LECTURE 5 Conformity and Persuasion

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LECTURE 5Conformity and Persuasion

• June 27th, 2005
• PSYC 2120 (A) 3.0 Social Psychology

When you think of the long and gloomy history of
man, you will find more hideous crimes have been
committed in the name of obedience than in the
name of rebellion. C.P. Snow
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Syllabus change

• Chapter 13 switched to next
  weeks Prejudice lecture
• Next week will cover Prejudice and Intergroup
  Relations (Chapter 13) on Monday, Aggression and
  Altruism on Tuesday, and Attraction on Wednesday

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New Schedule

• This week
• Mon June 27th Conformity (6) and Persuasion (7)
• Tues June 28th Group Influence (8) and
  Stereotype threat
• Wed June 29th Gender, Culture and Emotional
  Expression (5)
• Thursday MIDTERM 2 (covers chapters 5-8 and
  this weeks lectures)
• Next week
• Mon July 4th Prejudice (12) AND Intergroup
  Relations (13)
• Tues July 5th Aggression Prosocial Behaviour
  (10 9)
• Wed July 6th Attraction and Intimacy (11)
• Friday July 8th FINAL EXAM (Multiple choice
  covers chapters 9-13 short-answer questions are
  cumulative)

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Road Map

• Conformity
• Informational Social Influence
• Normative Social Influence
• Obedience
• Persuasion
• Two routes (central peripheral)
• Resisting persuasion

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Conformity

• Definition A change in behaviour or beliefs due
  to the real or imagined influence of other
  people.
• Social Norms the implicit or explicit rules a
  group has for the acceptable behaviours, values,
  and beliefs of its members

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Informational Social Influence

• Conforming because we believe that others
  interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more
  correct than ours and will help us choose an
  appropriate course of action.
• Acceptance Conformity that involves both acting
  and believing in accord with social pressure.

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Autokinetic Study (Sherif, 1936)
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Chameleon Effect

• Definition The nonconscious mimicry of the
  postures, mannerisms, and facial expressions of
  ones interaction partner
• Theorize that the mere perception of anothers
  behaviour can automatically increase the
  likelihood of engaging in that behaviour oneself.

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Chemeleon Effect

• Chartrand and Bargh (1999)

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When do we conform to informational social
influence?

• When the situation is ambiguous
• Fire alarms
• When there is a crisis
• When others are experts

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Normative Social Influence

• Conforming in order to be liked and accepted or
  to fulfil others expectations this type of
  conformity results in public compliance (but not
  necessarily private acceptance) of the groups
  beliefs and behaviours
• Public Compliance Conformity that involves
  publicly acting in accord with social pressure
  while privately disagreeing

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Social Pressure Study (Asch, 1951)
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Social Pressure Study (Asch, 1951)
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When do we conform to normative social influence?

• Social Impact Theory (Latane, 1981)
• Strength (how important are the people to you?)
• Immediacy (close in space and time)
• Number (how many in the group)
• Unanimous
• Can also be influenced by
• Culture (more in collectivist cultures)
• Self-Esteem (low SE may fear rejection more)

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Road Map

• Conformity
• Informational Social Influence
• Normative Social Influence
• Obedience
• Persuasion
• Two routes (central peripheral)
• Resisting persuasion

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Compliance

• Definition a change in behaviour due to a direct
  request from another person.
• Obedience conformity in response to the commands
  of an authority figure

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Mindless Compliance

• Obeying internalized social norms, without
  deliberating about ones actions
• Secretary study This paper is to be returned
  immediately to Room 238 through interoffice mail

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Door-in-the-face

• Presented with a LARGE request (expected to
  refuse), followed by a smaller, more reasonable
  request (expected to accept)
• Operates due to the reciprocity norm (if I do
  something nice for you, you should do something
  nice for me)
• Not to be confused with foot-in-the-door (due to
  self-perception)

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Milgrams (1963) Obedience Study

• Teachers believe they are delivering shocks to
  a learner (randomly assigned to the roles).
• Strongly encouraged by the experimenter to
  continue, even when the learner protests.

