Social Influence-

8/14/2019 Social Influence-

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Social Influence &Atrocity

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY


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Conformity: Changes in perceptions, opinions, orbehaviors in ways that are consistent with group

norms.o Behavior-change can be the result of real or imagined group

pressure

o Compliance: Conformity that involves

publicly acting or going along with others,while privately disagreeing

oAcceptance:

I. Other people have a strong

influence on you


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Why do we conform?

o Normative influence: To be liked and accepted byother people

Factors : Often occurs when situation is not ambiguous

o Informational influence: To solve uncertaintyand get information about what is the right thing todo Factors that increase this type of influence:

Crisis (need to act immediately with little information)

When others are experts

When being accurate is important


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Informational influence & acceptance

Seeking information in an uncertain environment

(Sherif, 1935)

Participants brought into lab to judge the movementof a light

There is lots of uncertainty (no right answer)

Examined how group influence judgmentso On day 1 they make judgments alone

o On days 2 - 4 they make judgments in group

o On day 5 they make judgments alone again


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Seeking information in an uncertain environment(Sherif, 1935)


influence on you

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

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B

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D

Alone ( In a Group ) Alone


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Seeking information in an uncertain environment(Sherif, 1935)

o Informational influence often happens during emergencies

We also conform to be liked (Asch, 1956)o Participants walk into a room with seven other people

for study about Visual perception, will be judginglengths of lines


influence on you


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We also conform to be liked (Asch, 1956)

Predict the results? (%)

Never conformed?

Conformed at least once ?

Conformed the majority of the time (7-12 trials) ?


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Going along to get along

Challenger Explosion & O-rings

Groupthink: mode of thinking that occurs when thedesire for harmony in a decision-making group overridesrealistic appraisals of alternatives

Characteristics of Groupthink:

feeling of invulnerability

tendency to ignore or discredit information

Stress from external threats

Self-censorship & isolation from outside influences

Influential leader


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Influence of Leaders

Leadership & Social Roles (Zimbardo, 1989) Social Role: shared expectations about how a person who

occupies a particular position is supposed to behave or act.

Stated Purpose: To examine social roles

Evidence is actually: Leadership + social roles Research:

Basement of Stanford University

Guards given Khaki uniform, whistle, police nightstick

Prisoners given prison uniforms.


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Leadership & Social Roles (Zimbardo, 1989)

Research:

Study was supposed to last for two weeks, but ended after 6

days because of harsh treatment Results: Guards became abusive and prisoners became

increasingly passive and withdrawn

Take home:


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Leadership & Obedience

Obedience: Complying with a direct command froman authority figure


influence on you


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Prior to the experiment, scientists thought only 1% would go to the

end.

Predict the results. What % do you think obeyed to the end?


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But, would this happen today?-CLIP

The power of the situation

What happened when participant only heard the

experimenters voice (no victim at all)?

What happened when the experiment was in an office

building in Bridgeport (not at Yale)?

What happened when the victim was in the same

room?

I. Other people have a stronginfluence on you


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Leadership & Obedience The power of the situation

What happened when participant has to physically

touch the learner to inflict the shock?

What happened when the experimenter was an

ordinary person (no lab coat or affiliated with Yale)?

What happened when the two other people in room

protested?



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Why did people obey? Why do people obey?

Reasons for Obedience:

We are socialized to follow orders

Informational social influence

Uncertainty often increases reliance on authorities



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II. In the name of identity and self-definition

Genocide: The deliberate and systematic destruction of anethnic, racial, religious, or national group


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Bystanders play a key role in enablingGenocide

Internal Bystanders: Members of the

population act as if everything is normal,ignoring the violence and often participate indiscrimination against victims.

External Bystanders:


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Doing wrong in the name of right via Identity

Five steps to inhumanity via Identity (Reicher et al., 2008)

1. Create a cohesive in-group

Goebbels: What is the first commandment of every National

Socialist?...Love Germany above all else.

2. Exclusionplace targets outside the in-group

Nazism presented as a project of cleansing

The German group defined in an exclusive way that excluded

Jews, gypsies, and others Begin to withdraw benefits of being a part of the cohesive group

Importance of identity definition

Bulgaria: No Jews were deported to the death camps

Declaration of Bulgarian leader at the time: Bulgarias Jewsspeak

and think in Bulgarian.they sing Bulgarian songs and tell Bulgarianstoriesour sufferings are their sufferings.



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3. Threatother groups are a danger to us

Hitlers hate propaganda (on Jews): He is and remains thetypical parasitewhere ever he appears, the host peopledies out after a shorter or longer period

Other groups, by their actions or their mere presence,endanger the social being of the cohesive group

Within war and genocide, animal nicknames are often usedto dehumanize victims

Rwanda Genocide between Hutus and Tutsi-CLIP



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4. Virtuerepresent the in-group as uniquely good

Again, Nazism presented as a moral project. Hitler: Germans were moral, pure, selfless, loyal, and

inherently better than other groups.

5.



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Milgram defense:

Ethics & IRB

Participants should be treated with care & respect.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews all

research

Researchers must tell participants before the

experiment begins what they are getting into &

allow them to decide.

Ethics & Positive Social Influence


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Potential for positive social influence?

Power of environment & health (Langer, 1979)

Participants: Men aged 75 and above

Pre-measures: Physical and Mental health

Week in 1959 resort

Post-measure results:

Social roles & health (Langer, 1989)

Participants: Elderly men and women

Independent variable: Air-force pilot role vs. No role

Results: Better eyesight in the pilot condition

Ethics & Positive Social Influence

Social Influence-

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