Social Influence Specification

What would you do and why?

You walk past a group of people who have stopped to
look at something out of the window. You have no idea
what they are looking at. Do you stop to look out of the
window too?
Your teacher has asked your class a question. You are
certain you know the answer, but no else has put their
hand up. Do you put your hand up and give your
answer?

Write your own definition of what conformity means:

Why do we conform?
Social influence- this is when people’s behaviour
and even their opinions are influenced by others.
We do not always necessarily realise this is
happening and it can be an unconscious process.
However sometimes we deliberately look to
friends for guidance when we are unsure how to
act.
We may copy the way they dress or even mirror
their body language.
The need to be right
If we are in an ambiguous situation we will see what other
people are doing and assume they are correct. We copy
them especially if we believe others might be more
intelligent than us. This leads to internalisation, where we
genuinely believe this new behaviour is right. We now
behave this way both publicly and privately.
INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE e.g

The need to be liked

In a social situation we have a strong desire to be accepted in
the group. This means we might say or do things just to be
popular. This leads to compliance, where we show the
behaviour in public even if we do not agree with it privately.
NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE e.g.

Some people conform more than others. It may be that some types of people conform
or it may be some people conform more in some situations. These two explanations
are called dispositional and social factors.

Dispositional- you have a more conformist personality and are less confident.

Social- features in your surroundings make you feel a stronger urge to conform.
 Personality:
Low self-esteem, low group status and low IQ have all been linked with
high levels of conformity.

Can you think why this is- link to Normative and Informational social
influence?

Expertise:
Conformity is less likely in situations where we have a high level of
expertise as we are confident in our own opinions and know what to do.
Can you think what type of people are less likely to conform and why-
link to Information social influence?

Group size:
We are more likely to adopt the behaviour of others when we are in a
group with three or more people who are behaving in the same way.
Why? Link to normative social influence.

Task difficulty
We show higher levels of conformity when attempting a difficult task
rather than an easy one. Why? Link to Informational social influence

Anonymity
In public situations we face ridicule from others when they can hear and see what we say or do. However,
when we can express our opinions in private we are anonymous. This reduces concern about others
disagreeing with us. Anonymity reduces normative social influence but doesn’t prevent conformity entirely.
 Complete the table without notes

Factor Social or Increases or Normative or

dispositional decreases informational
conformity? social influence?

Exam questions
What is meant by the term conformity? Use an exam to illustrate your answer (2 marks)

Identify one dispositional factor than can influence conformity. Explain why this factor is
likely to affect conformity (3 marks)

You and some friends are planning to meet up on Saturday afternoon. You want to go to the
cinema but they want to go shopping. Outline one social factor that will influence that will
influence whether or not you go shopping with them. Explain how this factor will affect your
behaviour in this situation (4 marks)
Asch (1956) Description A01
Aim: Asch wanted to know whether people could be influenced by other people’s opinions to
give an answer they knew to be wrong (unambiguous).
Method: 123 male participants were shown sets of four lines. For each set, the participant
had to say whether line A, B, or C was the same length as the test line. Each participant was
tested along with 6-8 confederates who the naïve participant thought were just other
students. In total there were 18 trials. Confederates were instructed to give the correct
answer in the first few trails but then confederates were told to give the same wrong answer
on 12 critical trails. The naïve participant was always positioned as one of the last to give
their response after hearing the majority of the groups incorrect responses.
Results: On 36.8% of the trails where the rest of the group gave the wrong answer, the
participant conformed and gave the same wrong answer as the rest of the group, rather than
the obviously correct answer. In fact, 76% of the participants gave at least one wrong answer.
24% of participants resisted the pressure to conform and gave correct answers in all 18 trails.
Conclusion: The results showed that people conform to fit in with a group, even when they
know they are giving an incorrect judgement.

Asch (1956) Evaluation A03

 What is wrong with the type and number of people in the study?

 What is wrong with the setting of the study?

