Chapter 7 Influencing and Conforming AM 1 27 11 1 11 12 05 2012 Chapter 7 Influencing and Conforming Chapter Opener Death by Alcohol Sam Spady was homecoming queen class resident cheerleader an died after hours of binge drinking 1 400 college students between 18 24 die from alcohol related incidents each year Everyone is influenced by the people around you Social influence the influence of other people on our everyday thoughts feelings and behavior Conformity the change in beliefs opinions and behavior as a result of our perceptions about what other people believe or do Involves affective processes because we want to be linked to people by behaving a certain way Conformity to those who are in authority obedience and leadership direct or inspire others to achieve a goal Important human adaption The Many Varieties of Conformity Social influence results with our beliefs and behaviors becoming similar to those around us Robert Cialdini found that college students either throw out trash or litter when they see another student do that act spontaneous conformity Research Focus Imitation as Subtle Conformity Subtle conformity the tendency to imitate other people who are around Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh saw the tendency to imitate others between Students followed abnormal behavior a investigator would do in their group you strangers project Imitation is a form of flattery important in social interaction Informational Conformity Conforming to be Accurate Informational conformity the change in opinions or behavior that occurs when we conform to people whom we believe has accurate information Usually the end result of social comparison the process of comparing our opinions against those of others to gain an accurate appraisal of the validity of an opinion or behavior information Goals of social comparison is to understand and have accurate opinions and The result of informational influence is private acceptance the real change in opinions on the part of the individual Normative Conformity Conforming to be Linked and to Avoid Rejection others We also conform to belong and to be accepted by others Normative conformity when we express opinions or behave in ways that help us be accepted or which keep us from being isolated or rejected by Conform to social norms socially accepted beliefs about what we do or what we should do in particular social contexts Often represents public conformity a superficial change in behavior including the public expressions of opinions that is not accompanied by an actual change in one s private opinion Behaviors originally performed out of desire to be accepted may produce changed in belifes to match them 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 Muzafer Sherif used perceptual phenomenon known as autokinectic effect to study the outcome of conformity on the development of group norms Autokinetic effect is the rapid movement of our eyes that occur as we view objects and allow us to focus upon stimuli in our environment Once looking at a light for a while in a dark room the light appears to move The new group norms influenced the judgments when the individuals were once again tested alone and this conformity effects appear to have occurred entirely out of the awareness of most participants the norms persisted through generations Asch conducted experiments that contrasted to the autokinetic effect the wrong answered was answered by experiment because of conformity Minority Influence Resisting Group Pressure Minority influence a smaller number of individuals is able to influence the opinions or behaviors of the group Support unusual ideas more interesting creation of social change Serge Moscovici used the reverse Asch s line perception Consistent minority condition is what the investigators answered when asked the color of the slide the unusual answers Inconsistent minority condition they called the slides green for 2 3rd of the time instead of blue The minority was able to convince the total population Nemeth Kwan people worked in groups on a creativity task showing that minority groups think and lead us to think more fully about the decision creative thinking Minority influence does occur few are able to influence the majority Situational Determinants of Conformity Information about social situations are important about why people conform 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 increase increase the number of the majority increases conformity Informational conformity is when people express an opinion their opinions seem more valid result of bigger majorities Social impact the increase in the amount of conformity that is produced by adding new members to the majority group Group size is important variable that influences a wide variety of behaviors of that individuals in groups Group members have an important influences on group performances the increase of the size of the group the less effort members do More people are more influential The Unanimity of the Majority Consistency or unanimity of he group influences conformity Asch s study showed that they convinced the minority by giving the same wrong answer the members Conformity is reduced when there is inconsistency among the members Unanimity helps when there is a complete agreement among the majority of The importance of the Task The determinant of conformity is the perceived importance of the decision Research Focus How Task Importance and Confidence Influence Conformity Baron Vandello and Brunsman demonstrated the influence of an individual s confidence in his or her beliefs and the importance of the task Task importance by telling some participants high importance condition that their performance on the task was important to measure eyewitness ability and the low importance were told that the test was part of a pilot study Task difficulty and task importance was observed on easy tasks participants conformed less to the incorrect judgments of others Key Takeaways Social influence creates conformity Influence may occur in more passive or more active ways We conform both to gain accurate knowledge informational conformity and to avoid being rejected by others normative conformity Both majorities and minorities may create social influence but they do so in different ways
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