Chapter 6: Conformity and Obedience because it’s required for your job

What is Conformity? rather than because you think it will help

● Conformity - A change in behavior or That's obedience.
belief as the result of real or imagined What are the Classic Conformity and
group pressure. Obedience Studies?
● If you rise to cheer a game-winning ● Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation -
goal, drink coffee, or wear your hair in a Muzafer Sherif (1935, 1937) wondered
certain style because you want to, and whether it was possible to observe the
not due to the influence of others, that is emergence of a social norm in the
not conformity. But if you do those laboratory. Like biologists seeking to
things because other people do them, isolate a virus so they can experiment
that is conformity. with it, Sherif wanted to isolate and then
● Acceptance - Conformity that involves experiment with norm formation to
both acting and believing in accord with figure out how people come to agree on
social pressure. something.
● Occurs when you genuinely believe in ● Autokinetic phenomenon - Self (auto)
what the group has persuaded you to do; motion (kinetic). The apparent
you inwardly and sincerely believe that movement of a stationary point of light
the group’s actions are right. You wear a in the dark.
face mask because you believe it will ● Mass hysteria - Suggestibility to
help slow the spread of COVID-19. problems that spreads throughout a large
● Compliance - Conformity that involves group of people.
publicly acting in accord with an ● Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure -
implied or explicit request while Solomon Asch had people listen to
privately disagreeing. others’ judgments of which of three
● You say you like your friend’s favorite comparison lines was equal to a
band even though you don’t. These acts standard line and then make the same
of compliance are often to reap a reward judgment themselves
or avoid a punishment; for example, you ● Milgram’s Obedience Studies - tested
might have followed your high school’s what happens when the demands of
dress code, even though you thought it authority clash with the demands of
was dumb, because that was better than conscience.
detention. What Predicts Conformity?
● Obedience - A type of compliance ● Group Size - When only one or two
involving acting in accord with a direct volunteers stood outside the classroom
order or command. building, a few people glanced at them
● If your father tells you to clean up your but no one looked up. But when four or
room and you do even if you don’t want five students stood outside the door,
to. staring up at the sky, nearly every
● Obedience means doing something you student stepping out of the building
wouldn’t do otherwise because someone instantly lifted their head skyward. My
else says you need to or because rules or students and I laughed so hard we
laws require it; If you get a flu shot embarrassed ourselves
because your mom tells you to or
● Unanimity - Conformity experiments ● use the same fork others are using at a
teach the practical lesson that it is easier fancy dinner party.
to stand up for something if you can find ● When you’re deciding where to go next,
someone else to stand up with you. online reviews can provide
Many religious groups recognize this. informational influence. So can your
● Cohesiveness - A “we feeling”; the friend who has been there before.
extent to which members of a group are Who Conforms?
bound together, such as by attraction to ● Personality - People who seek to please
one another. others and are comfortable following
● The more cohesive a group is, the more social rules (those high in agreeableness
power it gains over its members. In and conscientiousness) are the most
other words, a group of your closest likely to conform.
friends would influence you more than a ● Culture - Although conformity and
group of acquaintances you don’t feel obedience are universal, different
very close to. cultures socialize people to be more or
● Status - People are more likely to less socially responsive.
jaywalk when someone else does and ● Social Roles - Social roles involve a
not jaywalk when someone else doesn’t, certain degree of conformity, and
especially when the other person is conforming to expectations is an
well-dressed and thus appears to be high important task when stepping into a new
in status (Mullen et al., 1990). social role.
● Public Response - People also conform
most when their responses are public (in
the presence of the group) Do We Ever Want To Be Different?
● Prior Commitment - A prior ● Reactance - A motive to protect or
commitment to a certain behavior or restore one’s sense of freedom.
belief increases the likelihood that a Reactance arises when someone
person will stick with that commitment. threatens our freedom of action.
Why Conform? ● Social psychology’s emphasis on the
● Normative influence - Conformity power of social pressure must be joined
based on a person’s desire to fulfill by a complementary emphasis on the
others’ expectations, often to gain power of the person. We are not
acceptance. puppets. When social coercion becomes
● Normative influence is “going along blatant, people often experience
with the crowd” to avoid rejection, to reactance; a motivation to defy the
stay in people’s good graces, or to gain coercion in order to maintain their sense
their approval. of freedom.
● Informational influence - Conformity ● Asserting Uniqueness - We are not
occurring when people accept evidence comfortable being greatly different from
about reality provided by other people. a group, but neither do we want to
● Informational influence captures how appear the same as everyone else. Thus,
beliefs spread. Just as people look up we act in ways that preserve our sense
when they see others looking up, they of uniqueness and individuality. In a
 group, we are most conscious of how we that when stronger attacks come, they
differ from the others. will have refutations available.
