Social Influences on Behavior

1. Social Influences on Behavior Mr. Koch AP Psychology Forest Lake High School

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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

5. “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

6. 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”

7. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

14. Asch Conformity Study