CH 13 Social Influence and Conformity What people do because of peer crowd pressure What are the situations in which we are most likely to conform Why do we conform How far will we go to avoid going against group Attribution explaining others actions o How you influence other people o How other people influence you o Explanations for people s behavior o Fundamental Attribution Error Disposition internal ex mean pushing Situation external ex being pushed pushing Overestimate impact of disposition person s traits Underestimate impact of situation when explaining another person s behavior Social Psych Why people do what they do who they are vs situation Stanley Milgram o Group stands on street in NYC and stares up at sky o Bigger group 3 means high conformity vs smaller group 3 means low conformity Sherif stationary light seems to be moving around optical illusion o Autokinetic Effect o Trial 1 big diff in moving light btwn subjects o Trial 2 smaller diff in moving light btwn subjects o Trial 3 slightly smaller diff in moving light btwn subjects o Trial 4 little no diff in moving light btwn subjects o Line judgment studies standard line vs comparison lines o Small percentage of people caved to peer pressure gave group s answer even when Asch seemingly wrong o Only takes 3 4 people to get someone to change own answer 2 Kinds of Social Influence o Informational ambiguous judgments what you say is what you believe what you say is NOT what you believe o Normative line judgment studies need for approval unambiguous judgments Autokinetic study Staring up at sky study need for clarification Kitty Genovese o Killer beat stabbed her 3 diff times killer stopped each time lights came on nobody called police each time killer killed her 1 witness called police o a lot of people were watching everyone assumed someone already called police Smoke filled Room Study o Alone notice quickly report quickly o 3 person group notice slowly only some report after a while o WHY less help if more people around Principles of Bystander Intervention more people less any single person feel sense of Diffusion of responsibility responsibility to act people react like it s an emergency Lots of people not doing anything not emergency Pluralistic Ignorance construe something as emergency to degree that other Adolf Eichmann o Following orders of superior shouldn t be blamed for Holocaust war crimes o Obedience Studies Milgram teachers in room facing shock generator learners in another room connected to shock generator teachers administer shocks for learner s incorrect answer Paid participants serve as teachers in hour long study of learning Shocks started slight teachers told to increase after every incorrect answer Grunt complain ask to stop plead to stop scream in agony stop responding No participants stopped before 300V Debriefing to help teacher participant feel better about harming learner 63 of participants obeyed instructor to last switch 450V Obey Authority When o Authority figure physically close o Authority figure perceived as legitimate prestigious o Victim can t be seen directly o Not held directly responsible o See another person obeying o No role models for defiance o Already obeyed to smaller requests Social psych influence of social environment on way people think feel behave o Major lesson of social psych People s actions produced constrained by social world NOT by a person s personality attitudes true self
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