Chapter 7: Persuasion ● Counterarguments - Reasons why a
What Paths Lead to Persuasion persuasive message might be wrong.
● Central route to persuasion - Occurs ● Foot-in-the-door phenomenon - The
when interested people focus on the tendency for people who have first
arguments and respond with favorable agreed to a small request to comply later
thoughts with a larger request
● Peripheral route to persuasion - ● Lowball technique - A tactic for getting
Occurs when people are influenced by people to agree to something.
incidental cues, such as a speaker’s ● Foor-in-the-face technique - A strategy
attractiveness for gaining a concession. After someone
What Are The Elements of Persuasion first turns down a large request (the
Communicator door-in-the-face), the same requester
● Credibility - Believability. A credible counteroffers with a more reasonable
communicator is perceived as both request.
expert and trustworthy ● Channel of communication - The way
● Sleeper Effect - A delayed impact of a the message is delivered — whether
message that occurs when an initially face-to face, in writing, on film, or in
discounted message becomes effective, some other way.
such as we remember the message but ● Need for cognition - The motivation to
forget the reason for discounting it. think and analyze. Assessed by
● Attractiveness - Having qualities that agreement with items such as “The
appeal to an audience. An appealing notion of thinking abstractly is
communicator (often someone similar to appealing to me” and disagreement with
the audience) is most persuasive on items such as “I only think as hard as I
matters of subjective preference have to.
Message
● Primacy Effect - Other things being
equal, information presented first
usually has the most influence.
● Recency Effect - Information presented
last sometimes has the most influence.
Recency effects are less common than
primacy effects.
How Is It Said? Channel of Communication
● Two-step Flow of Communication -
The process by which media influence
often occurs through opinion leaders,
who in turn influence others
1. To Whom Is It Said? The Audience
How Can Persuasion Be Resisted
● Attitude Inoculation - Exposing people
to weak attacks upon their attitudes so
 Chapter 8: Group Influence members’ average tendency, not a split
What is a Group within the group.
● Group - Two or more people who, for Explaining Group Polarization
longer than a few moments, interact ● Social comparison - Evaluating one’s
with and influence one another and opinions and abilities by comparing
perceive one another as “us.” oneself with others.
Social Facilitation: How Are We ● Pluralistic ignorance - A false
Affected By The Presence of Others impression of what most other people
● Social Facilitation - are thinking or feeling, or how they are
1. Original meaning - the tendency of responding.
people to perform simple or Group Decision Making: Do Groups Hinder
well-learned tasks better when others are or Assist Good Decisions
present. ● Groupthink - “The mode of thinking
2. Current meaning - the strengthening that persons engage in when
of dominant (prevalent, likely) concurrence-seeking becomes so
responses in the presence of others. dominant in a cohesive in-group that it
● Evaluation Apprehension - Concern tends to override realistic appraisal of
for how others are evaluating us. alternative courses of action.”
Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less The Influence of the Minority: How Do
Effort in a Group? Individuals Influence the Group
● Social Loafing - The tendency for ● Leadership - The process by which
people to exert less effort when they certain group members motivate and
pool their efforts toward a common goal guide the group.
than when they are individually ● Task Leadership - Leadership that
accountable. organizes work, sets standards, and
● Free Riders - People who benefit from focuses on goals.
the group but give little in return. ● Social Leadership - Leadership that
Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and
Sense of Self in Groups offers support
● Deindividuation - Loss of ● Transformational leadership -
self-awareness and evaluation Leadership that, enabled by a leader’s
apprehension; occurs in group situations vision and inspiration, exerts significant
that foster responsiveness to group influence.
norms, good or bad
Diminished Self-Awareness
● Self-Awareness - A self-conscious state
in which attention focuses on oneself. It
makes people more sensitive to their
own attitudes and dispositions
Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our
Opinions
● Group Polarization - Group-produced
enhancement of members’ preexisting
tendencies; a strengthening of the
 Chapter 9: Prejudice ingroup members. Thus “they are alike;
What is the Nature and Power of Prejudice we are diverse.”
● Prejudice - A preconceived negative ● Own-race bias - The tendency for
judgment of a group and its individual people to more accurately recognize
members. stereotype A belief about the faces of their own race. (Also called the
personal attributes of a group of people. cross-race effect or other-race effect.)
● Stereotypes - are sometimes ● Group-serving bias - Explaining away
overgeneralized, inaccurate, and outgroup members’ positive behaviors;
resistant to new information (and also attributing negative behaviors to
sometimes accurate). their dispositions (while excusing such
Defining Discrimination behavior by one’s own group).
