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Social Influence - Coggle Diagram
Social Influence
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Obedience
Milgram's study
- Administer shock when learner associated wrong word
- People socialised to respect authority
Factors
- Immediacy of victim: high if unseen/unheard
- Immediacy of authority figure: high if present
- Group disobedience: low if group disobedient
- Peer pressure: high if peer pressure
- Legitimacy of authority figure: high if legit
- Escalation of order from mild to severe
- Identify with authority / cause
- Authority takes sole resposnsibility
Ethics code
- Fully informed consent
- Can withdraw without penalty
- Fully debriefed
- Deception required to study some processes
Reasons
- NOT agentic state: transfer responsibility (mentally absolve)
- Depends on identifying with group
** Leaders make goals virtuous (less stress)
** Want to help leader
Resisting
- Remind responsible for actions
- Seek example of disobedience
- Question authority's motives/expertise
Definitions
Conformity: change to follow social norm / group pressure
- Deep-seated, enduring, private
- Norm from positive reference group
- Implicit
Compliance: change due to request from other (individual)
- Superficial, transitory, public
- Attitudes & expressed behaviour
Obedience: change due to order from authority
Social influence: attitudes & behaviours of individuals affected by real/implied presence of others
- Intentional / unintentional
- Explicit / implicit (people aware)
- Change in attitude (persuasion), feelings, behaviour (conformity, compliance, obedience)
Conformity
Asch's study
- Line length - 33% average conformity rate
- Clear judgement (Sherif = ambiguous judgement)
Group characteristics
- Socially significant: positive reference group
- Cohesive: e.g. sports club
- Unanimity: must be unanimous
- Size: larger, but levels of with majority of 3-4
- Status in group: lower status -> more conformity
Influence
Informational: conform to understand reality, reduce uncertainty
- Use other people
- If uncertain -> use social comparison
Referent informational / social identity: conform to ingroup norm because group member - to express social ID
- Use others in social group as reference point = combination of previous 2
- If self-categorise/strongly identify with group
- Conform to norm, not other people (people are source of info)
- Internalised -> conform when not watched
Normative: conform for social approval
- Use others' expectations
- If group has power, being watched
- Surface compliance
Situational factors
- Private / anonymous: less
- Topic: known - less, unknown - more
- Culture: individualistic - less, collectivist - more
- Uniqueness threatened: less
- No clear rule: less
Norms
Definition: shared beliefs about appropriate / expected group conduct
- Explicit or implicit
- Resistant to change ('life of own')
- Narrow (central features) or wide (peripheral features of group) latitude
- Define group membership, differentiate from outgroup
- Provides stability & predictability
- Can detect via ethnomethodology
Frame of reference: range of possible behaviour
- People use others to develop frame of reference
- Average positions perceived to be more correct, so adopted
- Sherif: estimate physical movements; individuals converge on mean, even when estimating alone
- Descriptive: what people do
- Injunctive: what people should do
- Don't always align
Compliance
Tactics
Friendship/Liking: say yes to people you like
- e.g. ingratiation (get someone to like you), self-promotion, incidental similarity
- Effective if similar, mutual goal
- Ingratiation's dilemma: more obvious profit -> less likely it works
Scarcity: want more of what you can't have
- e.g. flight sale
- Effective if point out unique, what people lose
Reciprocity: obliged to give back
- e.g. owe favour, invite back, give mint with bill
- Reciprocity norm: do as others do unto you
- Guilt arousal: more likely to comply if feel guilty
- Effective if personalised, unexpected
Commitment / Consistency
- Consistency
- e.g. put up billboard after postcard
- Effective if voluntary, active, public, in writing
- Commitment
- 2-step: 1 = softener/setup, 2 = real request
Foot-in-the-door
- If agree to small request -> agree to larger request
- Graded requests work
- Because self-perception theory (see self as giving), self-consistency theory
Door-in-the-face
- If don't agree to large request -> agree to smaller request
- Must be same person
- Because concession by asker (pressure), contrast effect (2nd request seems reasonable)
Low-ball
- If commit but not possible -> commit to larger
- Because committed, sunk cost
Authority: follow lead of expert
- Effective if credibility signalled
Social proof / consensus: look to others
- Effective if similar others