Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience

1. Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience Chapter 18

2. Conformity Conformity – adjusting one’s behavior to coincide with a group standard. • Q List specific examples of Conformity? • Face the Rear An Illustration of Social Influence Behaviour Management • p.703 Q. Conformity or individualism • Chameleon Effect p. 705

3. Why do we conform? • Normative social influence – conforming to group pressure out of a need for approval and acceptance • We want to adhere to social norms because the price we pay for breaking those norms may be severe. • Ex. Applauding at a play, even if you did not enjoy the performance. • Ex. Standing for the pledge of allegiance • Give an example of when you or someone else has gone against the normative social influence. • Social Norms (1:20--??)

4. Asch’s conformity experiments(1955) • Participant joins group of five seated at a table. The experimenter asks which of three comparison lines is identical to a standard line. On the third question the first 5 “participants” give the same wrong answer. The last participant struggles with what answer to give. • Asch’s findings – More than1/3 of the time “well meaning college students were willing to call white black.”. Asch Conformity Experiment – YouTube Page 732 • Q. Activity guess the time

5. Conformity • Conformity increases when • Made to feel incompetent • Group has at least 3 people • The group is unanimous • One admires the groups attractiveness • Others in the group are observing your behavior • One’s culture strongly respects social standards. Political/Social Conservatives more likely than liberals to conform.

6. Why do we conform? • Informational Social Influence – conforming because of a need for information and direction. • Conform because others may have more information than we do. • Ex. Signing up for a class due to strong recommendations from friends • Ex. Political Opinions in San Francisco, New York City where large majority are liberal democrats and rural areas of the bible belt or Matthews/Mint Hill where majority are conservative Republicans) • Ex. NRA members, union members, racist blacks, racist whites. • Joseph Goerbels (Hitler’s propaganda minister understood that if he could get a majority of people in a country believing in his big lie story then he can get most of the non believers.

7. Obedience • Obedience – following direct commands, usually from an authority figure. • While reading p. 734- 735 ask yourself: if put in the same situation how far would you go?

8. Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Study • Advertisement for a Yale University study that “concerns the effects of punishment on learning.” • Subjects become “teachers.” Their job is to teach and then test the learner on a list of word pairs. The learner is punished for a wrong answer by giving brief electric shocks. After each wrong answer the teacher is to give a higher voltage of shock. • How is this foot-in-the-door effect? • Experimenter encourages you to continue delivering shocks for wrong answers. • Findings of the study – 63% complied fully (15 volts - 450 volts)human behavior experiments • Milgram’s study is criticized for failure to meet ethical requirements. (How much deception is too much?)

9. Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Study • Subjects were debriefed • Milgram repeated the study with new “teachers.” His results were consistent with previous findings (65% fully complied) • What details affected compliance rate? • Legitimate authority figure giving orders • Prestige of the university • The victim is at a distance / Depersonalized • No role models for defiance (subjects did not see any others refuse to shock the learner)

10. Applying Milgram’s Study… • How is this study applicable to reality Police Officer imposter in McDonald’s Holocaust and obedience • 9/11 terrorists obeyed orders (from Allah) to kill for later reward • Soldiers who obey authorities even though they know what they are doing is wrong • Adhering to our own standards vs. responding to others • Milgram said, “the most fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.” • Curiosity: How Evil Are You? | The Milgram Experiment - YouTube