● Discrimination - Unjustified negative ● Just-world phenomenon - The
behavior toward a group or its members. tendency of people to believe that the
What are the Social Sources of Prejudice world is just and that people therefore
● Social dominance - orientation A get what they deserve and deserve what
motivation to have one’s group they get.
dominate other social groups. ● Subtyping - Accommodating
● Authoritarian personality - A individuals who deviate from one’s
personality that is disposed to favor stereotype by thinking of them as
obedience to authority and intolerance “exceptions to the rule.”
of outgroups and those lower in status. ● Subgrouping - Accommodating
What are the Motivational Sources of individuals who deviate from one’s
Prejudice stereotype by forming a new stereotype
● Realistic Group Conflict Theory - The about this subset of the group.
theory that prejudice arises from ● Stereotype threat - A disruptive
competition between groups for scarce concern, when facing a negative
resources. stereotype, that one will be evaluated
● Social Identity - The “we” aspect of our based on a negative stereotype.
self concept; the part of our answer to
“Who am I?” that comes from our group
memberships.
● Ingroup “Us” - a group of people who
share a sense of belonging, a feeling of
common identity.
● Outgroup “Them” - a group that
people perceive as distinctively different
from or apart from their ingroup
● Ingroup Bias - The tendency to favor
one’s own group
What are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice
● Outgroup homogeneity effect -
Perception of outgroup members as
more similar to one another than are
 Chapter 10: Aggression ● Catharsis - Emotional release. The
● Cyberbullying - bullying, harassing, or catharsis view of aggression is that the
threatening someone using electronic aggressive drive is reduced when one
communication such as texting, online “releases” aggressive energy, either by
social networks, or email acting aggressively or by fantasizing
● Aggression - Physical or verbal aggression
behavior intended to hurt someone.
● Physical aggression - Hurting someone
else’s body
● Social aggression - Hurting someone
else’s feelings or threatening their
relationships. Sometimes called
relational aggression, it includes
cyberbullying and some forms of
in-person bullying.
● Hostile aggression - Aggression that
springs from anger; its goal is to injure
● Instrumental aggression - Aggression
that aims to injure, but only as a means
to some other end
● Instinctive behavior - An innate,
unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by
all members of a species
● Frustration-aggression theory - The
theory that frustration triggers a
readiness to aggress.
● Frustration - The blocking of
goal-directed behavior.
● Displacement - The redirection of
aggression to a target other than the
source of the frustration. Generally, the
new target is a safer or more socially
acceptable target.
● Relative deprivation - The perception
that one is less well off than others with
whom one compares oneself.
● Social learning theory - The theory that
we learn social behavior by observing
and imitating and by being rewarded
and punished.
● Prosocial behavior - Positive,
constructive, helpful social behavior; the
opposite of antisocial behavior.
 Chapter 11: Attraction & Intimacy same company or job, or sits in the same
How Important Is The Need To Belong? class, or visits the same favorite place
● Need to belong - A motivation to bond
with others in relationships that provide
ongoing, positive interactions. Interaction
● Wesselmann & Williams, 2017 has ● Even more significant than geographic
explored what happens when our need distance is “functional distance” — how
to belong is thwarted by often people’s paths cross. We become
● Ostracism - acts of excluding or friends with those who use the same
ignoring. entrances, parking lots, and recreation
● Ostracism may be even worse than areas.
bullying. Bullying, though extremely ● Interaction enables people to explore
negative, at least acknowledges their similarities, to sense one another’s
someone’s existence and importance, liking, to learn more about each other,
whereas ostracism treats a person as if and to perceive themselves as part of a
she doesn’t exist at all (Williams & social unit.
Nida, 2009). ● Why does proximity breed liking? One
● In one study, children who were factor is availability; Most people like
ostracized but not bullied felt worse than their roommates, or those one door
those who were bullied but not away, better than those two doors away
ostracized. Anticipation of Interaction
● Ostracism hurts even when it comes ● Proximity enables people to discover
from a despised group, even when it’s commonalities and exchange rewards.
expected, and even when it’s online or But merely anticipating interaction also
via social media. boosts liking.
● Humans in all cultures, whether in ● Feeling close to those close by: People
schools, workplaces, or homes, use often become attached to, and
ostracism to regulate social behavior. sometimes fall in love with, those with
What Leads to Friendship and Attraction? whom they share activities.
