Psychology 2070A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Normative Social Influence, Mass Psychogenic Illness, Social Influence
2 May 2018
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Psych 2070A Test 2 Notes
Chapter 7: Conformity
Conformity: When and Why
• Conformity: a change in behavior as a result of the real or imagined influence of other
people
• Pressure to conform may be shared with other species – rats; tendency to conform to
the behavior of others is so powerful that it can override behaviors that promote
survival (eating the poisonous food)
• American culture stresses the importance of not conforming – we want to be perceived
as people who make up our own minds, not as spineless, weak conformists, not as
puppets but players
• We maintain the belief that out behavior is not influenced by others even when reality
suggests otherwise
• Conformity is not simply good or bad: interested in why people conform, rather than
making judgments about whether being influenced by other people is good or bad
• People conform for 2 main reasons: because of informal and normative social influences
Informational Social Ifluee: The Need to Ko What’s Right
• Asking others what they think or watching what they do helps us reach a definition of
the situation
• The influence of other people leads us to conform because we see them as a course of
information to guide our behavior, this is called informational social influence
• Informational social influence: ofoig eause e eliee that othes’
interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than our ours and will help us
choose an appropriate course of action
• Private acceptance: ofoig to othe people’s ehaio out of a geuie elief that
what they are doing or saying is right
• Public compliance: ofoig to othe people’s ehaio pulil, ithout eessail
believing in what they are saying or doing
• Sherif Example (auto kinetic effect) – people were relying on each other and came to
privately accept the group estimate
• When participants are convinced that the task is important they are more likely to
conform to the group than participants who do’t thik the task is ipotat
• When People Conform to Informational Social Influence:
o When the situation is ambiguous – e.g., fire alarm, Canadian peace keepers in
Somalia (ambiguous term abuse)
o When the situation is a crisis – e.g., realistic fictional space invasion broadcast
resulted in a contagion: the rapid transmission of emotions or behavior through
a crowd, in this case the listening audience
o When other people are experts – e.g., passenger looks to flight attendant
• When Informational Conformity Backfires
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o Using other people as a source of information can backfire when they are wrong
aout hat’s goig o
o Mass psychogenic illness: the occurrence of similar physical symptoms for which
there is no known physical or medical cause in a group of people
o E.g., the toxic bus incident
• Resisting Informational Social Influence
o Decisions about whether to conform to informational social influence will affect
ot ol people’s ehaio ut thei itepetatio of ealit
o E.g., pre decision and post decision construal by conformity decision – people
changed their interpretation of the cop or African American driver being at fault
after hearing what other people said (either dissented more or conformed more)
Normative Social Influence: The Need to Be Accepted
• Normative social influence: the influence of other people that leads us to conform in
order to be liked and accepted by them; this type of conformity results in public
compliance with the groups beliefs and behaviors but not necessarily private acceptance
• The desire to be accepted and liked by others can lead to highly dangerous behavior
• Some people engage in high-risk activities, such as using ecstasy pills, shown on the left,
o egage i daedeil atiities like the Bazilia teeages ho suf: o top of oig
trains
• Groups have certain expectations about how the group members should behave and
members in good standing conform to these rules or social norms: the implicit or
explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its
members
• Conformity and Social Approval: The Asch Line Judgment Studies
o 77% of the participants conformed and gave an obvious incorrect answer on at
least 1 trial, 32% conformed on more than half the trials (line length task – very
easy so no informational influence)
o On average, people conformed on about 1/3rd of the trials on which the
accomplices gave the incorrect answer
o Public compliance without private acceptance – people know what they are
doing or saying is wrong but go along anyway so as not to feel peculiar or look
like a fool, even in front of complete strangers
o Brain imaging research revealed that participants who conformed or did not
know the answers of other participants, an fMRI revealed brain activity in the
posterior brain areas dedicated to vision and perception, but when participants
chose to give a wright answer that disagreed with the group, the amygdala, an
area devoted to negative emotions (discomfort, tension) and the right caudate
nucleus, an area devoted to modulating social behavior became active
• When Will People Conform to Normative Social Influence?
o Social impact theory: the likelihood that you will respond to social influence
from other people depends on 3 variables:
1. Strength of the group – how important is the group to you?
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-normative pressures are much stronger when they come from people whose
friendship, love, and respect we cherish because there is a large cost to
losing this love/trust
-he e ae attated to a goup ad eided that e do’t uite fit i e
are especially motivated to conform
2. Immediacy – how close is the group to you in space and time during the
influence attempt?
-e.g., railroad workers more influenced by co workers than managers
3. Number – how many people are in the group?
-conformity increases as the number of people in the group increases but
once the majority reaches about 4 or 5 in number, conformity pressures peak
(going from 3 people to 4 makes a bigger difference on pressure than going
from 53 to 54)
• Other Conditions Under Which People Conform to Normative Social Influence
o When the group is unanimous – normative social influence is more powerfully
felt when everyone in the group says or believes the same thing – having an ally
dramatically helps with resisting norms, people only conformed 6% of the time
with an ally compared to 32% on study without an ally
o Gender differences in conformity – women are more conforming than men, size
of the difference is very small, women were more likely to conform in situations
where an audience can directly observe their behavior (could stem from taught
social roles in society), in situations where conformity is private men and women
are equally as likely to conform, gender of researcher made a difference
o When the group culture is collectivist – collectivist cultures show higher rates of
conformity (not when strangers), rate of conformity in Asch-type studies has
been declining in individualistic cultures
• The Consequences of Normative Social Influence
o The consequences of normative social influence can be positive (pro-
environment) or negative (dangerous)
o Resisting normative social influence can lead to ridicule, ostracism, and even
rejection by the group
o We can overcome normative pressures by taking the time to stop and become
aware of what social norms are operating, by finding and ally, and gathering
idiosyncrasy credits: the credits a person earns over time, by conforming to a
groups norms; if enough credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, behave
in a deviant manner without retribution from the group
• Normative Social Influence in Everyday Life
o Normative social influence operates on many levels in social life; it influences our
eatig haits, hoies, fashio, od iage…
o Woe’s od iage – women feel pressure to conform to the body ideal of
thinness in western and collectivist cultures, in Canada and the US 70% of high
school girls were unhappy with their bodies, 37% grade 9, and 40% grade 10
believe they are fat, between 600,000 and 900,000 Canadian girls currently
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Document Summary
Normative pressures are much stronger when they come from people whose friendship, love, and respect we cherish because there is a large cost to losing this love/trust. 35%, most men ideal body was 12. 5 kilograms more muscular than their own, intervention program we not effective for men but was for women. Minority influence: when the few influence the many: majority influence: the case in which a minority of group members influences the behaviors or beliefs of the majority, key is consistency! In short, majorities cause public compliance because of normative influence, whereas minorities can produce private acceptance because of informational social influence. Norms: expectations held by a group of people about what behaviors are right/wrong, acceptable/unacceptable: explicit norms: those written or spoken, social proof of norms shock studies, confederates looking up at pre determined. Jo(cid:374)esto(cid:449)(cid:374) (cid:373)assa(cid:272)(cid:396)e (cid:894)ji(cid:373) jo(cid:374)es & the people"s te(cid:373)ple(cid:895) mass suicide, members drank poisoned kool-aid (most willingly), handful escaped.
