POL SCI 164A Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Hobo, Telephone Booth, Social Influence
30 Apr 2018
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PS 164A Lecture 4/5 Social Influence
Status
Definition of status
â—Ź Create continuums of valued things - including persons and groups
â—Ź Then think about where others would place these entities on the continuums
â—Ź We map people on these continuums based on valued things
â—‹ Ex: athletic ability, physical attractiveness, traits (competence, warmth)
Status deference
â—Ź Influenced by OR in deference to high status
â—‹ Ex: more likely to dress like a high status person than a low status person
â—‹ Similar to modeling but not quite
â—Ź Sheer imitation of someone or responding to requests
Study - confederate crossing the street illegally
â—Ź One looked like a hobo, the other looked like a model
â—‹ No one jaywalked with the hobo, everyone jaywalked with the model
Study - phonebooth and stealing a dime
â—Ź Return the dime to the high status, good looking person; do not return dime to hobo
person
Study - two cars; one snazzy one and one janky one
â—Ź How likely to honk at a non-moving car?
â—Ź Always honk at shitty car, never honk at nice car
Ash study on group conformity
â—Ź Ash paradigm
â—Ź Asking about line length in a group
â—Ź Size of unanimous group: probability of conformity increases until about 3 or 4 (the
magic number), in which it plateaus
â—‹ Applies to other scenarios - if three people are looking up at the sky, you will
most likely look up at the sky. You are more likely to look up at the sky, however,
the more people that are looking up at the sky (aka 3 people vs. 8 people)
â—Ź How does the conformity drop when you break the power?
â—‹ All but 1 confederate gives the wrong answer; 1 gives the right answer or another
wrong answer
○ In both cases, there is much smaller conformity; it’s enough that someone is
disagreeing, they don’t have to agree with you
Document Summary
Create continuums of valued things - including persons and groups. Then think about where others would place these entities on the continuums. We map people on these continuums based on valued things. Ex: athletic ability, physical attractiveness, traits (competence, warmth) Influenced by or in deference to high status. Ex: more likely to dress like a high status person than a low status person. Sheer imitation of someone or responding to requests. One looked like a hobo, the other looked like a model. No one jaywalked with the hobo, everyone jaywalked with the model. Return the dime to the high status, good looking person; do not return dime to hobo person. Study - two cars; one snazzy one and one janky one. Always honk at shitty car, never honk at nice car. Asking about line length in a group. Size of unanimous group: probability of conformity increases until about 3 or 4 (the magic number), in which it plateaus.
