Chapter 4

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Conformity: a change in behavior/opinions because of REAL or IMAGINED pressure from another person/group. not always on purpose

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Chameleon effect: when people talk to each other, they often mirror one another's nonverbal behaviors and mannerisms. creates a social glue/better chameleons (can change perspective) are better like in the world

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Mirror neurons: specialized brain cells that are activated when we perform an action and when we witness another person performing the same action. enable empathy byt turn off when looking at people we dislike or that have less power/status than us

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Social learning: learning through observing. the impulse to conform can override personal preference

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Obedience v. conformity: obedience is being told what to do; conformity is not an explicit rule/law, it is harder to pin down

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Asch's line study: over the entire spectrum of judgements, 35% conformed to incorrect judgements. fMRI showed that those who resisted had heightened activity in amygdala (pain, fear, emotional discomfort sense signals of physical pain). no explicit constraints against individuality

- 4 people hired to say wrong line = conformity

- by themselves do not conform

- first time, stick to guns

- 2nd time, change answers

- someone who agrees with you frees you from conformity

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Groupthink: thinking that happens in cohesive groups, the members' need for agreement overrides their ability to realisitcally assess a course of action or alternatives, blinded by optimism, which grows when dissent is discouraged. we don't voice bad opinions

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Motives for conformity: informative (getting info; don't know enough about the situation, my opinion is wrong). or normative (belonging; go along with the crowd but inwardly think their initial judgements are correct; want acceptance)

- most likely to conform when we are unclear about the situation and base off who has the most reliable info SEEMINGLY

- fear of violating norms

- "social reality" if other people are doing it, it must be the right thing to do. physical reality becomes more uncertain. deindividualtion (everyone is doing it so no one will know I did it too)

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factors that increase or decrease conformity:

- unanimity: the group agrees to all agree. if one person raises hand to ask question, it breaks the pressure to conform. we can all ask questions now too

- self esteem: feeling of secureness in self; low self esteem = more likely to conform bc lower confidence, fall to group pressure. high self esteem have more confidence and less likely to conform

- security(overall): how secure you are in a group or how comfortable you are determines how we go along with norms. you can share opinions in your friend group because you are more secure, not w people i dont know

- commitment: conformity can be decreased when you are committed to initial judgement. if i am the first person to voice an opinion then i am more likely to defend it or stick with it

- age: we conform as toddlers but most intense from ages 10-25. pleasure centers in the brain are activated when peers are present, not fully developed prefrontal cortex to self control. dangerous = exciting bc of friends

- accountability: we often conform unless we know that we will be personally held responsible. if we have to be accurate and explain reasoning, we won't conform as much

- nature of the group: we conform more if the group has perceived experts (1), the members are high social status (2), and its members are alike in a way that matters (3, ex age/politics)

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Reference groups: groups that we belong to and identify with; they reflect and shape our identities. changing reference groups = changing behaviors to conform.

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Social norms: what is socially appropriate by observing what others are doing. PERCEIVED norms, how universally endorsed, and if they care about the situation/community.

- descriptive: what most people do in a given situation

- injunctive: specifying what people should do, often through explicit directions

Create norms with conserving water by having role models use less water. in an ambiguous situation, other people can induce us to conform by by behaving = what we think most people do

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bystander effect: another person simply around inhibits action. two reasons - diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance

- you're more likely to help in places where pace of life is slower and there are fewer demands on your attn

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diffusion of responsibility: the awareness that other people are around diffuses the responsibility felt by one person. they may know it is a true emergency, but because other people are present, someone else will take care of it. likelihood of offering assistance decreases as people increase

- DoR stops if they think they are sharing a common fate and they are face-to-face w the victim w/no escape (forced to face it in a way)

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pluralistic ignorance: the collective belief in a false norm created by the ambiguous behavior of others. we infer norms from behavior of our peers but no one actually thinks that. Kennedy on gangs: "everybody in a group believes that everybody in the group believes something that nobody in the group believes."

- it must not be that serious of a situation if no one is doing anything

- we conform to display rules of demonstrating sadness at funerals, affection at family, etc. but if we don't feel those emotions, and do so because it is socially appropriate, it is called emotion work

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Levels of conformity:

- compliance: dependent on rewards or punishments. least enduring

- identification: we conform because we admire the role model. can be conscious & don't agree, but often it is someone we look up to and we want to be like them. a desire to be like our role model. puts us in a satisfying relationship with our role model. we do come to believe in what we adopt, though it may not be very strongly. you love your relatives so much you want to be like them. durable influence

- internalization: motivation to ingrain a belief is the desire to be right. we accept their viewpoint and integrate it into our values. it becomes an independent belief and hard to change. most permanent

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Obedience as a form of compliance: almost always ephemeral. obedience involves a direct authority though

-milgram shock experiment 67% did to the maximum level

- dropped to 10 % compliant with dissenter. when experimenter not in room dropped to 25%. further the teacher the more willing to obey commands from authority. so when they hear the cries of agony much less likely.

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Countering conformity

- minority is consistent, persistent, conviction

- minority used to agree w majority but then changed their minds

- minority would compromise, even just a little bit

- group members in majority want to make an accurate decision rather than a quick one