Social influence and cultural emergence

1. Social influence and cultural emergence

2. What is the difference between social influence and persuasion? • Conformity vs. compliance vs. obedience • Sherif, Asch, and Milgram classic studies • What made for more conformity/obedience in these? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwqNP9HRy7Y • Informational vs. normative influence General information

3. Sherif, 1935 autokinetic effect

4. Influence • Six techniques • Reciprocity • Social validation (social comparison theory) • Consistency (cognitive dissonance theory) • Liking • Scarcity (reactance theory) • Authority • Examples? Examples not in sales? Cialdini’s techniques

5. How could these be evolutionary? What does adding that give us? • Goals • Relationships • Coalition formation, status, self-protection, mate selection, mate retention, parental care • What techniques would be more or less effective for the above goals? For strangers vs. children vs. partners? • Evolution or cultural evolution? Evolution and Influence

6. Deviance regulation theory (Blanton & Christie, 2003) • What does it predict? • How does this relate to influence? • Social identity theory (Abrams & Hogg, 1990) • Focus theory of normative conduct (Cialdini, Kallgren, & Reno, 1991) • Injunctive vs. descriptive norms • Attention • How do injunctive vs. descriptive norms differ? Social norms and influence

7. How does this approach explain why people only sometimes follow norms? Why they follow one vs. another norm? • When will descriptive vs. injunctive norms be most effective? • What norms do people follow (norms of whom)? Focus theory

8. Examples of effective vs. ineffective campaigns? • What should we do to make people more aware of climate change or get them to take action (e.g., drive less), according to this approach? • What does this approach suggest about social norms marketing campaigns/pluralistic ignorance? • Avoid the stork Social marketing

9. What do they suggest about distance and norms? • Is this counter to SIT/DSIT? • Study 1: rear bike lights soon or later and most support or not—more influence if later • Alternate explanations? Distance and norms (Ledgerwood & Callahan, 2012)

10. Study 2: thought about issue abstractly vs. concretely and tokens for or against in voting booth • Did abstract thinking increase influence or concrete decrease it? • How do the ideas here fit with Cialdini’s focus theory and the idea of descriptive vs. injunctive norms?

11. What is culture according to DSIT? Culture vs. evolution • How does evolution relate to culture? • According to DSIT? • According to Sariff, Norenzayan, & Henrich? • Bottom up vs. top down Cultural emergence

12. Social impact theory (Latané, 1981) • What are the 3 factors? • What does it mean to have a multiplicative function? A marginally decreasing effect? • Catastrophe theory of attitudes (Latané& Nowak, 1994) • Involving vs. uninvolving attitudes • DSIT • What are the 4 C’s of culture? What do each of them mean? • What types of studies have shown support for DSIT? • Other examples? Dynamic social impact theory (Latané, 1996)

13. How does modernization affect DSIT predictions? • How do individual differences fit in? • What new directions are there to be tested with DSIT? • Are all the assumptions of DSIT supported? • Are there other explanations for the DSIT study results? • Are there other problems with this approach? • Is it consistent with evolutionary approaches? DSIT issues

14. “New look” evolutionary psych • How do evolved capacities make culture possible? • How can biological evolution and social communication work together to create culture? • What “moral norms” may have evolved and why? Ingroup/outgroup? Religion? Cultural artifacts? Myths? Evolution and culture (Norenzayan, Schaller, & Heine, 2006)

15. What things are more likely to be passed on? • Boyd & Richerson, 1985 • Sperber, 1996 • Chip Heath’s research • Memorability • Surprise • Emotions (esp. disgust) • Ease of communication • Push for novelty • Establishment of social identity • Cultural exchange Memes and cultural evolution

16. Why might psychological phenomena be universal or not across cultures? • Does universal mean “innate”? Cultural evolution

17. More value placed on physical attractiveness in a mate (Gangestad & Buss, 1993) • Lower mean levels of sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience, but do not differ on other personality variables (e.g., conscientiousness) (Schaller & Murray, 2008) • Fewer political/social rights (Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009) • More religious (Fincher & Thornhill, 2008) • More collectivist (Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, & Schaller, 2009) Infectious diseases and culture

18. All known societies (?) have • Belief in supernatural agents • Who demand public expressions of commitment • And who manage fears of death, meaningless, and hopelessness • Minimally counterintuitive stories and concepts are better remembered and spread • Ghosts beat zombies • Why would religion evolve? • Is it culture or biology? Religion Atran, Norenzayan

19. Shariff, Norenzayan, & Henrich, 2010 • What purposes do religions (and what parts of them) serve, according to them? • What are the 4 C’s of religion? • How did beliefs in high gods come about, according to them? • What do they mean by cultural selection of gods? • Should we not trust atheists? • Eyes effect—what does it mean? And then there are high gods

20. Groups • Paper ideas! • Tests back! Next week