1. Social Influence

2. What form of social influence is the subject of this cartoon?
Conformity
What form of social influence is the subject of this cartoon?
Click to reveal title after students have had a chance to answer the question on the slide.

3. Social Influence Conformity: Mimicry and more
Conformity refers to adjusting our behavior or thinking to fit in with a group standard.
Automatic Mimicry affecting behavior
The power of Conformity has many components and forms, including
Social Norms affecting our thinking
Click to reveal three components.
The example of conformity that may come most easily to students is choice of clothing. If they mention this, ask which type of conformity might that be? First of all, it would be an adjustment in behavior. Beyond that, there can be more than one right answer.
When stating the definition, you may want to insert “to fit in with or align ourselves with what we perceive to be a group standard.”
Normative and Informational Social Influence

4. Mimicry
It is not only true that birds of a feather flock together: it is also true that if we flock together, we might choose to wear the same feathers.
No animation.
“Same feathers” refers to the same habits, behaviors, or of course the same clothes.

5. Social Influence Automatic Mimicry
Some of our mimicry of other people is not by choice, but automatic:
Contagious Yawning, as well as contagious arm folding, hand wringing, face rubbing…
Adopting regional accents, grammar, and vocabulary
Empathetic shifts in mood that fit the mood of the people around us
Adopting coping styles of parents or peers, including violence, yelling, withdrawal.
Click to reveal bullets. The fourth example may help explain not only copycat violence and suicide but also why people can plan on having a different parenting style than their parents but end up under stress doing just what was modeled for them.

6. Social Influence: Conformity Responding to Social Norms
When we are with other people and perceive a social norm (a “correct” or “normal” way to behave or think in this group), our behavior may follow the norm rather than following our own judgment.
Asch Conformity studies: About one third of people will agree with obvious mistruths to go along with the group.
Think this guy will conform?
That square has 5 sides.
WT???
Click to reveal bullet and example.
You may want to change “WT???” to “What??” or “WTF??” depending on your judgment of what seems appropriate in your setting.

7. Conforming to Norms
Which comparison line looks the same as the standard line?
Take turns answering, see if a consensus develops.
Upon a click, the “standard line” will subtly change so that the standard line changes, starting off closer to the size of the third line, ending up closer to the size of the second line. You could make these change halfway through polling the class one at a time, or make the change anytime five people a row say “line # 2” or answer without looking at the screen.

8. Social Influence: Conformity What makes you more likely to conform?
When…
You are not firmly committed to one set of beliefs or style of behavior.
The group is medium sized and unanimous.
You admire or are attracted to the group.
The group tries to make you feel incompetent, insecure, and closely watched.
Your culture encourages respect for norms.
Click to reveal bullets.
I say “medium sized” where the text reads “at least three people;” Beyond a certain size group, conformity decreases, perhaps because there is a possibility of subgroups that support non conformity (although they in turn will be an environment in which conformity occurs).

9. Two types of social influence
Normative Social Influence:
Informational Social Influence:
Example: Going along with others in pursuit of social approval or belonging (and to avoid disapproval/rejection)
Example: Going along with others because their ideas and behavior make sense, the evidence in our social environment changes our minds.
Deciding which side of the road to drive on.
Click to reveal second circle.
This slide is here because this is where it’s located in the text, but it could be moved all the way to the beginning of the social influence section. In either case, it may seem like a follow up on the persuasion topic, but in this case, no one is trying to persuade us, we are influenced by what we see in our social surroundings.

10. Obedience: Response to Commands
Milgram wanted to study the influence of direct commands on behavior.
The question: Under what social conditions are people more likely to obey commands?
The experiment: An authority figure tells participants to administer shocks to a “learner” (who was actually a confederate of the researcher) when the learner gives wrong answers.
Click to reveal bullets.
Voltages increased; how high would people go?

11. The Design of Milgram’s Obedience Study
One layout of the study
Ow!
Please continue. (Give the shock.)
But… …okay.
The “Learner” (working with researchers)
No animation.
Shock levels in volts that participants thought they were giving
Slight (15-60)
Moderate (75-120)
Strong ( )
Very strong ( )
Intense ( )
Extreme intensity ( )
Danger: severe ( )
XXX ( )

12. Compliance in Milgram’s Study
In surveys, most people predict that in such a situation they would stop administering shocks when the “learner” expressed pain.
But in reality, even when the learner complained of a heart condition, most people complied with the experimenter’s directions:
“Please continue.”
“You must continue.”
“The experiment requires that you continue”…
Click to reveal bullets.

