Chapter 6: Conformity and Obedience

Cohesiveness

A "we feeling"; the extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction to one another. A group of your closest friends would influence you more than a group of acquaintances you don't feel very close to. Work, interests, or being related. It has four main components: social relations, task relations, perceived unity, and emotions. Members of a strongly cohesive group are more likely to actively participate and to stay with the group. This is seen in well-functioning workplaces where the employees work together well and stay with their jobs. For example, this is often seen in military units that have a strong leader and unit members that are equally dedicated to the job.

Autokinetic Phenomenon

Self (auto) motion (kinetic). The apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark. Refer to Muzafer Sherif's studies of norm formation (Page 155). Autokinetic effect is a phenomenon that takes place when the eye looks at an stationary, bright light in the dark for a long time. After a period of time, the light appears to move, but really is not. This long stare causes the eyes' muscles to become tired, causing a slight involuntary movement of the eyeball.

Conformity

A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure. Acceptance and Compliance are two varieties of Conformity. Refer to Solomon Asch experiment (Page 159). Experiments lack the "mundane realism" of everyday conformity, but they did have "experimental realism." Conformity can be defined as adjusting one's behavior or thinking to match those of other people or a group standard. There are lots of reasons why people conform, including the desire/need to fit in or be accepted by others and maintaining order in ones life. For example, when you go to class, do you sit in a chair like other students or sit in the aisle? Do you face the front of the room like everyone else or do you sit facing the back wall? Why? Well, according to Muzafer Sherif (he was one of the most influential conformity researchers in psychological history), "When the external surroundings lack stabile, orderly reference points, the individuals caught in the ensuing experience of uncertainty mutually contribute to each other a mode of orderliness to establish their own orderly pattern." (Sherif, 1996, pp. xii-xiii; cited in Forsyth, 1995).

Reactance

A motive to protect or restore one's sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action. Reactance theory describes the pattern of behaviors that occur in an individual when they feel their freedoms are being taken away or restricted. First introduced by Brehm (1968), this theory posits that individuals believe they have certain freedoms and choices and if these are threatened then negative reactions occur. When behaviors that are perceived as being free are threatened or taken away individuals can become motivated to retain and recapture these freedoms. Example, when teens in one study were told that others believed eating fruit was healthy, they said they intended to eat less fruit. But when they heard that most other teens made an effort to eat sufficient fruit, they ate more fruit over the next two days (in page 184).

Obedience

A type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command. Obedience occurs when you change your opinions, judgments, or actions because someone in a position of authority told you to. The key aspect to note about obedience is that just because you have changed in some way, it does not mean that you now agree with the change. Refer back to Milgram's experiment. Four factors that determined obedience: the victim's emotional distance, the authority's closeness and legitimacy (in page 165). For example, your mother tells you to clean your room and you do so. Another example, if you are a democratic senator, and the president came to you and demanded that you vote for a something that you were not in favor, and you did go ahead and vote the way the president said, you would be obeying (or displaying obedient behavior). However, this does not mean that you now agree with the way you voted or what you voted for....only that you did what you were told to do.

Acceptance

Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure. In psychology acceptance occurs when a situation or scenario is acknowledged and accepted by an individual. It is typically used in reference to the acknowledgement and assent to a negative situation. For example, you might exercise, as millions do, because you accept that exercise is healthy. You stop at red lights because you accept that not doing so is dangerous.

Compliance

Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing. Compliance is the tendency to agree to do what is requested especially if there are certain factors present: a feeling that there is give and take, believability, likability, limited supply and positive feedback from others. Robert Cialdini studied how successful marketing results in consumer compliance. For example, soft drink labels have long used celebrities to increase compliance. The ordinary consumer would buy the drink because they liked the celebrity, assumed that the celebrity approved of the product, and believed what he had to say about it. Another example, you might have followed your high school's dress code even though you thought it was dumb, because that was better than detention. Compliance is an insincere, outward conformity. Also, the four features of Milgram's study design: -The slippery slope of small requests that escalate into large ones. -The framing of shock-giving as the social norm for the situation. -The opportunity to deny responsibility. -The limited time to reflect on the decision All of these increase compliance.

Normative Influence & Informational influence

NI: Conformity based on a person's desire to fulfill others' expectations, often to gain acceptance. Normative influence is "going along with the crowd" to avoid rejection, to stay in people's good graces, or to grain their approval. Sometimes people behave in ways just to gain approval from others, even if they don't necessarily believe in what they are doing. Often sways us without our awareness. Concern of social image produces normative influence. For example, if you go to a play, many times you will applaud when others do even if you didn't really like the play that much. You do this to avoid the disapproval of the other people. -------------------------------------------- II: Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people. Informational influence captures how belief spread. Just as people look up when they see others looking up, they use the same fork others are using at a fancy dinner party. Leads people to privately accept others' influence. The desire to be correct produces informational influences. When you make decisions about how to behave, there are many sources of information available to help you make these decisions. Sometimes you may need to seek out experts, conform to the way others or a group are behaving, or look to some other source of information. One other way is to use informational social influence; you look to the behaviors of others who are also in the same or similar situation to see how they behave. Then, you can follow their lead. For example, you travel to another planet, where some nice aliens offer to show you around. They decide to take you to one of their sporting events that is unlike anything you have ever seen. The problem is that, since you have no idea what the game is about, you don't know what is good, bad, when to cheer, boo, or how to act in general. What can you do? You can simply watch how others are behaving, what they react to, what is going on when they cheer, when they boo, etc. In this way, you seek information from your social surroundings, which influence your behavior.

Mass Hysteria

Suggestibility to problems that spread throughout a large group of people. Refers to collective delusions about threats to society that spread rapidly through rumors and fear. This type of behavior historically leads to riots and uprisings when a rumor or false beliefs spreads through a vulnerable population.