Psychology2016

460 CHAPTER 12

Social Influence

Chapter One defined psychology as the scientific study of behavior and mental pro-

cesses, including how people think and feel. The field of social psychology also looks at

behavior and mental processes but includes as well the social world in which we exist, as

we are surrounded by others to whom we are connected and by whom we are influenced

in so many ways. It is the scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feel-

ings influence and are influenced by social groups.

Each of us lives in a world filled with other people. An infant is born into a world

with adults who have an impact on the infant’s actions, personality, and growth. Adults

must interact with others on a daily basis. Such interactions provide ample opportunity

for the presence of other people to directly or indirectly influence the behavior, feelings,

and thoughts of each individual in a process called social influence. There are many forms

of social influence. People can influence others to follow along with their own actions or

thoughts, to agree to do things even when the person might prefer to do otherwise, and to

be obedient to authorities. The mere presence of others, whether real or merely implied,

can even influence the way people perform tasks successfully or unsuccessfully.

Conformity

12.1 Identify factors that influence people or groups to conform to the actions

of others.

Have you ever noticed someone looking up at something? Did the urge to look up to see

what that person was looking at become so strong that you actually found yourself look-

ing up? This common practical joke always works, even when people suspect that it’s a

joke. It clearly demonstrates the power of conformity: changing one’s own behavior to

more closely match the actions of others.

In 1936, social psychologist Muzafer Sherif conducted a study in which participants

were shown into a darkened room and exposed to a single point of light. Under those con-

ditions, a point of light will seem to move because of tiny, involuntary movements of the

eye. to Learning Objective 3.3. The participants were not told of this effect and

reported the light moved anywhere from a few inches to several feet. When a confederate

(a person chosen by the experimenter to deliberately manipulate the situation) also gave

estimates, the original participants began to make estimates of motion that were more and

more similar to those of the confederate (Sherif, 1936). This early experiment on confor-

mity has been criticized because the judgments being made were ambiguous* (i.e., the light

wasn’t really moving, so any estimate within reason would sound good). Would partici-

pants be so easily swayed if the judgments were more specifically measurable and certain?

Solomon Asch (1951) conducted the first of his classic studies on conformity by having

seven participants gather in a room. They were told that they were participating in an exper-

iment on visual judgment. They were then shown a white card with only one line on it fol-

lowed by another white card with three lines of varying lengths. The task was to determine

which line on the second card was most similar to the line on the first card (see Figure 12. 1 ).

In reality, only the next-to-the-last person in the group was a real participant. The

others were all confederates who, after responding with the correct answer on a few tri-

als, were instructed by the experimenter to start picking the same incorrect line from the

comparison lines. Would the real participant, having heard the others pick what seemed

to be the wrong answer, change to conform to the group’s opinion? Surprisingly, the par-

ticipants conformed to the group answer a little more than one third of the time. Asch

also found that the number of confederates mattered: Conformity increased with each

social psychology
the scientific study of how a person’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior
influence and are influenced by social
groups; area of psychology in which
psychologists focus on how human
behavior is affected by the presence
of other ReoRle.

social influence
the process through which the real or
implied presence of others can directly
or indirectly influence the thoughts,
feelings and Dehavior of an individual.

conformity
changing one’s own behavior to match
that of other ReoRle.

“Sure, I follow the herd—not out of brainless
obedience, mind you, but out of a deep and
abiding respect for the concept of community.”
© The New Yorker Collection 2003 Alex Gregory
from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

*ambiguous: having no clear interpretation or able to be interpreted in many ways rather than

just one way.