 Asch’s study demonstrates the extent to which people will conform in social situations.
When people completed the line task alone, with no pressure to conform to the judgements
of others, the error rate was less than 1%. It rose to 36.8% when the same task was
performed in a group setting. Post experimental interviews confirmed that people will
conform due to normative social influence to fit in and be accepted by a group of people, as
participants said they knew they were right but said the wrong answer just to fit in with the
group.
Rank these scenarios from those where you are most likely to follow orders from to those
you would be least likely to follow orders.
a) A security guard at the airport tells you to open your bag and show them what’s inside
b) Your younger brother tells you to take some money from your mum’s purse
c) A doctor in a hospital tells you to roll up your sleeve so they can take your blood
pressure
d) Your boss tells you to wear smarter clothes to work
e) Your friend tells you to punch someone

Write your own definition of what obedience means:

We will now look at both social and dispositional factors that affect obedience.
Social= Milgram’s Agency Theory contains agency, authority, culture and proximity.
Dispositional= Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality
Watch the video of Milgram’s famous experiment and write up a
detailed summary of it.

Agency Theory
Normally we feel responsible for our own actions and are free to
choose how to behave= autonomous state.

However, Milgram’s Agency theory suggests we are more likely to obey

orders in the agentic state. This is when we believe we are acting on
behalf on an authority figure so no longer feel accountable for our
actions.
Instead we see responsibility being with the person who gives us the
orders. The move from the autonomous to agentic state is called the
agentic shift.
Can you think why people think it’s so normal to do this, sometimes without
question?
Evaluating Agency Theory
 Milgram’s theory can explain why many soldiers who have followed orders to commit
atrocities appear to have been in an agentic state. E.g. Nazi guards at concentration camps
during WW2 claimed they were simply following orders and that responsibility for their
actions lay in the hands of their superiors who gave the orders.

 Milgram’s famous study showed how ____% of participants were prepared to give a fatal
electric shock of _____volts to someone else when a ________________ authority figure
told them to do so. Milgram said that participants were in an ___________________ on
behalf of the experimenter because participants were being paid to perform a role and were
told the experimenter would take ____________________ for their own actions.

 We do not all blindly follow orders, which suggests that some people are less likely to
enter the agentic state than others. Milgram’s theory only focuses on social factors that
affect obedience, but other psychologists, like _________ have suggested that dispositional
factors such as an ____________________ personality are more important in determining
how obedient people are.

Exam questions
What is meant by the term obedience? Use an example to illustrate your answer (2 marks)
Give one social explanation for obedience (4 marks)
Describe and evaluate Milgram’s Agency theory used to explain obedience (9 marks)
Authority
Some people in society have higher positions of authority than others. We
have all been brought up to obey authority figures e.g. police officers and
teachers. We are more likely to follow orders from people who think have
legitimate authority. This is because we trust their expertise (doctor) or
because they have power/ status in society (police officer) to punish us if
we don’t follow instructions.

What do most authority figures have in common and why is this so

important?

Culture
The culture in which we live influences how we are
brought up to think about authority figures. Some research
has found lower levels of obedience in individualistic
cultures compared to collectivist cultures. This is because
collectivist cultures place greater importance on group
values and respecting authorities, whereas individualistic
societies place value on independence and individual
freedom. This means culture may affect obedience levels
because it influences how people respond to authority
figures.

Proximity
Proximity refers to how far away something is. When we
are in close proximity to an authority figure it appears we
are more likely to obey them. In Milgram’s study more
people followed orders when the experimenter gave
instructions in the same room, than over the phone.
Proximity to the consequences of our actions also affects
obedience. Milgram found that obedience dropped when
participants had to physically touch the learner to shock
them, rather than hit a switch that sent a shock through to
another room
Adorno suggested that some people form
personalities that make them more
obedient than others, due to their early
childhood experiences. He called this the
authoritarian personality.

Authoritarian personality
Adorno believed that an authoritarian personality develops
because strict parents, who show their child very little love,
raise an individual.
The child grows up feeling anger towards its parents but is
too anxious to fight back against them.
Instead they displace their feelings onto a person or
particular group they see as inferior to themselves. This
scapegoating results in prejudice and discrimination against
such minority groups.

Cognitive style
Another feature of an authoritarian personality is a
particular way of thinking- ‘black and white’. They
prefer to believe in rigid stereotypes e.g. all men are
bullies and all women emotional as they have a rigid
cognitive style.
Evaluating Authoritarian personality
 Adorno’s F scale questionnaire was used to measures people’s attitudes and
behaviours. It has been criticised for being flawed, because if you showed a response bias
and tended to answer ‘yes’ instead of no to questions you would end up with a higher
authoritarian score, making you seem more prejudice and therefore obedient. This
questions the validity of the theory as it’s based on poor evidence.

