1. Social Influence

2. Social Influence To Start: Conformity…???
5 Minutes
Social Influence
To Start: Conformity…???
With the person next to you consider the images on the board. Put the pictures in order from most likely to show conformity, to least likely to show ‘conformity’.
Which image do you think is the most likely to represent ‘conformity’?
Using the pictures to help you, how can we define ‘conformity’?

3. Social Influence Today we will take this further by considering…
What is conformity?
Why do people conform?
How does conformity take shape in real life?

4. Social Influence So what is ‘Social Influence?’
…the ways in which external social factors alter our behaviour.
Conformity: a type of social influence where we choose to go along with the majority (Majority Influence).
E.g. Peer Pressure or Fashion Trends
We can yield publicly or
privately.

5. Social Influence First studied by Sherif (1936)
Sherif: ‘people use the behaviour of others to decide what to do.’
Studied ‘autokinetic effect’ an optical illusion in which a stationary spot of light in a room looks like it’s moving. Asked participants individually to estimate how far the light moved.
The second time around they were placed in groups of 3. Participants changed their individual views and converged on a group estimate or ‘norm.’
But why do we choose to conform..?

6. Social Influence Jenness’ (1932) Jelly Beans
First study on conformity:
Asked individuals to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar individually.
The group then had to arrive at a group estimate.
He interviewed the individuals after and asked them if they would like to change their estimate. Almost all changed it in line with the group estimate.

7. Social Psychology CONFORMITY Compliance Identification Internalisation
Kelman (1958) found three ways that an individual would change their private / public views:
Compliance
Conforming but not agreeing with the majority. When group pressure is removed compliance stops.
Identification
Conforming to the demand of a social role.
E.g. nurses always being helpful and caring.
Internalisation
The individual believes in the goals of a group and will continue to conform even when there is no pressure from a group.

8. Informational influence
Social Influence
Why do we conform?
Informational influence
During an uncertain situation, we desire to be correct and look to our social group for answers.

9. Social Influence Conforming for information leads to… Internalisation
When an individual is exposed to the views of a group, they validate or examine their own beliefs.
They may convince themselves that they are wrong and the group is right.
This leads to public and private acceptance of the group’s beliefs – e.g. they internalise these beliefs, producing attitude change.

10. Informational Social Influence
When individuals accept the majority’s point of view
This results in internalisation because both private and public attitudes and behaviours change
Most likely to occur with:
A persuasive minority (also possible with a persuasive majority)
Most likely to occur when:
Situation is ambiguous
A situation is in crisis
We believe others to be experts

11. Conformity Processes Informational influence
Motivated by a desire to be correct
Need for certainty
Subjective uncertainty
Need for information
Private beliefs are likely
to change along with
public behaviour
Refer to social group
Internalisation

13. Social Influence Why do we conform? Normative influence
E.g. Facebook: ‘Be the first of your friends to like this’

14. Normative Social Influence
As people we have a need to be accepted by others and make a favourable impression on them.
To do this, we are inclined to conform.
This results in compliance, because we change our behaviour or articulate views publicly in order to be accepted or liked, but privately we do not.

15. Social Influence Conforming to social norms leads to… Compliance
When an individual is exposed to the views/actions of a majority, they engage in social comparison.
Because identifying with a majority is desirable, they change their views/actions to fit in with them. They go along with the majority without analysing why there is a difference.
e.g. Following Social Norms or Social Roles (Unwritten societal rules) – Leaving a tip for the waiter even if you don’t believe in it, just because its customary to.
This results in Public Compliance, without Private Attitude Change

16. Conformity Processes Normative influence
Motivated by a desire to be accepted
Need for acceptance or approval
Power of social group to reward or punish
Conflict between self & group opinion/behaviour
Public behaviour is
likely to diverge
from private beliefs
Compliance

17. Social Influence When have you conformed?
Think of and write down two times in which you have conformed. Make sure you write down the situation and what you did to conform.
Pass your sheet to the person on your left.
Think about the points in front of you. Why did conformity occur? Was it due to normative or informational influence?

19. Exam question (AO2)
Joseph, Jim and Graham have just started new jobs at tutor2u and all three are keen to do well. Graham laughs a lot at the jokes his colleagues tells, even though they’re not funny. Joseph watches his colleagues closely and makes sure that he completes work exactly as they do, to avoid making mistakes. Jim prefers to learn through trial and error. He believes that by it is only by making mistakes, that he will really understand what he is doing.
Which person’s behaviour is being influenced by normative social influence and which person’s behaviour is being influenced by informational social influence? Justify both choices. [6 marks].
Here’s a potential exam-style question. READ
Now before you begin an AO2 application question it is important to highlight the STEM (extract). Now it’s clear that Jim isn’t conforming at all, therefore we need to use the information in relation to Graham and Joseph.
Let’s shift the question up and see how we could answer it.

20. Exam question (AO2)
Joseph, Jim and Graham have just started new jobs at tutor2u and all three are keen to do well. Graham laughs a lot at the jokes his colleagues tells, even though they’re not funny. Joseph watches his colleagues closely and makes sure that he completes work exactly as they do, to avoid making mistakes. Jim prefers to learn through trial and error. He believes that by it is only by making mistakes, that he will really understand what he is doing.
Which person’s behaviour is being influenced by normative social influence and which person’s behaviour is being influenced by informational social influence? Justify both choices. [6 marks].
Here’s a potential exam-style question. READ
Now before you begin an AO2 application question it is important to highlight the STEM (extract). Now it’s clear that Jim isn’t conforming at all, therefore we need to use the information in relation to Graham and Joseph.
Let’s shift the question up and see how we could answer it.

21. Joseph, Jim and Graham have just started new jobs at tutor2u and all three are keen to do well. Graham laughs a lot at the jokes his colleagues tells, even though they’re not funny. Joseph watches his colleagues closely and makes sure that he completes work exactly as they do, to avoid making mistakes. Jim prefers to learn through trial and error. He believes that by it is only by making mistakes, that he will really understand what he is doing.
Which person’s behaviour is being influenced by normative social influence and which person’s behaviour is being influenced by informational social influence? Justify both choices. [6 marks].
APPLICATION 1:
NSI is where a person conforms to be accept and belong to a group, despite privately disagreeing.
[APPLY] Graham is demonstrating NSI as he is “laughing at the jokes his colleagues tell” (conforming to be part of the group), “even though they’re not funny” (while privately disagreeing).
Firstly, we could start by defining our term.
Then it’s key that we apply our knowledge and I highly recommend quoting from the extract. For example.

22. ISI is where a person conforms to gain knowledge and/or be right.
Joseph, Jim and Graham have just started new jobs at tutor2u and all three are keen to do well. Graham laughs a lot at the jokes his colleagues tells, even though they’re not funny. Joseph watches his colleagues closely and makes sure that he completes work exactly as they do, to avoid making mistakes. Jim prefers to learn through trial and error. He believes that by it is only by making mistakes, that he will really understand what he is doing.
Which person’s behaviour is being influenced by normative social influence and which person’s behaviour is being influenced by informational social influence? Justify both choices. [6 marks].
APPLICATION 2:
ISI is where a person conforms to gain knowledge and/or be right.
[APPLY] Joseph is demonstrating ISI as he “watches his colleagues closely and makes sure that he completes work exactly as they do, to avoid making mistakes”, therefore he is conforming as he wants to be complete his work correctly and be right.
Now let’s do the same for Joseph.
We start by defining our term.