Social Social InfluenceInfluenceMe and My

GangWho or what

influences you??

• Throughout my life I have noticed Throughout my life I have noticed that I act differently around that I act differently around different groups of people.different groups of people.

• Around my family I act quiet and Around my family I act quiet and reserved.reserved.

• Around friends I act silly and fun.Around friends I act silly and fun.

• But, around my fellow teachers But, around my fellow teachers and students at school I talk and students at school I talk about curriculum and study skills about curriculum and study skills for the AP test.for the AP test.

• In other words, the people around In other words, the people around us affect the way we behave.us affect the way we behave.

Group Influence on Behavior

Lets look at how groups effect our behavior.

When are you most likely to do your best??

• Social Facilitation – Improved performance of tasks in the

presence of others. • Occurs when one is very skilled at a task or it is a very

easy task• Take Lebron. He is very good in basketball and when he is practicing alone I am sure he looks pretty good.

• But because he is so skilled, he actually performs better in front of a group of people.

• social impairmentsocial impairment

• when a task is very hard or one is not skilled (not to much unlike my basketball ability), one performs worse in front of a group than if they were alone.

Conformity

• Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

How did you feel the first time someone asked you to smoke, drink, or skip class?

Asch’s Study

Conditions that Strengthen Conformity

• One is made to feel incompetent• The group is at least three people• The group is unanimous• One admires the group’s status• One had made no prior

commitment• The person is observed

Reasons for Conforming• A desire to gain

approval or avoid disappointment of others (acceptance or rejection) -Normative Social Influence

• Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality - Informational Social Influence

•Wanting a material or social reward such as a pay raise or votes

Obedience

Milgram’s Experiments

• compliance with commands given by an authority figure

Milgram’s Obedience Study

Why do People Obey Immoral Commands??

• Legitimization of Authority– We are taught to obey authority figures and

not to question or second-guess them

• Social Validation– We use other people’s behavior as a standard

for judging the appropriateness of our own actions• We may see that someone is admired for their

behavior so we use that to legitimize our behavior and even look up to those people even more

What did we learn from Asch & Milgram?

Ordinary people can do

shocking things

Other Issues Other Issues in Group in Group DynamicsDynamics

Social Loafing

• The tendency to put forth less effort when working as a member of a group than when working

alone

Sometimes people take advantage of being in a group

• think of the last time you did a group project – you may have worked less because if the group did badly it was not a direct reflection of your skills, but the group as a whole

Deindividuation• The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint

occurring in group situations • People lose inhibitions and sense of responsibility

and feel anonymous – mobs, riots, and looting.• Behave in a way you usually would not

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

Group Polarization

the tendency of people to make decisions that are more

extreme when they are in a group as opposed to a decision

alone or independently

Groupthink• Occurs when the desire

for harmony in a decision-making group overrides common sense.– Members pressure others

to conform– Members squash dissent

and focus just on information that agrees with the group’s point of view

How could hazing incidents be an example of groupthink?

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

• Occurs when one person’s belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief.

If you think someone finds you attractive, they more likely will!!!

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice = attitude

• Discrimination = behavior

Prejudice• An unjustifiable

attitude towards a group of people.

• Usually involves stereotyped beliefs (a generalized belief about a group of people).

Overt

Subtle

Why is there prejudice?

•Vivid Cases (Availability Heuristic)

•The Just-World Phenomenon– People get

what they deserve in this world

Social InequalitiesSocial Inequalities(A principle reason behind (A principle reason behind

prejudiceprejudice))• IngroupIngroup: “us”- people with whom : “us”- people with whom

one shares a common identity.one shares a common identity.• OutgroupOutgroup: “them”- those : “them”- those

perceived as different than one’s perceived as different than one’s ingroup.ingroup.

• Ingroup biasIngroup bias: the tendency to : the tendency to favor one’s own group.favor one’s own group.

Scapegoat Theory• The theory

that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.

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