 Adorno only found a correlation between personality type and obedience. This means
he cannot establish a cause and effect relationship, proving that high authoritarian
personality causes high obedience. In fact, some of the most obedient participants in
Milgram’s experiment did not experience the authoritarian up bringing predicted by
Adorno.

 Dispositional explanations cannot explain all cases of obedience, because the millions
of Nazi German soldiers who were all prejudice and obedient in WW2, could not have all
had the same exact upbringing and personality. Therefore, there must be some social
factors too like Milgram’s ___________________________ that can explain the high
levels of obedience shown.

Exam questions
Explain the difference between a social and dispositional explanation for obedience (4
marks)

Describe and evaluate Adorno’s Theory of Authoritarian Personality as a factor

affecting obedience (9 marks)

Describe and evaluate one theory used to explain obedient behaviour (9 marks)

Adorno’s theory of Authoritarian personality is more about nurture than nature.

Explain this statement (2 marks)
 Imagine that someone has dropped a bag of shopping on the floor as you
are walking past. You may decide to stop and help pick it all up, or you may
not.
Reasons why you would help Reasons why you would not help

Prosocial behaviour
This is acting in a way that is beneficial to other
people. This is called bystander behaviour.
A bystander is somebody who witnesses
emergencies where other people need help.
Bystander intervention is when people help.
Bystander apathy is when they choose not to
help.
The presence of others
We are more likely to help others when we are
alone than when other people are present.
It’s sometimes hard to determine whether or not
a situation is in fact an emergency. E.g. when
children scream, they might be playing not in
pain.

The presence of others

If we are alone in an emergency situation we
take full responsibility for helping a person
because there is no one else who can assist.
When other people are present, the
responsibility for helping is shared between
these people. This is called diffusion of
responsibility. So we may not help someone
because we assume others will.

The cost of helping

It’s suggested that we weigh up the cost and rewards of
helping a person in need. In some circumstances we may
decide it is too costly to intervene. If the costs outweigh
the rewards, then we are less likely to intervene.
Can you think of some common costs and benefits?
Similarity to the victim
When there are similarities between a bystander and the
person in need, bystanders are more likely offer assistance.
If someone is the same gender, similar age, or have
something in common with us, we are more likely to help
them.
Can you think why this is?

Expertise
Bystanders are more likely to help others if they believe
they have the skills required to help someone in a specific
situation. E.g. if a swimmer is in trouble, how can we help if
we can’t swim ourselves?
People without the necessary expertise may not offer
assistance because they do not know how to help, and fear
causing more harm than good. Bystanders may still be
concerned about the victim but when other people are
present, they believe that someone else might be more
capable of helping.

Exam questions
Identify and explain one dispositional and one social factor that can influence bystander
effect (2 marks)
Outline how expertise can affect can affect bystander behaviour (3 marks)
Explain how cost of helping can affect bystander behaviour (3 marks)
Piliavin (1969) Description A01
Aim: To investigate whether the appearance of a victim would influence helping behaviour.
Method: On a New York subway train, a confederate pretended to collapse. His appearance
was altered in different ways. In 38 of the trails he appeared to be drunk- he smelt of alcohol
and carried a bottle of alcohol wrapped in a paper bag. In 65 trails he appeared to be sober
and carried a walking stick. Observers recorded how often and how quickly the victim was
helped.
Results: When the victim carried a walking stick, he received help 95% of the time. When he
appeared to be drunk he received help 50% of time. Also people were more quick to help the
man with the walking stick as 87% helped within 70 seconds, whereas only 17% helped the
apparently drunk man within 70 seconds.
Conclusion: A person’s appearance will affect whether or not they receive help and how
quickly this help is given.

Piliavin (1956) Evaluation A03

 This was field experiment carried out in a natural setting. Why is this a strength?

 One weakness is that Piliavin’s study was carried out in New York city, America. This is an
urban area with an individualistic culture. Research has shown that people in urban areas are
more used to seeing emergency situations and so are more helpful. Interestingly, other
research has shown that people in collectivist cultures are actually less helpful, because there
is a cultural value that people should sort themselves out. All of this means that Piliavin’s
study may not accurately predict bystander behaviour in Rural and Collectivist cultures.

