Pluralistic ignorancePluralistic ignorance I The widespread misperception of social attitudes and norms produced by the discrepancy between private attitudes and publicbehavior (often produced by a fear of embarrassment). Assume others’ beliefs differ from yours even though behavioris identical.Pluralistic ignorance II Examples: confusing lectures; political correctness; affirmative action (VanBoven, 1999); intervening in emergencies; alcohol consumption on campus (Miller & Prentice, 1994) Leads people to a) conform to imagined norms, or b) feel alienated.Conformity “Do as most do, and most will speak well of thee” Thomas FullerSubtle Conformity Behavioral mimicry (Chartrand & Bargh 1999) 0.75 Exp rubs face Exp shakes foot 0.63 0.50 0.38 0.25 Sub rubs face Sub shakes foot“Rational conformity” Sometimes it make sense to follow others because they know more The problem is that many time we assume that others know more, when this is not the caseConformity and fire exits FireTwo exitsHerdingBehaviourFireAsch famous experiment abc Standard ComparisonInstructions Courtesy of Pennsylvnia State University Audio-Visual Services. Used with permission.Initial response Courtesy of Pennsylvnia State University Audio-Visual Services. Used with permission.Asch results The amazing thing is that we all trust our vision so conformity is hard to achieve here 75% of people conformed at least once More conformity in larger groups More conformity in difficult tasks More conformity in high desirable groupsConformity @ workplaceConformity summary Conformity is a large force in determining human behavior It is one of the worse outcomes of groups Conformity leads to other problems (pluralistic ignorance, mob behavior, compliance, obedience etc.)ObedienceObedience After WW2 people were thinking that this could not take place in the US. What was it about the Germans that allowed them to obey in such a way?A movieObedience summary The power to obey is within each of us Worrying and frightening, but common and each to achieve Diffusion of responsibility is a keyGroups summary Groups can be useful and good Groups can help get more information, view points etc Yet groups can also hinder the same processes that they are useful forCategories of social influence Explicit request No Yes No Conformity Authority Yes Compliance Conformity ObedienceGroup decision making People make worse decisions in groups but their confidence increases Important exceptions are “markets for decisions” such as the Iowa and Hollywood markets, and
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