Social Influences on Behavior Mr. Koch AP Psychology Forest Lake High School.
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Transcript of Social Influences on Behavior Mr. Koch AP Psychology Forest Lake High School.
Social Influences on Behavior
Mr. KochAP Psychology
Forest Lake High School
• Deindividuation– Phenomenon when a person becomes “submerged
in a group and loses sense of individuality– Tend to do things would not normally do when
alone (feel anonymous)
Social influences on motivation
• Norman Triplett (1897)– Noticed bicycle racers tended to go faster when
others were present– Experiment – 3 conditions:
– Race alone against clock– With another cyclist, but not competing– With another cyclist, in competition
• Result: went faster with another cyclist, regardless of competition
– Found similar results in experiment with adolescents winding fishing reels
• Robert Zajonc– “Social facilitation” vs. “Social impairment”• Presence of others increases general level of arousal• Arousal increases tendency to perform behaviors
that are most dominant (the ones we know best)– Improves performance for easy, familiar tasks– Performance may suffer for hard, unfamiliar
tasks
• “Social Loafing”– Exerting less effort when performing a group task than
when performing the same task alone– Harder to evaluate the performance of individuals when in group– Rewards may come to group regardless of individual giving more
effort– Group’s rewards usually divided equally rather than by effort
• Group polarization– Interaction and discussion of individuals in a group
with similar beliefs/attitudes tends to make these beliefs/attitudes more extreme• “risky shift” and “conservative shift”
• Groupthink– A pattern of thinking in which
group members fail to realistically evaluate the wisdom of various options and decisions
– Likely when place higher value on reaching decision/consensus than assuring decision is right– Best way to avoid is by
encouraging diverse perspectives and dissent to be expressed
Conformity• Changing one’s behavior or beliefs to match those
of others, generally as a result of real or imagined, though unspoken group pressure– Compliance – adjusting ones behavior because of an
explicit or implicit request
Solomon Asch’sConformity Study
• Subjects asked to pick which of 3 lines was same size as standard line – Didn’t realize that other subjects in
panels were confederates– On 6 trials, confederates would choose
the correct answer– But on 12 of the trials, created “social
reality” by all choosing the wrong line
Asch’s Conformity Study• Control condition – less than 1% of participants ever
made a mistake• Experimental condition – about 70% made at least one
error by conforming to the group norm• Conformed on over 1/3 of all responses
• Why did they conform?– Public conformity
• Didn’t believe, but saw it as socially desirable thing to do
– Private acceptance• Saw others’ responses as legitimate evidence of reality, were convinced
their own perceptions were wrong, and changed their minds
Factors influencing conformity
• Ambiguity– When something is less certain, rely more on other’s opinions
• Group Size and Unanimity– More powerful at 3 people or more– If even one person disagrees, greatly reduces conformity (<10% in Asch study)
• Social Status• Prior commitment• Culture that promotes importance of social standards• Research has shown no legitimate gender-based differences• “Minority influence” – much more rare, but can be powerful
Asch Conformity Study