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Some More Social Influence Tidbits

Some More Social Influence Tidbits. Scott Allison Psycho Department. Power of Authority. You know the Milgram study of course But do you know of the equally interesting Kassin & Kiechel (1996) study? Participants were told they were in a study of typing speed and reflexes

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Some More Social Influence Tidbits

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  1. Some More Social Influence Tidbits Scott Allison Psycho Department

  2. Power of Authority • You know the Milgram study of course • But do you know of the equally interesting Kassin & Kiechel (1996) study? • Participants were told they were in a study of typing speed and reflexes • Participants arrived in groups of two: One was a real participant, the other was a confederate

  3. Kassin & Kiechel study (continued) • All participants warned NOT TO HIT THE ALT KEY. Doing so would crash the computer. • Two minutes into the task, the computer crashed • The distressed experimenter accused the participant of hitting the ALT key • All participants denied hitting the key • The experimenter then asked the confederate, “Did you see anything?” • The confederate reported seeing the participant hit the ALT key

  4. Kassin & Kiechel study (continued) • The experimenter demanded that the participant sign a confession: • “I HIT THE ALT KEY AND CAUSED THE COMPUTER TO CRASH. DATA WERE LOST.” • What percentage of participants agreed to sign this confession? • 70% willingly signed • Even more interesting: Later, when participants privately described the incident to another confederate, 30% of them came to see themselves as guilty!

  5. Social Impact Theory • Latane (1981) • Three basic principles of the theory • (1) The Principle of Social Forces • Influence = f (SIN) • Strength (e.g., age, status, power) • Immediacy (e.g., psychological closeness) • Number

  6. Social Impact Theory • (2) The Psychosocial Law • The influence the first few people is largest, but each additional person’s influence becomes smaller • (3) The Principle of Division of Impact • The influence of one person on several others is a negative power function of SIN

  7. Phenomena Explained by Social Impact Theory • Conformity and imitation • Asch’s conformity study • Milgram et al.’s craning & gawking study • Embarrassment and social anxiety • Embarrassment follows psychosocial law • Older audiences and male audiences cause more embarrassment • News events • Events are judged as more newsworthy if they involve more people, are located nearby, and involve high status individuals • Social loafing • Studies of effort; tipping; clapping

  8. Moral Courage: Fighting Social Influence to Do the Right Thing • The movie “Twelve Angry Men” • http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000013-12_angry_men/trailers.php • The movie “Pay it Forward” • http://trailers.warnerbros.com/web/play.jsp?trailer=pay_it_forward_trailer&format=windows&speed=100000

  9. Moral Courage: Fighting Social Influence to Do the Right Thing • Get out a piece of scratch paper • Right down two things • (1) An example of moral courage you’ve witnessed • (2) A situation today where we desperately need moral courage

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