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Milgrams Obedience Study

• Normative social influence It is absolutely
  essential that you continue (I did commit to
  doing this studywhat will he think of me if I
  mess up his study now?)
• Informational social influence
  ambiguity/novelty of the situation when unsure,
  we look to the expert (the experimenter)

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Milgrams Obedience Study

• Additional Factors
• In automatic pilot to the obey experimenter
  norm
• Fast-pace doesnt allow for much thought
• Increased in small increments (like
  foot-in-the-door).

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Resisting Social Pressure

• Reactance an attempt to restore ones sense of
  freedom.

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Definitions

• Conformity A change in behaviour or beliefs due
  to the real or imagined influence of other
  people.
• Informational Social Influence (Acceptance)
  Conforming because we believe that others
  interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more
  correct than ours.
• Normative Social Influence (Public Conformity)
  Conforming in order to be liked and accepted or
  to fulfil others expectations this type of
  conformity results in public compliance (but not
  necessarily private acceptance) of the groups
  beliefs and behaviours
• Compliance a change in behaviour due to a direct
  request from another person.
• Mindless Compliance Obeying internalized social
  norms, without deliberating about ones actions
• Obedience conformity in response to the commands
  of an authority figure
• Reactance an attempt to restore ones sense of
  freedom.

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Road Map

• Conformity
• Informational Social Influence
• Normative Social Influence
• Compliance and Obedience
• Persuasion
• Two routes (central peripheral)
• Resisting persuasion

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Persuasive Communication

• A communication (e.g., a speech or television ad)
  advocating a particular side of an issue.
• You should stop studying and come to the party
• I think you should go grocery shopping instead
  of me
• Commercial to buy a swiffer

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Persuasion

• Central Route Persuasion
• A focus on the actual content of the arguments
  that stimulates thinking in favour of the new
  attitude (also known as systematic processing)
  Keys Ability and Motivation
• Peripheral Route Persuasion
• Acceptance is triggered by incidental cues (i.e.,
  attractiveness of the speaker) without much
  thinking (also known as heuristic-based
  processing)

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Canada Pension Benefits Reduction

• Central Route Peripheral Route

Great arguments. Im convinced!
He sounds smart. Im convinced!
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Chaiken (1980)

• Arguments for switching to a trimester system
  (from a two-semester system)
• Manipulated
• (a) Relevance (if accepted will be implemented
  next year or in 5 years)
• (b) Argument strength (1 point versus 5 points)
• (c) Speaker likeability (he believes U of T
  students are far superior or inferior to UBC
  students)

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Chaiken (1980)
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Personality and Processing

• NEED FOR COGNITION
• a personality variable reflecting the extent to
  which people engage in and enjoy effortful
  cognitive activities
• Sample Items
• I usually end up deliberating about issues even
  when they do not affect me personally
• I only think as hard as I have to (R)

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Effectiveness of Persuasion

1. Communicator (who said it?)
2. Message (what was said?)
3. Audience (to whom?)

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Communicator

• Credibility
• Expertise
• Trustworthiness / Likeability
• Attractiveness
• Physical appeal
• Similarity

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Message

• Not trying to persuade
• Two-sided (versus one-sided) arguments are better
  if you can refute the other side
• Primacy versus recency

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Message Primacy/Recency

• Primacy Effects Information presented first has
  the most influence
• Message1Message2..Response
• Recency Effects Information presented last has
  the most influence
• Message 1Message2Response

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Message

• Not trying to persuade
• Two-sided (versus one-sided) arguments are better
  if you can refute the other side
• Primacy versus recency
• Emotion (happiness fear)

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Audience

• Intelligence
• Higher more difficult to persuade
• Self-Esteem
• Moderate most easily persuaded

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Resisting Persuasion

• Attitude Inoculation the process of making
  people immune to attempts to change their
  attitudes by initially exposing them to small
  doses of the arguments against their position.

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Questions?