SOCIAL INFLUENCE: CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

Chapter 18

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

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--??)

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 than 1/3 of the time “well meaning college students were willing to call white black.”. Asch Conformity Experiment – YouTube Page 732

Q. Activity guess the time

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.

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.

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?

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?)

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)

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