PSYCH 100 Lecture Notes - Stanley Milgram, Social Influence

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Psychology & Brain Sciences
• Course: PSYCH 100
• Professor: tamararahhal

Document Summary

A change in behavior due to real or imagined influence. Acting in a certain way because of others. Acting differently than if you were alone example: teens dressing alike/laughing at a bad joke. Asch study conformity in an unambiguous situation. Method: groups of subjects participate in a perceptual judgmental task. Only one person was a real subject, but the rest were confederates. View a target line and three comparison lines. Each person says which comparison line matches the target line. Notes: first few trials, confederates say correct line. Then, all the confederates say the same incorrect line. When tested with the group of confederates: 76% of subjects conformed at least once. Informational influence the influence of other people that leads us to conform because we see them as a source of correct information and use it to guide our behavior. We conform because we may not know what is the right behavior to commit so we look to others.