● Proximity - Geographical nearness. Mere Exposure
Proximity (more precisely, “functional ● Mere-exposure effect - The tendency
distance”) powerfully predicts liking. for novel stimuli to be liked more or
● Students reported greater friendship rated more positively after the rater has
with those who happened to be seated been repeatedly exposed to them.
next to or near them during that first Physical Attractiveness
class gathering. ● Matching phenomenon - The tendency
● Across three experiments, male students for men and women to choose as
consistently liked female students who partners those who are a “good match”
sat closer to them more than those who in attractiveness and other traits.
sat further away. ● Physical-attractiveness - stereotype
● Sociologists long ago found that most The presumption that physically
people marry someone who lives in the attractive people possess other socially
same neighborhood, or works at the desirable traits as well: What is beautiful
is good.
● Physical-attractiveness stereotype - self-disclosure to match that of a
The presumption that physically conversational partner.
attractive people possess other socially
desirable traits as well: What is beautiful
is good Chapter 12: Helping
● Complementarity The popularly ● Altruism A motive to increase another’s
supposed tendency, in a relationship welfare without conscious regard for
between two people, for each to one’s self-interests
complete what is missing in the other ● Social-exchange theory The theory that
● Reward theory of attraction - The human interactions are transactions that
theory that we like those whose aim to maximize one’s rewards and
behavior is rewarding to us or whom we minimize one’s costs.
associate with rewarding events ● Reciprocity norm - An expectation that
● Passionate love - A state of intense people will help, not hurt, those who
longing for union with another. have helped them.
Passionate lovers are absorbed in each ● Social capital - The mutual support and
other, feel ecstatic at attaining their cooperation enabled by a social
partner’s love, and are disconsolate on network.
losing it. ● Kin selection - The idea that evolution
● Two-factor theory of emotion - has selected altruism toward one’s close
Arousal × its label = emotion. relatives to enhance the survival of
● Companionate love - The affection we mutually shared genes.
feel for those with whom our lives are ● Empathy The vicarious experience of
deeply intertwined another’s feelings; putting oneself in
● Secure attachment - Attachments another’s shoes.
rooted in trust and marked by intimacy ● Bystander effect - The finding that a
● Avoidant attachment - Attachments person is less likely to provide help
marked by discomfort over, or resistance when there are other bystanders.
to, being close to others. An insecure ● Moral exclusion - The perception of
attachment style. certain individuals or groups as outside
● anxious attachment - Attachments the boundary within which one applies
marked by anxiety or ambivalence. An moral values and rules of fairness.
insecure attachment style Moral inclusion is regarding others as
● Equity - A condition in which the within one’s circle of moral concern
outcomes people receive from a
relationship are proportional to what Chapter 13: Conflict & Peacemaking
they contribute to it. Note: Equitable ● Conflict - A perceived incompatibility
outcomes needn’t always be equal of actions or goals.
outcomes ● Peace - A condition marked by low
● Self-disclosure - Revealing intimate levels of hostility and aggression and by
aspects of oneself to others. mutually beneficial relationships
● Disclosure reciprocity - The tendency ● Social trap - A situation in which the
for one person’s intimacy of conflicting parties, by each rationally
pursuing its self interest, become caught
 in mutually destructive behavior. ● If Prisoner A confesses and Prisoner B
Examples include the prisoner’s doesn’t, the DA will grant immunity to
dilemma and the tragedy of the A and will use A’s confession to convict
commons B of a maximum offense (and vice versa
● Non-zero-sum games - Games in which if B confesses and A doesn’t).
outcomes need not sum to zero. With ● If both confess, each will receive a
cooperation, both can win; with moderate sentence.
competition, both can lose (also called ● If neither prisoner confesses, each will
mixed-motive situations). be convicted of a lesser crime and
● Mirror-image perceptions - Reciprocal receive a light sentence.
views of each other often held by parties
in conflict; for example, each may view
itself as moral and peace-loving and the
other as evil and aggressive
● Equal-status contact - Contact on an
equal basis. Just as a relationship
between people of unequal status breeds
attitudes consistent with their
relationship, so do relationships between
those of equal status. Thus, to reduce
prejudice, interracial contact should
ideally be between persons equal in
status.
● Superordinate goal - A shared goal that
necessitates cooperative effort; a goal
that overrides people’s differences from
one another.
● Bargaining - Seeking an agreement to a
conflict through direct negotiation
between parties.
● Mediation - An attempt by a neutral
third party to resolve a conflict by
facilitating communication and offering
suggestions.
● Arbitration - Resolution of a conflict
by a neutral third party who studies both
sides and imposes a settlement.
● Integrative agreements - Win-win
agreements that reconcile both parties’
interests to their mutual benefit.
● GRIT - Acronym for “Graduated and
Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension
reduction,” a strategy designed to
de-escalate international tensions.