PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pliers, Cupcake, Forest National

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: Mark Baldwin

Document Summary

What is social influence: social influence = the many ways people affect one another, including changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior resulting from the comments, actions or even the mere presence of others. Conformity: conformity can be beneficial to ourselves (easier to act without much thought) and to others (because it eliminates potential conflict and makes human interactions much smoother) Study: undergraduates took part in two 10 minute sessions. Each person set with another participant, who is actually a confederate. Different confederate in each of the 2 sessions. One confederate rubs his face a lot, the other shakes his foot a lot the participant was videotaped, without the confederate in the shot so it wouldn"t phase the judges" conclusions. Result: participants tended to mimic (conform to) the behavior exhibited by the confederate. Follow up studies: more mimicry when the participant has a need to affiliate with others and when the others in question are well liked.