Piliavin’s study does not support previous research findings about diffusion of responsibility.
They found the characteristics of the person needing help were more important than the
number of bystanders who were actually present. Piliavin found that help was just as likely to
be given on a crowded subway train carriage as a fairly empty one.
Exam Questions

Describe and evaluate one way in which bystander behaviour was investigated in the Piliavin study. In
your answer include the method used, the results obtained, and the conclusions drawn (9 marks)
 Think about how your behaviour might differ when
you are in a group. How does it differ and why might
this be?

Collective behaviour
Psychologists have found that people can behave very
differently when in groups or crowds than when they
are alone. One of the earliest theories of crowd
behaviour suggested crowds had a tendency to act as a
violent mob and show antisocial behaviour.

Collective behaviour can also lead to prosocial

behaviours too. E.g. peaceful crowds at religious
gatherings, tourist attractions and music concerts.
Also the rise in social media has led to new forms of
collective behaviour, e.g. crowdfunding to raise money
for charity. This shows how collective behaviour can
unite people in working towards a common goal to
benefit society.
Social loafing
We often assume that working as part of a team is
better than working alone, but this is not always true.
Some individuals put less effort into completing a task
as part of a group as they would when alone. This is
known as social loafing.
Using what you know about diffusion of responsibility
can you think why this is?

Social loafing
Can you think of some key factors which may reduce
social loafing?
1.
2.
3.
4.

Deindividuation
It is the state of losing our sense of individuality and
becoming less aware of our own responsibility for our
actions.
Most people behave in a socially acceptable way
because if they didn’t they would face the
consequences and punishments for their actions.
However, when we are in a crowd and we behave like
everyone else in the group we become anonymous
and we are no longer identified as an individual, and
the threat of punishment for your actions decreases.
 Deindividuation
Interviews with young people who looted
in the riots of London 2011 found they got
involved because they got swept along by
the crowd. They said they could see other
people getting away with antisocial
behaviour and felt anonymous, so joined in
too.

Deindividuation
Deindividuation can also occur in other
collective situations when people behave
like the group they are in, rather than an
individual. Wearing clothing that shows
group membership e.g. football shirt or a
uniform will increase the likelihood that
deindividuation will occur.

Culture
The social norm within a culture can affect collective
behaviour. Interestingly, social loafing does not occur
in all societies. In Non-western, collectivist cultures
like China, people are prepared to work just as hard
for the good of the group even when they do not need
too. This means it’s difficult to assume that collective
behaviour will be the same in all cultures.

Exam questions
What is meant by the term social loafing (2 marks)
Describe how deindividuation can lead to prosocial and antisocial crowd behaviour (4 marks)
Explain how two or more situational factors can lead to negative collective behaviour (4 marks)
 Complete Rotter’s Locus of control questionnaire.
What do you think the results suggest about your personality?
How do you think this could affect your behaviour in collective
situations?

Locus of control
Rotter found that some people have an internal locus of
control, while others have an external locus of control.
Internals believe that they can control the things that
happen to them, while externals attribute the things
that happen to them to factors that are outside of their
control.
How might internals and externals differ in their
reactions in response to an E grade in an exam?

Locus of control
Research has found that people with an ILC take greater responsibility for their own behaviour,
meaning they decide on how to behave based on their own ideas on what’s right or wrong,
rather than conforming to those around them. People with ILC are less likely to follow group
behaviour and more likely to act as individuals in a collective situation, compared to ELC people
Morality
Morality is a sense of what is right or wrong.
E.g. if young people do not trust the police and
do not believe they are working to protect
them and their community, they may feel
justified to verbally abuse or even attack them
when in collective situations.

Morality
However, there are other factors which can
outweigh morals. E.g. even if people believe
their behaviour is right and justified, they may
not get involved in antisocial behaviour
because of the consequences. These could be
getting caught, personal risks and/or losing
their job.

Exam questions
Explain how one social and one dispositional factor might affect collective behaviour (6
marks)
Describe how personality can influence collective behaviour (5 marks)

Explain how morality might not always affect collective behaviour (2 marks)
 Key Term Definition
Conformity
Dispositional factors
Informational social
influence
Normative social
influence
Social influence
Agency
Obedience
Social factors
Authoritarian
personality
Authority figure
Culture
Proximity
Bystander apathy
Bystander behaviour
Bystander
intervention
Prosocial behaviour
Anti-social behaviour
Collective behaviour
Deindividuation
Social loafing
Locus of control
Morality