1. Social Influence: Conformity and Obedience
Chapter 18

2. Conformity
Conformity – adjusting one’s behavior to coincide with a group standard.
Q List specific examples of Conformity?
Face the Rear An Illustration of Social Influence Behaviour Management
p.703 Q. Conformity or individualism
Chameleon Effect p. 705

3. Why do we conform?
Normative social influence – conforming to group pressure out of a need for approval and acceptance
We want to adhere to social norms because the price we pay for breaking those norms may be severe.
Ex. Applauding at a play, even if you did not enjoy the performance.
Ex. Standing for the pledge of allegiance
Give an example of when you or someone else has gone against the normative social influence.
Social Norms (1:20--??)

4. Asch’s conformity experiments(1955)
Participant joins group of five seated at a table. The experimenter asks which of three comparison lines is identical to a standard line. On the third question the first 5 “participants” give the same wrong answer. The last participant struggles with what answer to give.
Asch’s findings – More than 1/3 of the time “well meaning college students were willing to call white black.”. Asch Conformity Experiment – YouTube Page 732
Q. Activity guess the time

5. Conformity Conformity increases when Made to feel incompetent
Group has at least 3 people
The group is unanimous
One admires the groups attractiveness
Others in the group are observing your behavior
One’s culture strongly respects social standards. Political/Social Conservatives more likely than liberals to conform.

6. Why do we conform?
Informational Social Influence – conforming because of a need for information and direction.
Conform because others may have more information than we do.
Ex. Signing up for a class due to strong recommendations from friends
Ex. Political Opinions in San Francisco, New York City where large majority are liberal democrats and rural areas of the bible belt or Matthews/Mint Hill where majority are conservative Republicans)
Ex. NRA members, union members, racist blacks, racist whites.
Joseph Goerbels (Hitler’s propaganda minister understood that if he could get a majority of people in a country believing in his big lie story then he can get most of the non believers.

7. Obedience
Obedience – following direct commands, usually from an authority figure.
While reading p ask yourself: if put in the same situation how far would you go?

8. Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Study
Advertisement for a Yale University study that “concerns the effects of punishment on learning.”
Subjects become “teachers.” Their job is to teach and then test the learner on a list of word pairs. The learner is punished for a wrong answer by giving brief electric shocks. After each wrong answer the teacher is to give a higher voltage of shock.
How is this foot-in-the-door effect?
Experimenter encourages you to continue delivering shocks for wrong answers.
Findings of the study – 63% complied fully (15 volts volts)human behavior experiments
Milgram’s study is criticized for failure to meet ethical requirements. (How much deception is too much?)

9. Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Study
Subjects were debriefed
Milgram repeated the study with new “teachers.” His results were consistent with previous findings (65% fully complied)
What details affected compliance rate?
Legitimate authority figure giving orders
Prestige of the university
The victim is at a distance / Depersonalized
No role models for defiance (subjects did not see any others refuse to shock the learner)

10. Applying Milgram’s Study…
How is this study applicable to reality
Police Officer imposter in McDonald’s
Holocaust and obedience
9/11 terrorists obeyed orders (from Allah) to kill for later reward
Soldiers who obey authorities even though they know what they are doing is wrong
Adhering to our own standards vs. responding to others
Milgram said, “the most fundamental lesson of our study is that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.”
Curiosity: How Evil Are You? | The Milgram Experiment - YouTube