informational influence social psychology

por / Friday, 08 January 2021 / Categoria Uncategorized

Research has identified a few common requirements that contribute to recognition of a group: interdependence, social interaction, perception as a group, commonality of purpose, and favoritism. They were then asked to estimate the amount it moved; however, there was no real movement. Normative influence occurs when an individual conforms in order to gain social acceptance and avoid social rejection. For example, group influence can often be useful in the context of work settings, team sports, and political activism. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27 , 279-296. These factors can lead a group to make a catastrophically bad decision. Deindividuation happens when a person lets go of self-consciousness and control and does what the group is doing, usually with negative goals or outcomes. A number of factors are known to increase the likelihood of conformity within a group. The request may be explicit (directly stated) or implicit (subtly implied); the target may or may not recognize that he or she is being urged to act in a particular way. If the participant still wished to stop after all the verbal prods, the experiment ended. This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs of the group become part of the individual’s own belief system. For example, before Anna goes to ask for time off from her manager, Anthony, she does a little research and discovers that he enjoys golfing. This is normative social influence -- influence resulting in the desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. A person publicly changes their behavior to fit in with the group, while also agreeing with them privately. Explain how certain strategies and group attributes may influence compliance. Low-balling: Low-balling is a tactic frequently used by salesmen. Psychologists have proposed a variety of definitions to encompass the social influence that conformity exerts. They will initially quote a deceptively low offer and raise the price dramatically after an informal agreement has taken place but before a contract is signed. We base our beliefs on those presented to us by reporters, scientists, doctors, and lawyers because we believe they have more expertise in certain fields than we have. Deindividuation and lack of expertise in the participants were also associated with higher levels of obedience. From the second through the fourth day of the study, estimates were agreed upon by the group. These experiments measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. While social psychology tends to be an academic field, the research that social psychologists perform has a powerful influence on our understanding of mental health and well-being. Social influence describes how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors respond to our social world, including our tendencies to conform to others, follow social rules, and obey authority figures. Compliance is considered a social phenomenon, meaning that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people often plays a role in someone’s decision whether or not to comply with a given request. Social influence takes two basic forms: implicit expectations and explicit expectations. Explain how the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments informed our understanding of human obedience. It has been argued that the results of the study demonstrate the impressionability and obedience of people when provided with a legitimizing ideology, along with social and institutional support. This is a perfect example of informational influence, where information from others provides a person more information about a social situation (Schneider et al., 2012). We will discuss these more in detail below. Kelman, H. C. (1958). Normative social influence is one of conformity.It is "the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them." The results indicate that environmental factors have a significant affect on behavior. The Stanford prison experiment was a study, conducted by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971, of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard and. The participants adapted to their roles beyond the experimenter’s expectations. Later, we viewers often see interviews with that person, who will explain their actions or attitudes as responses to a situation. Deindividuation is exactly what the word implies: a loss of one’s individuality. People exhibit conformity when they change attitudes or behaviors to reflect a perceived norm. 1 a). There are two major motivators to conformity: normative influence and informational influence. The cost may be monetary, time related, or anything else that requires something from the individual. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. © 2021. They quickly found that the majority of humans are surprisingly obedient to authority. The opposite effect is true as well: if Susan has been unemployed for a long time, employers may assume it is because others have not wanted to hire her. Typically the group is under a high level of pressure to make a decision, and it lacks an impartial leader. Informational influence is fueled by wanting to know what’s right, whereas normative influence is motivated by wanting to get along. There is always controversy over exactly how to interpret social psychology experiments. When you make decisions about how to behave, there are many sources of information available to help you make these decisions. Informational Social Influence is where a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is ‘right’. In the Stanford prison experiment, participants were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoner or guard in a mock prison, and they adapted to their roles beyond the experimenter’s expectations. The participant believed his role was randomly assigned. Most participants paused and questioned the experiment at some point, but 26 out of 40 still administered the full shock, even after the confederate ceased to respond. This technique involves gaining someone’s personal approval so they will be more likely to agree with a request. Thus, social psychology studies individuals in a social context and how situational variables interact to influence behavior. Groups must be cohesive, insulated, lack an impartial leader, and homogenous, as well as be in a provocative, high stress situation, in order for groupthink to occur. Conformity can be motivated either by a desire for accuracy, called informational influence, or a need for social approval, called normative influence. [Online Lecture]. If the other members of the group gave an obviously incorrect response, the participant was more likely to also give an obviously incorrect response (A or B). This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs of the group become part of the individual’s own belief system. Psychologists describe informational influence as following whatever work the crowd is doing, believing that they are a source of information. For more information, follow the main article links provided. Lesson 10: Overcoming the Fundamental Attribution Error, Lesson 12: COVID and How it Ended the Stigma of Online Dating. The large request is then followed by a second, more reasonable, request. Normative Influence is conformity based on one's desire to fulfill others' expectations and gain acceptance (Myers, 2009). Retrieved from http://cms.psu.edu. She then says, “Well, if you won’t pay for me to go to Australia, will you at least pay for me to go to New York?” Her parents are more likely to comply with the more reasonable request, after having rejected the initial, extreme request. In extreme cases of NIMBY behaviours, people may stick their heads in the sand like … Factors that influence compliance include the following: In addition to these factors, the following techniques have been proven to effectively induce compliance from another party. Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance (behavior influenced by peers) and conformity (behavior intended to match that of the majority). Informational Social Influence. Informational social influence is the change in opinions or behavior that occurs when we conform to people who we believe have accurate information. The experimenter (E) convinces the subject (T) to give what he believes are painful electric shocks to another subject, who is actually an actor (L). While scrolling through channels on the TV one evening this week, I stumbled across one of my favorite shows, Survivor. Informational influence is likely to be stronger when a person is uncertain about the correct interpretation of reality and/or the correct behavior in a given context and therefore looks to other group members for guidance. On the first day, each person perceived different amounts of movement, as they participated in the experiment individually. Informational influence and descriptive norms Social psychology is primarily concerned with learning how others influence our thinking, emotions, and actions in the field of psychological research. An empirical test of the referent informational influence analysis of group polarization is reported. After the subject agrees to the initial cost, the requester increases the cost at the last moment. We have choices but do not know which to select. The work of both of these group decision-making factors makes for interesting dynamics in this game, as we watch contestants grapple with both informational and normative pressures. The result of conformity due to informational social influence is normally private acceptance: real change in opinions on the part of the individual. Cleanr theme by WPShoppe. Over the course of several trials, subjects were required to select the comparison line that corresponded in length to the reference line. His initial experiment in 1951 was set up as follows. The subject is more likely to comply with this change in cost since he or she feels like an agreement has already occurred. A fraction of the way through the experiment, Zimbardo announced an end to the study. The influence physical appearance such as clothing has on the perception of authority is a different social psychological phenomenon, yet it is an important factor in informational influence. An example of normative social influence is peer pressure. Groupthink: This image outlines the requirements, symptoms, and defects of groupthink in detail. Informational social influence is the change in opinions or behavior that occurs when we conform to people who we believe have accurate information. This often means that they will go along with whatever the group is doing, whether it be rioting, looting, lynching, or engaging in cyberbullying. According to Pennsylvania State University (2017), these are the stages where the teams get together and get to know one another politely and then begin to attempt to sort out their roles with much intragroup conflict, respectively. What appears to happen in groups is that discussion leads to a significant shift in the position of the members to a more extreme position in the direction they were all already leaning. Because the subject complied with the initial request or requests, he or she is more likely to feel obligated to fulfill additional favors. As Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts (2012) note, the fundamental attribution error involves people attributing another’s behavior or attitudes to their personal demeanor, rather than taking situational factors into account. There is currently no universal description of what constitutes a group, though research has identified a few common requirements that contribute to recognition of a group: Individual behavior and decision making can be influenced by the presence of others. But the ethical considerations raised by these studies are even more controversial. Informational influence and descriptive norms Social psychology is primarily concerned with learning how others influence our thinking, emotions, and actions in the field of psychological research. There are both positive and negative implications of group influence on individual behavior. While we have learned and continued to learn from their results, they have been endlessly controversial. In using the foot-in-the-door technique, the subject is asked to perform a small request, and after agreeing, a larger request is made. As the contestants on the show get to know one another and figure out who they want to form alliances with or work against, there are many instances where constants will attribute another person’s actions or attitudes to that person’s personal disposition. Additionally, neither Milgram nor Zimbardo informed subjects ahead of time of the nature of their participation. In summary, social conformity is a type of social influence that results in a change of behavior or belief in order to fit in with a group. Organizational Life AND Teams. The same request made in isolation, however (just asking for a trip to New York), would not have been as effective. This form of social influence is moderated by self-confidence and task difficulty. (1932). Start studying Social: Normative & Informational Social Influence. Ingratiation can include flattery, opinion conformity, and self-presentation (presenting one’s own attributes in a manner that appeals to the target). If at any time the participant indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was verbally encouraged to continue. Many subjects continued to give shocks despite pleas of mercy from the actors. Other factors associated with conformity are culture, gender, age, and importance of stimuli. Informational influence and normative influence are the two types of influence outlined in Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard's dual-process theory of social influence. Group strength, group size, immediacy, and similarity are all factors that can influence compliance in an individual. Public responses, those that were spoken in the presence of the confederates, were associated with higher levels of conformity than private, written responses. Twenty-four males students were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoner or guard in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Otherwise, it was only halted after the participant had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in a row. These results demonstrate that participants were willing to obey an authority figure and administer extremely harmful (and potentially lethal) shocks. Groupshift is a phenomenon in which the initial positions of individual members of a group are exaggerated toward a more extreme position. Groupthink happens when group members, faced with an important choice, become so focused on making a smooth, quick decision that they overlook other, possibly more fruitful options. Social psychologists view compliance as a means of social influence used to reach goals or attain social or personal gains. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. In social psychology, informational social influence is a type of conformity.When a person is in a situation where s/he is unsure of the correct way to behave, s/he will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behavior. We base our beliefs on those presented to us by reporters, scientists, doctors, and lawyers because we believe they have more expertise in certain fields than we have. Informational social influence (also called social proof) occurs most often when: The situation is ambiguous. As we see in the case of Survivor, these fundamental attribution errors play a major role in how contestants view one another and select alliance members. Groupshift is the phenomenon in which the initial positions of individual members of a group are exaggerated toward a more extreme position. Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation. Compliance affects everyday behavior, especially in social interactions. While not ideal for creating effective teams, this makes for wonderfully drama-filled team dynamics for us as viewers. The person receiving the “shock” would make noises of pain, complain of heart pains, and even demonstrate seizure-like behavior. Group membership can provide companionship, survival and security, affiliation status, power and control, and achievement. After running these experiments, Milgram and Zimbardo concluded that the following factors affect obedience: The Milgram and Zimbardo experiments stand as dramatic demonstrations of the power of authority and other situational factors in human behavior. For instance, men’s and women’s views of … As soon as the teams begin to enter the “norming” stage, where roles are figured out and groups are beginning to operate more efficiently, the producers of the show randomly switch up the groups and force the contestants to start all over. Normative social influence is a type of conformity and provides one explanation for why people go along with group actions. Sometimes people behave in ways just to gain approval from others, even if they don't necessarily believe in what they are doing. It does not require the physical presence of others to occur—that is, knowledge of public opinion may cause an individual to conform to societal norms even when alone. Milgram experiment setup: Illustration of the setup of a Milgram experiment. While a follow-up of Milgram’s participants indicated that they did not experience any long-term distress, Zimbardo’s prison participants did. This influence is useful in the context of work and team settings; however, it was also evident in Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany is often cited as a prime example of the negative potential of groupthink because a number of factors, such as shared illusions and rationalizations and a lack of individual accountability, allowed for a few powerful leaders to enlist many otherwise “normal” people in committing mass acts of violence. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The journal of abnormal and social psychology, 51(3), 629. There is a crisis. Both men and women will conform to current norms in order to be accepted by society and avoid social rejection. Several conditions must take place for groupthink to occur: the group must be isolated from outside influences;  loyalty must prevent individuals from raising controversial issues of alternative solutions; there must be a loss of individual creativity and independent thinking; and the group must experience the “illusion of invulnerability,” an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made. Conformity can be motivated either by a desire for accuracy, called informational influence, or a need for social approval, called normative influence. By this time, a substantial number of people are using the idea or product, and normative and informational influence encourages others to conform as well. Some other definitions include: 1. Social influence is a broad term that relates to many different phenomena. Norms That Influence The social norms at work in normative influence can be thought as the set of acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs governing a particular group or situation. For instance, men’s and women’s views of what the ideal body image is have changed over time. We believe that choosing the jacket was the right thing to do and that the crowd will lead us to the baggage carousel. A confederate is someone who is a part of the experiment, but who pretends to be a participant in the study. Individuals can be coaxed into compliance in a number of ways, which we will discuss next. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Groups influence individual decision-making processes in a variety of ways, such as groupthink, groupshift, and deindividuation. The Holocaust resulted in the extermination of millions of Jews, Gypsies, and communists; it has prompted us to take a closer look at the roots of obedience—in part, so that tragedies such as this may never happen again. Conformity is the most common and pervasive form of social influence. We also see a lot of examples of the fundamental attribution error in Survivor. Ostrich Effect. Specifically, the subjects were exposed to significant short-term stress, as well as potential long-term trauma. This influence is primarily informational. Jenness, A. Sherif suggested this was a reflection of how social norms develop in larger society. People join groups for a multitude of reasons, most frequently because membership satisfies a need of the individual. She says yes, and later he asks if he can stay the night. An example of internalisation is if some… The two major motives in conformity are: 1) normative influence, or the tendency to conform in order to gain social acceptance; and 2) informational influence, which is based on the desire to obtain useful information through conformity and achieve a correct or appropriate result. This technique begins with an initial large request that the subject is not expected to comply with. CC licensed content, Specific attribution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_behavior, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/deindividuation, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Groupthink_schematic.JPG, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obedience_(human_behavior), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Milgram_Experiment_v2.png, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(psychology), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morel's_used_cars_-_geograph.org.uk_-_437167.jpg, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fringe_Psychology%23Social_Psychology, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology/Groups%23Conformity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity_experiments, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/confederate, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asch_experiment.png. A group of moderate liberals may shift from moderate to strongly liberal views when in a group together. In studying compliance, social psychologists aim to examine overt and subtle social influences and their relationship to compliance. Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. We believe that choosing the jacket was the right thing to do and that the crowd will lead us to the baggage carousel. Social proof is considered prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the … Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. This often leads to public compliance—but not necessarily private acceptance—of the group's social norms.Social norms refers to the unwritten rules that govern social behavior. They will, therefore, try harder to find flaws in her and her application. For example, Timmy asks his mom for permission to go over to John’s house for an hour. An empirical test of the referent informational influence analysis of group polarization is reported. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal has been interpreted based on the results of this study, suggesting that deindividuation may also have impacted the guards’ behavior in that situation. These people were confederates, or individuals who were posing as other participants but were really working for the researchers. People exhibit conformity when they change attitudes or behaviors to reflect a perceived norm. I think one of the things that makes Survivor so interesting and drama-filled is the fact that, especially in the beginning, they force the tribes, or teams as I will call them here, to stay in the forming and storming stages of Tuckman’s developmental stages of groups. It is fascinating to me to see how so many aspects of group and organizational social psychology can be seen in something as mindless as a reality TV gameshow. I thought I enjoyed watching it before, but after having a more complete understanding of social psychology, it makes watching it even more interesting! After realizing this about Survivor, there are so many more identifiable layers to the game. This technique is frequently employed by car salesmen. Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. (2012), is an example of the pressure to conform influencing decision making, or the normative influence. In psychology, conformity is defined as the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. There are two major motivators to conformity: normative influence and informational influence. As I settled into watch, I realized how perfectly Survivor illustrates many of the concepts of teams and organizations. It has been further defined as a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. The result of conformity due to informational social influence is normally private acceptance: real change in opinions on the part of the individual. Types of social influence on behavior is a very interesting and an important topic in social psychology. Normative influence occurs when an individual conforms in order to gain social acceptance and avoid social rejection. Finally, viewers can definitely see both normative and informational influences at play in decision making in Survivor. It is important to distinguish deindividuation from obedience (when a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure), compliance (when a person responds favorably to a request from others) and conformity (when a person attempts to match his attitudes to group norms, versus the total relinquishing of individuality seen in deindividuation). Largely as a result of these experiments, ethical standards have been modified to protect participants. Solomon Asch and conformity: The image shown is an example from Solomon Asch’s landmark experiment in conformity (1951). When she sees Anthony next time, she starts out talking about her golfing trip last weekend, and later in the conversation she requests time off. Several factors are associated with increased conformity, including larger group size, unanimity, high group cohesion, and perceived higher status of the group. Internalization always involves public and private conformity. We often hear comments along the lines of “I’ve never been outside of my city before, so this is really different” or “I just lashed out because I’m so tired/hungry/stressed”. For instance, Jane asks her parents to pay for her vacation to Australia. In Milgram’s first set of experiments, 65% of participants administered the full 450-volt shock, even though most were very uncomfortable doing so. This occurs when people are moved by the group experience to do things that, without the group for support, they would not normally do. This is based on the social norm that people will return a favor when one is granted to them. Often, a majority of a group will decide to work against a certain individual and, even if others disagree, they do not want to go against this majority group and make themselves a future enemy. Presence of a true partner, who was another real participant and gave the correct response, decreased levels of conformity. Perceived motion was caused by the visual illusion known as the autokinetic effect. Referent informational influence theory explains group polarization as conformity, through self‐categorization, to a local in‐group norm which is polarized as a result of the in‐group being located towards an extreme of the salient comparative context or social frame of reference. Informational social influence leads to real, long-lasting changes in beliefs. Publicly changing behavior to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately. An individual was asked to state which line, A, B, or C, matched the first line. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Informational social influence leads to real, long-lasting changes in beliefs. Psychologists describe informational influence as following whatever work the crowd is doing, believing that they are a source of information. Informational social influence is when you conform despite disagreeing with the behavior others are doing. If participants questioned the procedure, the researcher would encourage them further. The Deserving vs the Undeserving Poor:   How Do We Deem Who’s Worthy? The study of social influence is central to social psychology and to understanding group processes and intergroup relations.

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