN-RELIEF
► — Consists of creating stress before
providing a relief as a preparatory step
for a later request.
“BUT YOU ARE FREE OF”
technique
► — Consists in clarifying after a request
that the targeted person should feel
free not to comply to the said request.
Example:
► “Could you please throw the garbage? I
mean, you’re free to refuse, if anyone
forces you.”

► —The evocation of freedom provoked the

compliance.
“A little is better
than nothing” technique
► — Consists in helping the target to
understand that even a tiny contribution
or participation is better than nothing.
EXAMPLE:
► Hello sir! I forgot my wallet and I
really need money to buy a bus
ticket. Could you please help me?
Even 10 pesos could help me.
ATTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE
► — Consists in giving a persona good
image of his/herself, just by a simple
sentence, which will lead this person to
accept your request more easily.
 TOUCH TECHNIQUE
► — Touching the person for a few second
will submit to your request.
 1. FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR
2. LOWBALL
3. DOOR-IN-THE-FACE
Persuasive 4. FOOT-IN-THE-MOUTH
THAT’S-NOT-ALL
psychologic
5.

6. “BECAUSE”

al 7.

8.
HARD-TO-GET
DEADLINE

manipulatio 9.

10.
FEAR-THEN-RELIEF
BUT-YOU-ARE-FREE-OF

n 11.

12.
A LITTLE IS BETTER THAN NOTHING
ATTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE

techniques 13. TOUCH TECHNIQUE

Symbolic social influence
► — Psychological presence of others in
ours mental representation of them
influence our behavior and thought.
►How?
►Because
of
GOALS.
► First, the extent people are present in our thoughts, this
may trigger relational schemas. When relational
schemas are triggered, goals relevant to them may be
activated.

Presence Goals
of a Triggers relevant
person in relational to them
our schemas may be
thoughts activated
• For instance, if the goal of
helping others is triggered,
then we may become
more helpful.
• Our goals may affect our
behavior.
Second,

Psychological
presence of others
Goals they want us
may trigger goals
to achieve.
which that person is
associated.
Perceptual contrast
• A principle in human perception; it
affects the way we see the difference
between two things that are presented
one after another.
• Simply put, if the second item is fairly
different from the first, we will tend to
see it more different than it actually is.
►STORY
► Sharonmay be failing
Chemistry, but she gets
an “A” in Psychology.
 Compliance
• Discover why we • Factors that cause
conform. • Know the Weapons of Destructive Obedience
• Factors affecting Influence • How to resist D.O.
Conformity • Know the Persuasive • Stanley Milgram’s
• Asch’s Experiment Psychological Experiment
Manipulation Techniques

Conformity Obedience
OBEDIENCE
► — Social Influence in which
one person simply orders one
or more others to do what they
want.
► Not much is to be said regarding
obedience, only that it is unparalleled in
controlling people because it is exhibited
by people in power especially authorities in
position. Stanley Milgram’s famous
experiment, “Destructive Obedience,” is to
be remembered.
 MILGRAM
•
EXPERIMENT
The Milgram experiment on
obedience to authority
figures was a series of
notable social
psychology experiments
conducted by Yale University
psychologist Stanley Milgram
• Which measured the willingness of
study participants
to obey an authority figure who
instructed them to perform acts
that conflicted with their
personal conscience.
►“Ordinary people, simply doing
their jobs, and without any
particular hostility on their part,
can become agents in a
terrible destructive process.
Moreover, even when the
destructive effects of their work
become patently clear, and
they are asked to carry out
actions incompatible with
fundamental standards of
morality, relatively few people
have the resources needed to
resist authority.”
Factors that cause destructive
obedience Persons in authority often
Persons in authority assume
have visible signs of their
responsibility
status and power

Strong tendency
to obey

Commands are gradual in Events move at fast pace,

nature, and do not start out giving the persons involved
with orders to perform little chance to consider their
extreme actions options
 Individuals must remind Individuals must have a clear
themselves that they, not the indication that total submission
authorities, are responsible for to destructive commands is
any hard produced inappropriate

How to resist D.O.

Individuals may find it easier to Simply knowing about the

resist influence from authority if power of authority figures to
they question the expertise command blind obedience
and motives of these figures may be helpful in itself
 Compliance
• Discover why we • Factors that cause
conform. • Know the Weapons of Destructive Obedience
• Factors affecting Influence
D ! • How to resist D.O.
Conformity
H
• Know the Persuasive
IS E • Stanley Milgram’s
• Asch’s Experiment
P L
Psychological Experiment

O M
Manipulation
Techniques

Conformity A C C Obedience
► “It takes tremendous
discipline to control the
influence, the power you
have over other people's
lives.”
► —Clint Eastwood