PSYCH 2C03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Normative Social Influence, Idiosyncrasy, Likert Scale
18 Dec 2019
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Department
Course
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Conformity
Do we really conform?
- yes
- “change in behavior as a result of the real or imagined influence of other people”
- In an individualist society, we tend to say we don’t conform and frown upon conforming
- People don’t want to be the only one doing/not doing something
- We will conform even when it makes us look ridiculous
o Video: people in elevator conform when everyone else is facing the back (wrong
way)
- The need to conform can affect many of our behaviors
o Ex. Eating – “no I don’t want dessert”
o Ex. Nazis - “I was just following orders”
o Ex. I love *any new fashion item*
Types of social power (French & Raven, 1959)
- Reward power
o If you do something, you will get some kind of benefit
o Ex. Working hard at your job because you might get a raise
- Coercive power
o If you don’t do something, you’ll be punished
o Ex. If you don’t work hard at your job, you might get fired
- Legitimate power
o When someone has actual power over you
o Ex. Boss influence – can affect wages etc.
- Reference power
o Based on respect or admiration
o Ex. Regina George in mean girls
- Expert power
o Someone who is highly knowledgeable about something
Influence and types of conformity
- Normative influence
o Wanting to be liked/ not get in trouble
o When we follow norms that other people are doing
o Types of conformity of normative influence:
▪ 1. Compliance
• Given an order and change your behavior in response (think
Milgram, Nazis, following laws)
▪ 2. Identification
• You want to be like someone (celebrities, someone you look up
to)
o This is conformity when the situation is unambiguous – you know what you
should do, but you follow anyways
o This type of conformity is not durable, and does not last very long
- Informational influence
o Need/wanting to be correct
o Look to others to see what the correct answer actually is
o Conformity:
▪ 3. Internalization
• Works by gathering information from everyone around us
o Occurs in ambiguous situations – unsure of correct response
o This type of conformity is durable and will continue
What type of conformity?
- Experiment 1 – flyers on cars
o Ciadini et al field experiment
o Conformity and littering – there is a normative pressure not to litter
o IV: Messy vs. clean parking lot
o DV: How many people will litter
o Usual norm – don’t litter, new norm (dirty lot) - everyone else litters
o % of people littering in dirty parking lot increases dramatically
o *normative influence
- Experiment 2
o % of people littering
o IV: confederate picks up garbage vs. no behavior
o Dramatic decrease in amount of littering when confederate is cleaning up
o *normative influence
- Experiment 3 – Drisball and Muller field exp
o Conformity and jaywalking – if you see someone else jaywalking, will you follow?
o % jaywalking
o Confederate behavior
o IV has 3 levels: baseline (no confederate), doesn’t jaywalk (when given the
chance – no JW); jaywalks (JW)
o Amount of jaywalking increases when confederate is jaywalking, and amount of
jaywalking is significantly less when confederate is not jaywalking
o *this is both normative and informative influence
Testing conformity
- Sherif – dot experiment (1935) (informational social influence)
o Participants looked at a dot on the screen, and were asked how much the dot
moved, despite it not actually moving
o Ambiguous results: rely on conformity for the answer
▪ The autokinetic effect – dot looks like it moves when we look at it,
however it doesn’t actually move
o Participant is paired with 2 others, who either say dot moves a little bit, or a lot.
o Participant 1 who initially thought the dot was moving 8 inches when alone,
conforms with participants 2 and 3 who said the dot was moving between 1 and
2 inches when paired
o *this is informational influence
o The problem with sheriff is that there is no correct answer – making the task
ambiguous, so we have to look to others for the correct answer
- Asch – line experiment (1951) (normative social influence)
o 3 lines – participant asked which line is the same length
o “crazy confederates” vs. private answers
o Alone – 100% correct answer
o With confederates – 40% correct answer
o *this is normative influence
o Participants stated after they didn’t believe the answers the
o confederates were given to be correct, but conformed to avoid ridicule
o Asch believed that when a situations was completely unambiguous, people
would act rational, but that was not the case
How can we reduce conformity?
- Lone dissenters – a single person who doesn’t conform
o When we see someone else isn’t getting laughed at or ridiculed, we realize it is
ok to be different
- Devils advocate
o Comes from catholic church when deciding if someone should become a saint
- Asch variations
o Dissenter gives correct answer
Should we reduce conformity?
- Conformity has some positive benefits
o Ex. Plastic straws
Does everyone conform equally?
- Gender differences
o Women seem to conform more than men
o Maybe only if its on a certain subject matter – female vs. male centric matter
▪ Women and men will conform the same when that subject matter is
controlled
- Cultural differences
o Collectivist vs individualist cultures
o Individualists conformity is decreasing?
Bystander Intervention
Document Summary
Change in behavior as a result of the real or imagined influence of other people . In an individualist society, we tend to say we don"t conform and frown upon conforming. People don"t want to be the only one doing/not doing something. We will conform even when it makes us look ridiculous: video: people in elevator conform when everyone else is facing the back (wrong way) The need to conform can affect many of our behaviors: ex. Eating no i don"t want dessert : ex. Nazis - i was just following orders : ex. Types of social power (french & raven, 1959) If you do something, you will get some kind of benefit: ex. Working hard at your job because you might get a raise. If you don"t do something, you"ll be punished: ex. If you don"t work hard at your job, you might get fired. Legitimate power: when someone has actual power over you, ex.
