Originally an experiment which was based on the autokinetic illusion– that a single light in pitch black room with no visual points of reference appears to be moving despite not actually doing so. 

Participants announced how much they thought the light was moving. Individual guesses quickly conformed to a norm group. 

Is an exmaple of informational social influence. 

relying on people's comments and actions as an indication of what's likely to be correct, proper, or effective. 

Given an simple task, to differentiate lines, participants still choose incorrect answers in an example of conformity. 

Example of informational social influence

ALSO an example of normative social influence. 

informational social influence

ALSO of normative social influence. 

As the number of individuals reporting an incorrect answer increases, conformity does as well– but only up to a point. 

As group size reaches four people, conformity rates level off. 

Group size: after 4 levels off

Group unanimity: less unanimity ~ less conformity 

Anonymity

Expertise & Status:

other people are experts/ high status ~ more conformity 

Culture: interdependent ~ more informational and normative

Gender: women conform more than men but only by a little 

1. Reason- based
2. Emotion- based
3. norm-based

Norm of reciprocity- a norm dictating that people should help those who benefit them 

Reciprocal concessions technique aka door-in-the-face -

asking someone for a large favor that he or she will certainly refuse and then following that request with one for a smaller favor 

That's-not-all-technique- adding something to an original offer, thus creating some pressure to reciprocate

Foot-in-the-door-technique- making an initial small request with which near everyone complies, followed by a larger request involving the real behavior of interest. 

Positive Mood

Negative Mood

Negative state relief hypothesis- doing something to help someone else, especially when it's for a good cause, can make us feel better. 

(under compliance)

Water Use: In an effort to reduce water use, a city contacts its citizens with above-average consumption, telling them how much more they are using than their neighbors.

Drinking In College: Saying a certain percent of college students don't drink is more effective than giving the statistical value of those who do. 

Descriptive Norms – what most people do 

vs.

Prescriptive Norms – what people should do

1) Suicide baiting – when crowds of people begin encouraging someone threatening to commit suicide 

Archival data found suicide baiting was twice as likely to occur w/ a large crowd present. 

Is also 4x as likely to occur at night. 

2) Halloween mayhem - many forms of uninhibited and impulsive behaviors occur on Halloween. The disguised identities of halloween costumes may lead to deindividuated states. 

Following the early research initiated by Norman Triplett, social facilitation was initially a term that meant only enhanced performance in the presence of others.

But it is now a broader term for the effect—positive or negative—of the presence of others on performance, which reflects subsequent research by Robert Zajonc and others

A prediction of self-awareness theory is that focusing attention on the self leads people to a state of individuation, which is marked by careful deliberation and concern with how well their actions conform to their own moral standards.

• groups allowed our earliest ancestors to acquire food more efficiently
• Groups provided our earliest ancestors with assistance in the caring of children 
• Groups gave our earliest ancestors better protection from aggressors and predators.

• It holds that the mere presence of others makes one aroused.
• It explains why the presence of others affects one’s performance.
• It holds that the mere presence of others makes one aroused.

• Some social psychologists have argued that instead of mere presence, evaluation apprehension is the crucial element underlying social facilitation
• Allport and other researchers found that the presence of others inhibits performance on certain tasks, such as refuting philosophical arguments or doing arithmetic problems, memory tasks, and maze learning.
• Zajonc theorized that the mere presence of others can hinder performance on difficult or novel tasks but improve performance on simple or known tasks.

People are influenced not only by what the norm is, but also by how the norm is changing. People are more strongly influenced by dynamic norms when the relevant norm is counter to the behavior you would like to see.

ex. the number of college student volunteers is increasing. Now over 26 percent of college students are volunteering.