Interpersonal and Group Processes PDF

**Interpersonal and Group Processes** **Social Influence** = how other people influence our behaviour Three types of social influence: **Compliance** = change of behaviour in response to a direct request e.g. you agree to attend a social event because someone else asked you **Obedience** = cha...

**Interpersonal and Group Processes** **Social Influence** = how other people influence our behaviour Three types of social influence: **Compliance** = change of behaviour in response to a direct request e.g. you agree to attend a social event because someone else asked you **Obedience** = change of behaviour in response to a directive from an authority figure e.g. direct order from police officer, parent, teacher **Conformity** = change in behaviour to match the response or actions of others e.g. you look in a specific direction because you saw other people doing that Why does compliance happen? Principles of Compliance (Cialdini & Goldstein,2004): applied in advertising/ sales - Reciprocity - Consistency - Commitment - Liking - Authority **Reciprocity** Norm of reciprocity: the rule that obliges us to repay others for what we have received from them (even when we did not request or want the favour) Examples for the use of the norm of reciprocity in sales: - Free samples: acceptance of 'gift' = social obligation - Door in the face technique: Start with an (unreasonably) large request. Wait for the other party to say no, then lower your request People feel obligated to reciprocate the concession (of lowering the offer) by the requester **Door-in-the-face** **Consistency** Norm of consistency = rule that obliges us to be consistent in our behaviour Examples for the use of the norm of consistency in sales: - Foot in the door technique Start with a small request. Wait for the other party to say yes, then ask for an additional large (related) request People feel obliged to keep consistent and are more likely to comply to the larger request **Foot in the door**  **Commitment** Norm of commitment = once we make a commitment, we feel pressure to follow through (strongly related to consistency norm) Examples for the use of commitment in sales: - Low balling technique Have people commit to a course of action, then increase the request **Liking** People comply more with requests made by individuals they like Factors that influence liking: - Physical attractiveness - Similarity - Familiarity Example from advertisement = use of well-liked celebrities **Authority** People comply more with requests made by individuals made by individuals in a position of authority Milgram's Obedience Study Real-World links to Milgram  **Milgram's statement on participants**: "Many people, not knowing much about the experiment, claim that subjects who got to the end of the board are sadistic. Nothing could be more foolish as an overall characterisation of these persons. It is like saying that a person thrown into a swift-flowing stream is necessarily a fast swimmer. The context of action must always be considered. The individual, upon entering the laboratory, becomes integrated in a situation that carries its own momentum, the subject's problem then is how to become disengaged from a situation which is moving in an altogether ugly direction."\ (Milgram, 1965, p. 72) **Conformity** = change in behaviour to match the response or actions of others Why people conform: - **Informational influence**: conformity because we believe others understand the situation better than we do - **Normative influence**: conformity in order to be liked and accepted by others - to gain social approval  **Performance** Social facilitation/ Social Inhibition  Social Facilitation/ Social inhibition through the mere presence of others: Zajonc (1965) Other factors that influence social facilitation/ social inhibition: - Others as distraction - Evaluation apprehension **Social facilitation** = improved task performance in the presence of others **Social inhibition** = decreased task performance in the presence of others **Dominant response** = the reaction elicited most quickly and easily by a given stimulus **Social Loafing** = a type of motivation loss that occurs when group members' work is unidentifiable, and they work less than they would work individually (i.e. they slack off) **Prejudice**  **Linguistic Intergroup Bias** A white sheet with black text Description automatically generated(made up examples) Cognitive Processes in Prejudice **Illusory Correlations**: Perception of a relation between two distinctive elements that does not exist or is exaggerated  **Illusion of out-group homogeneity**: Tendency to perceive members of the outgroup as more similar to each other than members of the ingroup e.g. women might see men (outgroup) as 'all the sane' and vice versa Can prejudice be reduced? **Contact hypothesis:** contact with people of outgroup (communication, interaction) should reduce prejudice However, anxiety, self-fulfilling prophecy, power differential, length of contact can all work against the contact hypothesis When it does work, it can lead to: Bystander Intervention **Bystander effect** = the tendency for a bystander to be less likely to help in an emergency if there are other onlookers present The case that made it well known: Kitty Genovese