Chapter 16

Social Thinking and Social Influence

Scientific study of how individuals behave, think, and feel in social situations; how people act in the presence (actual or implied) of others

Culture: Ongoing pattern of life that is passed from one generation to another

Roles

Social role: Patterns of behavior expected of people in various social positions (e.g., daughter, mother, teacher, President).

Ascribed role: Assigned to a person or not under personal control

Achieved role: Attained voluntarily by special effort (teacher, mayor)

Role conflict: When two or more roles make conflicting demands on a person

Groups

Group structure: Network of roles, communication, pathways, and power in a group

Group cohesiveness: Degree of attraction among group members or their commitment to remaining in the group

Cohesive groups work better together

Status: Level of social power and importance

Norm: Accepted, but usually unspoken, standard of appropriate behavior

In-group: Group with which an individual identifies

Out-group: Group with which an individual doesn’t identify

Social Cognition

Attribution: Making inferences about the causes of one’s own behavior and others’ behavior

Consistency: Person’s behavior changes very little in many different circumstances

Distinctiveness: Noticing that a behavior only occurs under certain circumstances

Social Perception Terms

Actor: Person of interest

Object: Aim, motive, or target of an action

Setting: Social and/or physical environment in which action occurs

Situational demands: Pressures to behave in certain ways in particular settings and social situations

Discounting: Downgrading internal causes as a way of explaining an individual’s behavior when a person’s actions seem to have strong external causes

Consensus: Degree to which people respond alike.  In attribution, implies that responses are externally caused

Self-Handicapping

Arranging to perform under conditions that usually impair performance, so as to have an excuse for a poor showing

Fundamental attribution error: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes (personality, likes, and so on).  We believe this even if they really have external causes!

Actor-observer bias: Tendency to attribute behavior of others to internal causes, while attributing the behavior of ourselves to external causes (situations and circumstances)

Attitudes and Beliefs

Learned tendency to respond to people, objects, or institutions in a positive or negative way

Summarize your evaluation of objects

Belief component: What a person believes about the object of an attitude

Emotional component: Feelings towards the object of an attitude

Action component: One’s actions towards various people, objects, or institutions

Attitude Formation

Direct contact: Personal experience with the object of the attitude

Interaction with others: Influence of discussions with people holding a particular attitude

Child rearing: Effects of parental values, beliefs, and practices

Group membership: Social influences from belonging to certain groups

Mass media: All media that reach large audiences (magazines, television)

Mean worldview: Viewing the world and other people as dangerous and threatening

Chance conditioning: Condition that occurs by chance or coincidence

Social distance scale: Scale where the degree of a person’s willingness to have contact with a member of another group is measured

Attitude scale: Statements on a scale expressing various possible views on an issue

Reference Group

Any group a person identifies with and uses as a standard for social comparison

Persuasion

Deliberate attempt to change attitudes or beliefs with information and arguments

Communicator: Person presenting arguments or information

Message: Content of communicator’s arguments

Audience: Person or group to whom a persuasive message is directed

Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger)

Contradicting or clashing thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions cause discomfort

We need to have consistency in our thoughts, perceptions, and images of ourselves

Underlies attempts to convince ourselves we did the right thing

Justification: Degree to which one’s actions are explained by rewards or other circumstances

Social Influence

Changes in a person’s behavior induced by the presence or actions of another person

Someone else influences your decision: husband, wife, mother, peer, etc.

Peer pressure: Rudy is swayed by Fanny to go see Iron Man 2 when he really wanted to see The Day the Earth Stood Still

Conformity

Bringing one’s behavior into agreement with norms or the behavior of others

Power

Social power: Capacity to control, alter or influence the behavior of another person

Reward power: Rewarding a person for complying with desired behavior

Coercive power: Based on ability to punish a person for failure to comply

Legitimate power: Accepting a person as an agent of an established social order

Referent power: Respect for, or identification with, a person or a group

Expert power: Based on possession of knowledge or expertise

Social Facilitation

Tendency to perform better when in the presence of others

Social Loafing

Tendency of people to work less hard when part of a group than when they are solely responsible for their work

Personal Space

Area surrounding the body that is defined as private and is subject to personal control

Spatial Norms

Proxemics: Systematic study of human use of personal space, especially in social settings

Intimate Distance

Most private space immediately surrounding the body; 18 inches from the skin.  Reserved for special people or special circumstances

Personal Distance

Maintained in interactions with friends.  18 inches to 4 feet from body; arm’s length

Social Distance

Impersonal interaction takes place; 4 to 12 feet

Public Distance

Formal interactions take place (like giving a speech); 12 feet or more

Group Factors in Conformity

Groupthink: Compulsion by decision makers to maintain agreement, even at the cost of critical thinking

Group sanctions: Rewards and punishments administered by groups to enforce conformity among members

Solomon Asch’s Experiment

You must select (from a group of three) the line that most closely matches the standard line.  All lines are shown to a group of seven people (including you

Other six were accomplices and at times all would select the wrong line

In 33% of the trials, the real subject conformed to group pressure even when the group’s answers were obviously incorrect!

Compliance

Bending to the requests of one person who has little or no authority or social power

Foot-in-the-Door Effect

A person who has agreed to a small request is more likely later to agree to a larger demand.

Once you get a foot in the door, then a sale is almost a sure thing

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A person who has refused a major request will be more likely later on to comply with a smaller request

After the door has been slammed in your face (major request refused), person may be more likely to agree to a smaller request

Lowball Technique

Commitment is gained first to reasonable or desirable terms, which are then made less reasonable or desirable

Henry accepts the price he states for a new car.  Then, later, Tillie the saleswoman asks Henry, “How about adding all these options?” thus increasing the price

Passive Compliance

Passively bending to unreasonable demands or circumstances

Obedience (Milgram)

Conformity to the demands of an authority

Would you shock a man with a known heart condition who is screaming and asking to be released?

Milgram studied this; the man with a heart condition was an accomplice and the “teacher” was a real volunteer.  The goal was to teach the learner word pairs.

Milgram’s Results

The learner screamed and provided no further answers once 300 volts (“Severe Shock”) was reached

65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer any more questions

Group support can reduce destructive obedience

Brainwashing

Engineered or forced attitude change requiring a captive audience

Generally three steps to brainwash someone:

Unfreezing: Loosening of former values and convictions

Change: When the brainwashed person abandons former beliefs

Refreezing: Rewarding and solidifying new attitudes and beliefs

Cults

Group that professes great devotion to a person or people and follows that person/people almost without question.

Leader’s personality is usually more important than the issues he/she preaches

Cult members usually victimized by the leader(s)

Ideal Cult “Targets”

Cults will try to recruit potential converts at a time of need, especially when a sense of belonging is most attractive to potential converts

Look for college students and young adults

Examples of Cults

People’s Temple and Jim Jones; Heaven’s Gate; Branch Davidians

Assertiveness Training

Instruction in how to be self-assertive

Self-assertion: Standing up for your rights by speaking out on your own behalf; direct, honest expression of feelings and desires

Aggression

Hurting another person or achieving one’s goals at the expense of another person

Attempt to get one’s way no matter what

No regard for other people's feelings

Broken Record

Self-assertion technique that involves repeating a request until it is acknowledged

Good way to be assertive without being aggressive