1. Conformity, Compliance, & Obedience: Lecture #6 topics  The automaticity of social influence  Conformity  Compliance  Obedience

2. The automaticity of social influence social influence:  the ways in which we are affected by the real/ imagined _________ of other people  we are vulnerable to subtle influences  e.g., _________, _________  effects occur within 72 hours of birth

3. The automaticity of social influence Chartrand & Bargh (1999): HIGH LOW

4. The automaticity of social behaviour the _________ effect (non-conscious mimicry):  _________ mimicking people’s subtle actions  _________ our social interactions with them  evidence: when a confederate mimicked them, participants liked him _________

5. Conformity conformity:  changing our perceptions, opinions, & behaviour to be _________ with _________  social norms are difficult to violate  e.g., wearing jeans to a wedding

6. Conformity individual session  dot of light appeared before participant in darkened room  task: estimate the distance the light had moved  after a few trials, their estimates converged on their own _________ norms group sessions  same procedure, except participants worked in groups of 3 over 3 sessions  after a few trials, participants’ estimates converged on a _________ norm SHERIF’S (1936) “AUTOKINETIC EFFECT” STUDY:

7. Conformity Sherif (1936): individual estimates converged on group norm

8. Conformity ASCH’S (1951) “LINE JUDGMENT” STUDY:  participants either worked alone or with 6 other “participants” (confederates)  task: announce which of 3 comparison lines (X, Y, Z) was same length as target line (A)

9. Conformity Is A the same length as X, Y, or Z? AXYZ

10. Alone6-person group # of incorrect judgments Conformity Asch (1951): HIGH LOW

11. Conformity informational influence  desire to be correct, esp. when physical reality is ambiguous  leads to _________ ( _________ ): changes in both outward behaviour & inward beliefs  e.g., _________ study; religious converts normative influence  desire to avoid social deviance & to be accepted  leads to _________ ( _________ ): change in outward behaviour but not inward beliefs  e.g., _________ study; politicians WHY DO PEOPLE CONFORM?

12. Conformity The difference between private & public conformity:  people who have _________ conformed maintain that change  _________ participants maintained normative group estimates up to 1 year following original study  people who have _________ conformed do not maintain that change  _________ participants’ conformity dropped when they wrote their answers in private

13. Conformity FACTORS INFLUENCING CONFORMITY group size: conformity increases with group size up to a certain point  beyond _________ people, additional influence is negligible

14. Conformity FACTORS INFLUENCING CONFORMITY having an ally: any dissent—whether it validates your opinion or not—is enough to break normative pressures to conform

15. Conformity minority influence:  process by which dissenters can bring about change in a group  most influential when they are _________, _________, & _________  _________ shows that they are unwilling to yield, forcing majority to compromise

16. Compliance the language of request:  mindlessness can _________ compliance  e.g., Langer (1978): butting in line for the photocopier  mindlessness can _________ compliance  e.g., ignoring panhandlers  compliance can be increased by unusual requests (“spare some change” vs. “spare 17¢”)

17. Compliance _________ :  we should treat others as they’ve treated us  we feel obligated to comply with people’s requests as repayment  e.g., Regan’s (1971) “pop” study  wait staff write “thank you” on bills to increase tips

18. Compliance SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES foot-in-the-door technique: break the ice with a small request that can’t be refused, then follow up with a bigger request  e.g., Freedman & Fraser (1966) _________ study

19. Conformity Freedman & Fraser (1966): HIGH LOW No phone survey; outrageous request only Phone survey first, then outrageous request Compliance rate

20. Conformity SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES (cont’d) low-ball technique: committing to an attractive proposition before hidden costs are revealed  once you’ve committed yourself to a decision, you justify it to yourself & resist changing your mind

21. Conformity SEQUENTIAL REQUEST STRATEGIES (cont’d) door-in-the-face technique: _________ of a large initial request, followed by a second, more _________ request  e.g., taking juvenile delinquents to the zoo

22. Modest request onlyLarge request, followed by modest request Compliance rate Compliance HIGH LOW

23. Compliance WHY DOES DOOR-IN-THE-FACE WORK? _________ : _________ request seems smaller than larger, _________ request, so we concede _________ : when someone backs down from a large request, we respond by conceding to the smaller request

24. Obedience obedience: behaviour change produced by the commands of authority figures Adolf Eichmann

25. Obedience Milgram’s (1963) obedience study: 75 to 105 volts 120 volts 150 volts 330 volts

26. Obedience psychiatrists, university students, & middle-class adults predicted that:  they would quit at _________  other people would quit at _________ psychiatrists also predicted that _________ people would go all the way to 450 volts

27. Obedience Milgram’s (1963) results: Participants who stopped at this level Shock level (volts)# participants /40% of participants 300512.5 315410 33025 34512.5 36012.5 37512.5 450

28. Obedience what makes a person so obedient? the _________ personality:  ethnocentric, intolerant of dissent, punitive  _________ to authority figures; _________ to “subordinates”  more likely to administer higher shock levels

29. Obedience SITUATIONAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER the authority figure:  his _________ & *apparent* legitimacy influenced obedience  obedience dropped when:  experiment moved from Yale to rundown building (___%)  experimenter was replaced by a “participant” (___%)  experimenter issued commands by phone (___%)

30. Obedience the victim:  participants were _________ from the student  could maintain emotional distance from the consequences of their actions  obedience rates dropped when:  participants sat in same room as student (___%)  participants had to hold student’s hand down on shock plate (___%)

31. Obedience the procedure:  participants didn’t feel personally _________ because experimenter _________  obedience dropped when participants thought they were personally responsible  _________ escalation of commitment  couldn’t escape the situation once they realized what they were doing ( _________ )  similar to how torturers of political prisoners are trained

32. Defiance disobedience is a _________ act:  having just 1 ally/ dissenter is enough to give people courage to dissent as well  obedience dropped when participant was joined by ___ co-teachers who refused to continue (___%)