13. What Factors Increase Obedience?
The bad news: In war, some people at the beginning choose not to fight and kill, but after that, obedience escalates, even in killing innocent people.
The good news: Obedience can also strengthen heroism; soldiers and others risk or even sacrifice themselves, moreso when under orders
What Factors Increase Obedience?
When orders were given by:
Someone with legitimate authority
Someone associated with a prestigious institution
Someone standing close by.
When the “learner”/victim is in another room.
When other participants obey and/or no one disobeys (no role model for defiance)
Click to reveal bullets and sidebar.
There are more versions of this experiment, revealing more patterns:
Compliance is higher when the participant only has to read the questions and announce when wrong answers happen, but someone else administers the shock;
Compliance is much higher when the level of shock is predetermined and enforced by the authority figure (lower if the participant chooses if and when to raise the voltage).
Other Evidence of the Power of Obedience

14. Lessons from the Conformity and Obedience Studies
When under pressure to conform or obey, ordinary, principled people will say and do things they never would have believed they would do.
To look a person committing harmful acts and assume that the person is cruel/evil would be to make the fundamental attribution error.
The real evil may be in the situation.
Automatic animation.

15. Social Influence: Group Behavior
Besides conformity and obedience, there are other ways that our behavior changes in the presence of others, or within a group:
Social Facilitation
Groupthink
Deindividuation
Click to show five bubbles: social facilitation, social loafing, polarization, deindividuation, and groupthink.
Social Loafing
Group Polarization

16. Social Facilitation
Individual performance is intensified when you are observed by others.
Experts excel, people doing simple activities show more speed and endurance in front of an audience… but novices, trying complex skills, do worse.
Click to reveal bullets
Novices = people newly trying difficult, complex, skilled activities.
“Facilitation” refers to the improvement, the excellent performance facilitated by the physiological arousal caused by being watched.

17. Social Facilitation
Why would the presence of an audience “facilitate” better performance for everyone but newcomers?
Being watched, and simply being in crowded conditions, increases one’s autonomic arousal, along with increasing motivation for those who are confident, and anxiety for those who are not confident.
Click to reveal answer.
Why does the presence of an audience “facilitate” an improved performance for most people but a worse performance for novices/newcomers? “Facilitation” refers to the improvement, the excellent performance facilitated by the physiological arousal caused by being watched.

18. Social Loafing
Ever had a group project, with a group grade, and had someone in the group slack off?
If so, you have experienced Social Loafing: the tendency of people in a group to show less effort when not held individually accountable.
Why does social loafing happen?
When your contribution isn’t rewarded or punished, you might not care what people think.
People may not feel their contributions are needed, that the group will be fine.
People may feel free to “cheat” when they get an equal share of the rewards anyway.
Note: People in collectivist cultures don’t slack off as much in groups even when they could. Why?
Who will know if I’m not pulling as hard as I can? No one can tell how hard each of us is pulling on the rope.
Click to reveal bullets, question and answer.
Click for pop-up box: Regarding the first bullet point: when you don’t care what people think, when your individual performance doesn’t seem to matter as much, then what process is not happening? Social facilitation.
Possible answer to the question about collectivist cultures: Perhaps they are raised to feel enough responsibility to the group that they don’t need individual accountability and individual reward (such as individual vs. a group grade on a project). Maybe you are taught that your contribution does matter to the group, to the society, even if there is no reward.

19. Deindividuation Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint.
Examples: Riots, KKK rallies, concerts, identity-concealed online bullying.
Happens when people are in group situations involving: 1) Anonymity and 2) Arousal.
Deindividuation
Automatic animation.

20. Group Polarization
When people of similar views form a group together, discussion within the group makes their views more extreme.
Thus, different groups become MORE different, more polarized, in their views.
People in these groups may have only encountered ideas reinforcing the views they already held.
Liberal Blogs (blue) and conservative blogs (red) link mostly to other like-minded blogs, generating this portrait of the polarized Blogosphere.
Click to reveal bullets and two examples.
Instructor: Does discussion help increase open-mindedness to more views? Not necessarily. If people are grouping themselves with people having similar views, then Group Polarization happens: discussion makes their views stronger, more extreme; this makes two groups with different viewpoints become MORE different in their views.
See if this calls to mind the style of political discussion, and the polarizing result of that discussion, when people only encounter discussions and news coming from people who already agree with them.
Before you click on example of political blogs: Introducing this slide with a question: Does discussion help increase open-mindedness to more views? Not necessarily. If people are grouping themselves with people having similar views, then Group Polarization happens: discussion makes their views stronger, more extreme; this makes two groups with different viewpoints become MORE different in their views.

21. Groupthink
In pursuit of social harmony (and avoidance of open disagreement), groups will make decisions without an open exchange of ideas.
Irony: Group “think” prevents thinking, prevents a realistic assessment of options.
Automatic animation.

22. Social Influence The Power of Individuals
Despite all of these forces of social influence, individuals still have power:
Some people resist obeying and conforming.
Individuals can start social movements and social forces, not just get caught up in them.
Groupthink can be prevented if individuals speak up when a group decision seems wrong.
Click to reveal bullets.
Resisting obedience: Remember that although we’d like people to refuse to carry out genocidal orders, this can be a good or a bad thing; disobedience can seem to have bad results if you believe in the mission of any organization that relies on obedience, an army, or even a sports team.
Starting social movements: This is where Ghandi comes in, as mentioned in the text, although his political strategy relied on another concept, civil disobedience, that he picked up from reading Thoreau.
Classic example of individuals overriding Groupthink: the play and movie 12 Angry Men (performed sometimes as 12 Angry Jurors).