Unit 13 Social Psychology Social Influence pt. 2

1. Unit 13 Social PsychologySocial Influence pt. 2 What do experiments on conformity and compliance reveal about the power of social influence? ….Behavior is contagious. We are natural mimics..called the chameleon effect.

3. Reasons for Conforming: Normative social influence. Avoid rejection or gain social approval.

4. Informational Social Influence: When we accept others opinions about reality.

5. Conformity Studies • Adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

6. Obedience

7. Milgram Experiment Social psychologist, Stanley Milgram: Situation powerfully influence people. Obedience highest when: person giving the orders were perceived to be a legitimate authority figure, when authority figure was supported by prestigious institution, when victim was at a distance, no role models for defiance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiment 2009 1/3

8. Asch’s Study of Conformity

9. Asch’s Results • About 1/3 of the participants conformed. • 70% conformed at least once. To strengthen conformity: • The group is unanimous • The group is at least three people. • One admires the group’s status • One had made no prior commitment

10. Group Influence • How do groups affect our behavior?

11. Social Facilitation: when you are good at something you do it even better when people are watching.

12. Social Loafing • Social Loafing: The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable. • Sounds like group work to me  Video also includes a little door in the face  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJ79kAFVho SouthPark.mov

13. Deindividuation • People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self. • Feel anonymous and aroused. • Explains rioting behaviors.

14. Effects of Group Polarization and groupthink

15. Group Polarization • Groups tend to make more extreme decisions than the individual. For example, after a group discussion, people already supportive of a war become more supportive, people with an initial tendency towards racism become more racist and a group with a slight preference for one job candidate will come out with a much stronger preference.

16. Jones Town Pt. 1 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7IxGGfpSWk

17. Groupthink • Group members suppress their reservations about the ideas supported by the group. • They are more concerned with group harmony. • Worse in highly cohesive groups. Funny Elevator Psychology http://www.guzer.com/videos/elevator-psychology.php

18. Zimbardo’s Prison Study • Showed how we deindividuate AND become the roles we are given. • Philip Zimbardo has students at Stanford U play the roles of prisoner and prison guards in the basement of psychology building. • They were given uniforms and numbers for each prisoner. • What do you think happened?

19. Deindividuation • People get swept up in a group and lose sense of self. • Feel anonymous and aroused. • Explains rioting behaviors.

20. Cultural Influence • The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

21. Norms: rules for accepted and expected behavior.

22. Personal space: the portable buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies.