1 Conformity & Obedience Eunice Mun – Suzie Park – Sooji Seo “ It ’ s easy to stand with the crowd. It takes courage to stand alone. ”

2 Table of Contents 02 Obedience 2-1 Milgram experiment 2-2 Factors that influence obedience 01 Conformity 1-1 Automatic mimicry 1-2 Normative social influence 1-3 Informational social influence 1-4 Difference btw. Normative and Informational 03 Test your knowledge

3 Conformity 01

4 Conformity, what is it? 1) Done studies by Solomon Asch Which of the 3 comparison lines is equal to the standard line? Answering questions alone, errors less than 1% but answering with others (confederates who purposely answered incorrectly), more than 1/3 of the time, the students went along with the group Approximately 70 % of participants gave at least one incorrect answer Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard 01

5 Still confused on Asch Experiment? This video will clear things up

6 Automatic Mimicry 1) Chameleon effect by Tanya Chartrang and John Bargh Students were to work together in a room alongside other people who were actually confederates. The confederates rubbed their face and the students tended to rub their face along with them. Same with foot=shaking Creates empathy-feel what others are feeling Mimicking the way an another talks or their gestures Humans are natural imitators, copying other people ’ s expressions, postures, voice tones, and moods 1-1 Real life example:

7 Normative social influence Influence resulting from a person ’ s desire to gain approval or to avoid disapproval (matching the rules of behavior) Ex) everyone starts standing up and clapping at a concert-> you feel you need to stand while clapping as well. We are sensitive to social norms because the price we pay for being different can be severe 1-2

8 Informational social influence Influence resulting from one ’ s willingness to accept others ’ opinions about reality 1-3

9 Normative social influence More of your behavior Candid camera (not facing the door in the elevator … feel the urge to do the same) More of your thoughts and way of thinking Asch Conformity (others are thinking differently than you so you want to follow their way of thinking) Don’t be confused! Normative social influence vs. Informational social influence 1-4 Informational social influence

10 Obedience 02

11 Obedience, what is it? 1) Done studies by Stanley Milgram People often give into social pressures Done the most controversial and influential experiment 40 male volunteers were notified that he was studying the effects of punishment on learning He assigned them to the role of a teacher Each subject told to help another subject to learn a list of word pairs. Each mistake=electric shock to the learner. (Increased every time the learner made a mistake) *They actually did not receive the shock, but pretended to. Result: 2/3 of the teachers did administer highest level of shock despite believing that the learner was suffering great pain and distress Thought it was because they were pressured to do so by an authority figure Compliance with commands given by an authority figure 02 Obedience=one of many factors that caused people to follow orders during the Holocaust

12 Simple outlook on the Milgram Experiment 2-1 Became the ‘ teacher ’ 40 males (20-50 yrs) volunteered ‘ teacher ’ tests the ‘ learner ’ (who is actually a confederate acting) Told to administer an electric shock per mistake, but increasing the level of shock each time Result: 2/3 of the participants ( ‘ teachers ’ ) continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All participants continued to 300 volts.

13 Obedience to Authority

14 Factors that Increase Obedience 1. Commands were given by an authority figure rather than another volunteer 2. Experiments were done at the prestigious institution 3. Authority figure was present in the room with the subject 4. Learner was in another room 5. Subject did not see other subject disobeying commands 6. People obey to get rewards and avoid negative consequences from disobeying 7. In more extreme situation, people obey when they are required to violate their values and morals. Why? People justify their behavior by assigning responsibility to the authority rather than themselves People define the behavior that ’ s expected of them as routine People don ’ t want to be rude or offend the authority People obey easy commands first and then feel compelled to obey more and more difficult commands. This is called entrapment and it illustrates the foot-in-door phenomenon. 2-2

15 Test your knowledge 1. In the Milgram studies, the dependent measure was the a) Highest level of shock supposedly administered b) Location of the learner c) Length of the line d) Number of people in the group e) Instructions given by the experimenter 2. In Asch ’ s conformity study, approximately what percentage of participants gave at least one incorrect response? a) 30 b) 40 c) 50 d) 60 e) A change in behavior or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure is a) Compliance b) Conformity c) Acceptance d) Reactance 4. According to the text, the most famous and controversial experiments of social psychology are a) Asch ’ s conformity experiments b) Milgram ’ s obedience experiments c) Smith and Dunn ’ s reactance experiments d) Berg ’ s compliance experiments 5. Conformity based on a person ’ s desire to fulfill other ’ s expectations is a) Nominal influence b) Informational influence c) Normative influence d) Indirect influence 03

16 Thank you for listening.