Summary - \'Social Psychology\', Chp.6 - Conformity and Obedience PDF

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Chapter 6 - Conformity and Obedience 1. 1.

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What is conformity? (Define conformity, and compare compliance, obedience, and acceptance) Is conformity good or bad? o Western individualistic cultures; may be a bad connotation o Asian collectivist; seen as mature and have more tolerance Conformity o A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure Varieties of conformity o Compliance  Publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing o Obedience  Acting in accord with a direct order or command o Acceptance  Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure  Sometimes follows compliance What are the classic conformity and obedience studies? (Describe how social psychologists have studied conformity in the laboratory. Explain what their findings reveal about the potency of social forces and the nature of evil.) Sherif's Studies on Norm Formation o See how far the light moved  Others make guess of how far it moved, begin to average  Norms begin to form o Autokinetic phenomenon  Self (auto) motion (kinetic). The apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark  Everyone followed false norm o Social contagion  Yawning  Doing things other people do o Imitation  Makes people fond of each other  However, if angry, also increases anger o May be related to mass delusions due to suggestibility  Suicides? Asch's Studies of Group Pressure o Confederates tell the wrong answer to line comparison o One real subject is uncomfortable, increases conforming  However, most people still don't conform o Experimental conformity  No real rewards for team play o Examples

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Dental flossing, give inflated estimate, more people increased intent to floss

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Cancer screening, if lead to believe that a few screened, few people signed up; believed that many screened, likely to screen themselves  Referee decisions; more yellow cards if more opposing screams Milgram's Obedience Experiments Shock experiment Verbal prods Overall, most people complied to experimenter's prodding The Ethics of Milgram's Experiments Participants were stressed out and had physical reactions Change self-concepts Milgram said he had support from participants  May have temporary stress, but no real harm What Breeds Obedience? The victim's distance  More obedience when learners cannot be seen  Easier to abuse people who are distant or depersonalized  Easier to bomb than to shoot  However, more compassion towards personalization Closeness and legitimacy of the authority  Presence of experimenter is effective  Authority seen as legitimate  If experimenter leaves the room and replaced, then less compliance  Nurses also complied to the doctors  McDonald's incident Institutional authority  Legitimacy of the experiment by Yale University  If moved to less prestigious institution, lower obedience than Yale  Listening to police officer rather than friend The liberating effects of group influence  Conforming to defiant confederates Reflections on the Classic Studies Soldiers following orders  Obedience different from conformity, explicit command  Both make people go against their own conscience Behavior and attitudes  External attitudes overriding inner convictions  Powerful pressures from the outside  Foot-in-the-door more effective  People may not conform if use high volts right away in Milgram Experiment  Escalation of conformity  Compliance can breed acceptance  Double-edged

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 Initial killing can lead to more killing  Initial helping can lead to more helping o The power of the situation  Hard to break norm in many situations  We tend to think that we will conform less in many situations, but in the actual situation we do not because it is hard  Compartmentalization can further obedience  Let someone administer the shock, more obedience  Many people who do terrible things seen normal and common  Unexceptional people can still do terrible things  More knowledge can prevent people from doing bad things Summary of Classic Obedience Studies

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Topic

Researcher

Method

Real-life Example

Norm formation

Sherif

Assessing suggestibility regarding seeming movement of light.

Interpreting events differently after hearing from others; appreciating a tasty good that others love

Conformity

Asch

Agreement with others' obviously wrong perceptual judgements

Doing as others do; fads such as tattoos

Obedience

Milgram

Complying with commands to shock another

Soldiers or employees following questionable orders

What predicts conformity? (Identify situations that trigger much - and little- conformity) Group Size More people = more conformity  Increased from 1-5 persons Packaging is important  Seeing four people give judgement = less conforming than when two groups of two gives judgements on separate occasion  Agreement of independent groups increase credibility Unanimity Less conforming power if even one doesn't conform  My voice own opinion if at least one ally opposes  Denies ally influenced them  Affects juries as well, either unanimous or 5-4 Seeing dissent can encourage our own dissent, even if it is wrong Cohesion Similar people may agree with each other more Cohesiveness  A "we feeling"; the extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction to one another.  Inclination to our own group  Can happen to soldiers unwilling to break rank

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Higher status people have more impact Conform to people who are more well-dressed or more senior Prestige begets influence o People of lower status complied more  Obedience experiment, welder complied more than professor Public Response o People conform more when they must respond in front of others rather than privately  Less conforming if they wrote response privately o Anonymity increase diverse opinions Prior Commitment o Hard for people to reverse their prior judgment o Making public commitment, may not change even under public pressure o Can restrain persuasion Why conform? (Identify and understand the two forms of social influence that explain why people will conform to others) Normative influence o Conformity based on a person's desire to fulfill others' expectations, often to gain acceptance  Desire to be liked (social image)  Social rejection is painful  Can sway people's actions (e.g. told that most people in their community turns off lights, will turn of light) Information influence o Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people.  Desire to be right (correct)  Conform because we want to be correct  Brain  Conform to wrong answer = active in part related to perception  Oppose = active in part related to emotion Who conforms? (Describe how conformity varies not only with situations but also with persons. Discuss social contexts in which personality traits shine through) Personality o Personality is often a poor predictor o Internal actions better predicts people's average behavior than specific o Better when social influences are weak  Some individuals stand out in strong situational pressure o Both internal and external factors can guide us to a certain extent Culture o Can be a predictor o Individualistic cultures show less conforming o May be related to socio-economic class  Working class prefer similarity, middle class prefer individualism o Asch's experiment less successful in the modern era  Conformity can change between cultures and era  

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Social Roles Conform to their own social roles  May have to shift norms, behaviors and values to accommodate new social roles  Social situations can move people to behave in certain ways o Role reversal  Intentionally playing a new role to change themselves  Take on the role of the other side by restating their position Do we ever want to be different? (Explain what can motivate people to actively resist social pressure- by doing Z when compelled to do A) Reactance o A motive to protect or restore one's sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action. o Sense of freedom and self-efficacy o Attempts to restrict freedom can lead to anti-conformity o Can also lead to underage drinking Asserting Uniqueness o Appearing uncomfortable when being too similar to other people o Individualist may want to feel moderately different o Names  People seeking for different names may end up with similar ones o People mostly mention their distinctive attributes when asked to talk about themselves  Spontaneous self-concept  People similar to each other will notice small differences  Can lead to rivalries o Quest to be different from the average o

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