CHAPTER 7 The Many Varieties of Conforming social influence defined as the influence of other people on our everyday thoughts feelings and behavior Conformity social influence that leads individuals sometimes against their will to adopt and adhere to the opinions and behaviors of others The change in beliefs opinions and behaviors as a result of our perceptions about what other people believe or do Not necessarily a negative thing but more of human nature Ongoing interaction Imitation who imitate us form of flattery and we might therefore expect that we would like people Informational Conformity Conforming to be Accurate Informational conformity is the change in opinions or behavior that occurs when we conform to people whom we believe has accurate information Our opinions change to others Often the end result of social comparison which is the process of comparing our opinions against those of others to gain an accurate appraisal of the validity of an opinion or behavior Private acceptance real change in opinions on the part of the individual Normative Conformity Conforming to be Liked and to Avoid Rejection Normative conformity occurs when we express opinions or behave in ways that help us to be accepted or which keep us from being isolated or rejected by others When we engage in normative conformity we conform to social norms socially accepted beliefs about what we do or what we should do in particular social contexts Public conformity is a superficial change in behavior including the public expression of opinions that is not accompanied by an actual change in one s private opinion OUTCOME OF NORMATIVE Informational and normative conformity often occur hand in hand Majority Influence Conforming to the Group Majority influence occurs when the beliefs held by the larger number of individuals in the current social group prevail In contrast minority influence occurs when the beliefs held by the smaller number of individuals in the current social group prevail Aschs study of conformity 37 percent of the responses overall were conforming Minority Influence Resisting Group Pressure minority influence cases in which a smaller number of individuals is able to influence the opinions or behaviors of the group Serge Moscovici consistent minority and inconsistent minority studies 11 Moscovici argued that minorities could have influence over majorities provided they gave consistent unanimous responses Subsequent research has found that minorities are most effective when they express consistent opinions over time and with each other when they show that they are invested in their position by making significant personal and material sacrifices and when they seen to be acting out of principle rather than from ulterior motives Situational Determinants of Conformity The Size of the Majority As the number of people in the majority increases relative to the number of persons in the minority pressure on the minority to conform also increases The increase in the amount of conformity that is produced by adding new members to the majority group known as the social impact of each group member is greater for initial majority members than it is for later members Group size increasing the number of a group is less effective at increasing influence The Unanimity of the Majority Consistency vs Unanimity conformity is reduced when there is any inconsistency among the members of the majority group When there is complete agreement a participant may become less sure of their own opinions How Task Importance and Confidence Influence Conformity The Importance of the Task On easy tasks participants conformed less to the incorrect judgments of others when the decision had more important consequences for them In these cases they seemed to rely more on their own opinions which they were convinced were correct when it really mattered but were more likely to go along with the opinions of the others when things were not that critical this was probably normative conformity On the difficult tasks however results were exactly the opposite In this case participants conformed more when they thought the decision was of high rather than low importance In these cases in which they were more unsure of their opinions and yet they really wanted to be correct they used the judgments of others to inform their own views informational conformity Obedience Power and Leadership Social power the ability of a person to create conformity even when the people being influenced may attempt to resist those changes Those who have power are those who are able to influence others Milgram s Studies on Obedience to Authority designed a study in which he could observe the extent to which a person who presented himself as an authority would be able to produce obedience even to the extent of leading that person to cause harm to others In the end 65 percent of the participants continued giving the shock to the learner all the way up to the 450 volts maximum even though that shock was marked as danger severe shock Social Psychology in the Public Interest The Zimbardo Prison Studies and Abu Ghraib In that study Zimbardo and his colleagues set up a mock prison They selected 23 student volunteers and divided them into two groups One group was chosen to be the prisoners They were picked up at their homes by actual police officers arrested and brought to the prison to be guarded by the other group of students the guards The two groups were placed in a setting that was designed to look like a real prison and the role play began After two days there was a revolt He believes that despite our moral and religious beliefs and despite the inherent goodness of people there are times when external circumstances can overwhelm us and we do things we never thought we were capable of Types of Power Reward power The ability to distribute positive or negative rewards when one person is able to influence others by providing them with positive outcomes Because the change in behavior that results from reward power is driven by the reward itself its use is usually more likely to produce public conformity than private acceptance Coercive power The ability to dispense punishments power that is based on the ability to create negative outcomes for others for instance by bullying intimidating or otherwise punishing more likely to produce public conformity than private acceptance Requires continuous monitoring The power holder feels perhaps unjustly that the target is only complying
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