Post on 16-Dec-2015
Quick Write:
If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?”
David Dodd – 5 years worth of experiments
developed 4 categories to classify responses Prosocial (behavior intended to help others) Antisocial (intended to injure or deprive
others of rights) Nonnormative (violates social norms, but
doesn’t specifically help or harm others) Neutral (doesn’t fall into the above)
Social Influence = The process where the words or actions of other people influence a person’s behavior
Norms – learned, socially based rules that prescribe what people should or should not do in a situation Norms are not
universal – vary by culture
Deindividuation
A psychological state in which a person becomes submerged in the group and loses a sense of individuality Become a part of a “herd” – may perform
acts they would not normally do otherwise
The Impact of the Presence of Others… Social facilitation – the presence of other people
improves a person’s individual performance Social impairment – the presence of others impairs
performance Social loafing – people exert less effort in group
situations, than when performing alone “hide in the crowd” “get away” loafing
Group polarization – opinions are strengthened after listening to an extreme position that favors that opinion
Groupthink – members of a group stress unity over a potential conflict
Conformity & Compliance Conformity – Changing behavior or beliefs
to match those of others – result of group pressure
Compliance – People adjust their behavior because of a request
Asch Experiment – examined how people would respond when they were faced with a norm that existed, but was obviously wrong – 75% of his test subjects agreed with majority’s wrong answer in his experiment
Inducing Compliance
Foot-in-the-door – getting people to agree to a small request and then gradually presenting larger ones
Door-in-the-face – begins with a large request that will likely be denied – person making request substitutes it with a lesser alternative
That’s-not-all – offering an additional product to someone before presenting them with the actual product, thus enticing them by adding more options
Low-ball approach – obtaining oral commitment from someone to do something…once commitment is made, the cost of fulfilling is increased and the person feels obligated to comply
Obedience
Change in behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure
Stanley Milgram – studies on obedience – “shocking” experiments 3 main factors that affect
obedience:1. Status or prestige of the person
giving the order2. Behavior of others in the same
situation3. Personal characteristics of the
individual
The Stanford Prison Experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx
8nwjFQ http://www.prisonexp.org/
Helping Behaviors
Altruism – unselfish concern with another person’s welfare
Cost-reward model – People feel badly when they see someone suffering. C-R model = weighing several options in order to reduce the unpleasant feeling associated with witnessing distress
Reciprocal altruism – assisting another person with the expectation that the person will repay the deed
Non-Helping Behavior
Bystander effect – the more people there are who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any one of them will help – you think someone else will help the victim Kitty Genovese
Diffusion of responsibility – not intervening in the presence of others because the person thinks that others are going to intervene in the situation
Why is all this important?
Deindividuation = loss of restraint when part of a group
Groups = tendency to see in black and white
Individual = can see “gray areas”
What would you do? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sam3deneMgk
Homework: Violate a Social Norm
Choose a behavior that you believe will violate a common social norm.
Carry out that behavior.
Write up: Why did you select
this behavior? How did other people
react? How did you feel
while violating the norm?
Example Violations: Face backward in an elevator Go into a restaurant, be
seated, examine the menu, leave w/o ordering
Wear a big winter coat on a hot day
Sing in a quiet room or a public place where that doesn’t normally happen
Have a conversation with an imaginary friend in the presence of others
Sustain eye contact with someone’s foot during an entire conversation