Social Influence

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Social Influence
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Lecture Overview

• Obedience to Authority
• Informational Social Influence
• Normative Social Influence
• Weapons of Influence
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

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Mr. WallaceThe Learner
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Milgram Shock Machine
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Diagram of Control Panel
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Milgram Results
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Bridgeport
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Bridgeport Results
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Do these effects occur in "real life"?

• Hofling et al. (1966)
• Nurses were telephoned by a doctor they didn't
  know.
• They were ordered to administer a nonprescribed
  drug in double the maximum dosage to a patient.
• 22 nurses were called.
• Results 21 out of 22 nurses (95.5) followed the
  doctor's orders.

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Do these effects occur in "real life"?

• Bushman (1988)
• Woman searches for change for parking meter
• Another woman orders pedestrians to give the
  first woman a nickel.
• This second woman is dressed (IV)
• In uniform
• In a business suit
• As a panhandler
• Results More persons gave money if ordered by
  woman in uniform.

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What Did NOT Reduce Obedience (Much)

• The victims claiming he had a heart condition
• The experiment was done for a market research
  company
• The victim extracts an explicit agreement to stop
  on demand

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What DID Reduce Obedience

• Two experimenters disagree about continuing
• Two fellow subjects refuse to continue
• Experiment was in a different room from subject
• Subject has to hold victims hand to the
  shock-plate

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Stanley Milgram
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Informational Social Influence

• Other people lead us to conform because we see
  them as a source of information to guide our
  behavior we believe that others interpretation
  of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than
  our own

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Informational Social Influence (Sherif)
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Normative Social Influence

• The influence of other people that leads us to
  conform in order to be liked and accepted by
  them this type of conformity results in public
  compliance with the groups beliefs and
  behaviors, but not necessarily in private
  acceptance.

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A Trial of the Asch Experiment
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Normative Social Influence
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Normative Social Influence (Asch)
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Informational versus Normative Social Influence

• Informational Social Influence
• Situation is ambiguous
• Participant relies on others for information
• Public response private acceptance
• Normative Social Influence
• Situation is clear
• Participant is looking for social approval
• Public response ? private acceptance

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Weapons of Influence(Cialdini, 1984)

• Scarcity
• Reciprocity (the old give and takeand take)
• Door in the Face Technique
• Commitment and Consistency
• Foot in the Door Technique
• Social Proof

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Social Proof

• Deciding what the acceptable and appropriate
  behavior is by imitating the behavior of other
  people.
• e.g. canned laughter

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Social Proof (Phillips)
Observed-Usual Monthly Suicide Rates
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Social Proof (Phillips)
Commercial Airline Fatalities
Story
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Social Proof (Phillips)
Accidents
Story
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Effects

• Expectations drive and reinforce behavior
• Pygmalion effect (Rosenthal and Jacobson)
• Whats in a name? (Fryer)
• Mortality and Symbols
• Lucky versus Unlucky Initials?
• Males with positive initials (e.g., ACE, VIP)
  live 4.48 years longer, whereas males with
  negative initials (e.g., DIE, RIP) die 2.80 years
  younger than matched controls. For females, an
  increase of 3.36 years for the positive group and
  no decrease for the negative (Christenfeld,
  Phillips, Glynn).
• The Hound of the Baskervilles Effect (Phillips et
  al.)