PSYC 342 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Social Proof, Korean War, Gaslighting
4 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Application of social in uence tactics (often in combination with one another) that are coercive or extreme in nature. Term rst came into use in 1950s as a means of referring to apparently extreme political conversions by us soldiers captured by the chinese during the korean war. Extensive studying of brainwashing phenomena in the context of prisoners of war and members of religious cults. Winn (1983) noted 10 common practices: were forced to question beliefs that had never previously been questioned in order to undermine certainty (gaslighting) Presented with information about immoral practices of their country. Soldiers were often ill-prepared to counter-argue these assertions. Mechanisms: enhances the authority of jailers by making prisoner feel less knowledgeable, create confusion and uncertainty to disrupts thinking about requisitions, social proof when coming from fellow soldiers, behaviours shaped by use of rewards. Mechanisms: reciprocity for rewards, conditioning effects, liking for guards who treated them well, consistency if rewards insuf cient justi cation.
