SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND CONFORMITY

Social Influence-
 Efforts by one or more people to change the behaviour, attitudes, or feelings of one or more
others.
 Sometimes people exert influence in order to help the people involved (quit alcohol, drugs
etc). Or less altruistically they may try to get them to do personal favours, buy certain
products, vote for particular candidate etc.
 Various kinds of Social Influence include- Obedience, Compliance, Conformity and
Persuasion.
 CONFORMITY- A type of Social Influence in which individuals change their attitudes or
behaviour to adhere to existing social norms.
 COMPLIANCE- Direct efforts to get others to change their behaviour in specific ways.

CONFORMITY-

 Refers to pressures to behave in ways consistent with rules indicating how we should or
ought to behave. These rules are known as social norms, and they often exert powerful
effects on our behaviour.
 Social Norms can be stated explicitly and are quite detailed. Example- written
constitution/law, some of them can be a result of growing practice. For Example- in various
restaurants the social norm of giving tip of 15% doesn’t matter how the food is.
 Certain Social Norms are not even implicit or explicit in nature. They are just there and most
people follow them most of the time. For instance- Standing when National Anthem is being
played.
 Why conforming with the social norms? When people don’t follow social norms, their
actions are unpredictable and sometimes, that can be dangerous. Example- Conforming with
the traffic rules.
 Another reason behind conforming is to “look good” to others- to make a positive
impression on them where we use conformity as a tactic of self-presentation.

ASCH’S RESEARCH ON CONFORMITY: SOCIAL PRESSURE

 In the Asch’s research the participants were asked to report their judgements on problems
of the standard line and Comparison lines.
 The task was to indicate which of the comparison lines (A, B or C) best matched the standard
line in length.
 To study the conformity in the group, Asch had participants make judgements out loud, only
after hearing the answers of several other people- all of whom were Asch’s assistants. On
certain critical trials, the assistants all gave wrong answers. This in real way exposed
participants to strong pressures toward conformity.
 But other than this, there was one more aspect of Asch’s research- The conformity dropped
sharply among the participants when they had to write their answer on a piece of paper. The
participants didn’t have to display the fact that they disagreed with the other people
present.
 This phenomenon is termed as Public Conformity and Private Acceptance.

SHERIF’S RESEARCH ON THE AUTOKINETIC PHENOMENON: HOW NORMS EMERGE

 The questions on How do norms develop in social groups? How strong is their influence on
behaviour once they (the norms) emerge?
 To answer these, Sherif introduced an interesting situation involving Autokinetic
Phenomenon.
 AP- Refers to the fact that when placed in a completely dark room and exposed to a single,
stationary point of light, most people perceive the light as moving about. This is because in
the dark room, there are no clear cues to distance or location. The perceived movement is
known as AP.
 When placed in this setting with several others and asked to report how much they perceive
it as moving, they influence one another and soon converge on a particular amount of
movement, that agreement, in a sense, constitutes a group norm. When individuals are
place in the situation alone, the effect of the group norm persisted.

FACTORS AFFECTING CONFORMITY

 Cohesiveness and Conformity- The extent to which we are attracted to a particular social
group and want to belong to it. The greater cohesiveness is, the more we tend to follow the
norms of the group.
 The more we want to be member of a particular group, the more we avoid doing something
that will separate us from them.
 We tend to conform more with those whom we like and want to be part of.
 Conformity and Group Size- Larger the group- the greater the number of people who behave
in some specific way- the greater our tendency to conform and “do as they do”
 Descriptive and Injunctive Social Norms- Descriptive: Norms which are simply indicating
what most people do in a given situation. They influence the behaviour by informing us
about what is generally seen as effective or adaptive in that situation.
 Injunctive: - Norms which tell what ought to be done- what is approved or disapproved
behaviour in a given situation.
 Normative Focus Theory- A theory suggesting that norms will influence behaviour only to
the extent that they are focal for the people involved at the time the behaviour occurs.
 Normative Social Influence- The desire to be liked. Involves altering our behaviour to meet
others’ expectations.
 The desire to be right: Informational Social Influence- Social Influence based on the desire to
be correct (i.e. to possess accurate perceptions of the social world).
THE DOWNSIDE OF CONFORMITY

 Why good people sometimes do evil things? Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study.
 Whether Participants behaving like real guards and real prisoners- whether they would, in a
sense, conform to the norms established for these respective roles.
 One of the most important takeaways from this study was that it is SITUATIONS which in
which people find themselves- not their personal traits- that largely determine their
behaviour.
 Zimbardo though left some room for personal heroism but most of us cannot resist the
pressures and remain true to our values.

WHY DO WE SOMETIMES CHOOSE NOT TO GO ALONG-?

 Using power as a shield against conformity. Powerful less dependent on others for obtaining
social resources. They may even be less likely to take the perspective of other people and so
be less influenced by them.
 The desire to be unique and in search of non-conformity- When the individuals are
threatened- they will actively resist conformity pressures to restore their sense of
uniqueness.
 Men and Women differ in tendency to conform? Various examples from the book to be
seen.
 Women are generally NOT more susceptible to conformity pressures than me.
 Minority influence- Members of minority to be consistent in their opposition to the ones in
majority. Also need to be flexible and going with the social trends.

COMPLIANCE

 Robert Cialdini’s compliance professionals- Those whose success depends on their ability to
get others to say yes.
 Compliance can take various forms, they all rest to some degree on six basic principles-
1. Friendship/Likeness: Ingratiation, self-presentation and impression management
2. Commitment/Consistency: The-foot-in-the-door technique and lowball procedure
3. Scarcity: Playing hard to get and deadline technique
4. Reciprocity: That’s not all approach
5. Social Validation
6. Authority

SYMBOLIC SOCIAL INFLUENCE-

Such influence often involves goals relevant to our relationships with them, or goals with which
these people themselves are associated.

Psychological presence of others may trigger goals with which that person is associated-goals they
want us to achieve.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY

 One person directly orders one or more others to behave in specific ways. Obedience- less
frequent than conformity or compliance because even people who possess authority and
could use it often prefer to exert influence in a bit less obvious way.
 Obedience in the Laboratory- Stanley Milgram Experiment and Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison
Study.
 Why Obedience to Authority: People in Authority assume responsibility, People in Authority
often have visible signs of their status and power, Commands are gradual in nature, and do
not start with orders to perform extreme actions, Events move at a fast pace, giving the
people involved little chance to consider their options.
 Destructive Obedience by Milgram. The reasons for such destructive obedience include the
shifting of responsibility to the authority figure, outward signs of authority that remind many
people of the norm “obey those in authority”; a gradual escalation of the scope of the
commands given and the rapid pace with which such situations proceed.
 Reducing Destructive Obedience: Reminding individuals to share responsibility, reminding
that beyond point obedience is inappropriate, calling the motives of authority figures into
question, informing the general public about the drawbacks of such authority.