Social Psychology Lecture 13.ppt

Social Psychology Lecture 13 Conformity and Social Influence Jane Clarbour Room: PS/B007 email: jc129 Overview Looking at a series of experiments that studied the effects of social influence on both individuals and small groups processes of social influence: Majority influence (conformity compliance) Minority influence (innovation) Objectives By the end of this lecture, you should be able to: Define what is meant by the fundamental attribution error Describe the two major mechanisms through which groups influence their members Discuss why conformity is thought to result from exposure to a majority influence Discuss the characteristics a minority should have in order to exert influence over a majority Report criticisms of the dual-process model and alternative explanations of minority influence Social influence What is meant by social influence? the extent to which an individual’s opinions, attitudes and judgments are influenced by being exposed to the views of others (Van Avermaet, 2001) Fundamental attributional error The attribution error refers to the effect of the situation over above the effect of personality Situational factors generally ignored Termed the ‘fundamental attributional error’ Norm formation The development of group norms SHERIF (1936) Experimental paradigm based on ‘perception of motion’ ‘autokinetic effect’ paradigm A stationary but flickering single light in dark room optical illusion: appears to move – but doesn’t actually move Sherif’s experimental design Private viewing task Private estimate of distance light moved over 100 trials (written down)- Ss formed personal consensus Group viewing task Public judgement (state out loud how far moved) Ss formed a group consensus This effect influenced Ss later judgement when subsequently asked to perform task again on their own Why people conform Major mechanisms of how groups influence their members: Informational influence Value