Chapter 1. Social Influence

Introduction

Social influence refers to how other people influence our beliefs, attitudes, values, or behavior. The presence of other people influences us in many ways. For example, the presence of others can increase arousal and make us respond faster than if we worked on a task alone (see Zajonc, 1963). When a perceived authority figure tells us to do something, we sometimes obey the authority figure even if that behavior goes against our beliefs and values (Milgram, 1974). Furthermore, we often use other people as a source of information when we are not sure what we should do in a specific situation (e.g., slowing down after noticing other people on the road are driving slower than normal; see Sherif, 1936). This task aims to illustrate one important finding on the power of social influence.

Instructions

For this task, you will be shown photographs from different time periods. Your job is simply to indicate whether or not you believe the item in the photograph was created in the last 10 years.

• If you believe the item in the image was created in the last 10 years, press the “y” key.

• If you believe the item in the image was created longer than 10 years ago, press the “n” key.

Importantly, please press the key as fast as possible.

You will have ten practice trials to help familiarize you with the task. After the practice trials, you will be shown how other students responded to the same trials as you work through them.

Please answer as accurately as you can.

It will take a few moments for the images to load.

Before starting the experiment, please type your name in the space below.

Type your name

Submit

Experiment

Results

Debriefing

This task aims to illustrate a specific type of social influence known as normative influence, the influence that moves us to conform with others so that we’ll be liked and accepted. Solomon Asch (1995) famously demonstrated how hearing a group’s unanimous opinion can make an individual publically endorse that opinion even when knowing it is wrong.

In the task you just completed, the stimuli were clearly associated with a specific time period (e.g., more vs. less recent). So, as the second graph in the Results tab shows, we predicted that most people would answer the “practice trials” correctly. However, as Asch demonstrated, when other group members unanimously voice the same response, the social pressure to conform can make people publically agree with the opinion of the majority. Therefore, we predicted that not all of the answers would be correct in trials where it was shown that others unanimously gave wrong answers. This public compliance doesn’t necessarily translate to private acceptance of the opinions (i.e., the conforming individual knows that he or she is responding incorrectly).

Consider this real life example. Imagine that you are out with a new group of friends and one of them wants to drive home after a long night of drinking. Chances are it will be much more difficult for you to try to persuade him or her not to drive if none of the other group members raise a concern with this intention. Would you be reluctant to “stand out” in this situation due to a desire to be accepted by the group, even if you know you should?

Although we often change our behavior to fit in with the group, the presence of a dissenting viewpoint within the group can help us resist the urge to conform. In fact, even one dissident can have a profound effect in a given situation on whether we simply conform or if our behavior is consistent with our values and beliefs (Allen and Levine, 1969). In this task, the group’s opinions were not unanimous in all of the trials. Based on previous research, we predicted that the presence of the dissenter would make it easier to resist the pressure to conform and respond correctly on those trials.

Back to our example, this research suggests it would be much easier for most people to try to persuade the individual not to drive home drunk if one of the other group members also raised this concern. So, understanding the reasons for and the effect of normative influence, you’ll know to never conform and let a friend drive drunk!

Quiz