Exam 8: Conformity: Influencing Behavior

Imagine that you are attending a new high school and would like to make friends. On the first day of school, you observe that all of the students in your homeroom are crumpling paper into balls and throwing them on the floor. You begin to do the same. You have conformed to the group's behavior due to

In a variation on his original experiment, Milgram had the experimenter leave the room after telling participants that they could deliver whatever level of shock they chose. After the experimenter left, a confederate suggested that the participant increase the shock by one level each time the learner made a mistake. In this variation, only about 20 percent of participants went to the highest shock level. The fact that the authority figure's presence made much more of a difference than that of a peer suggests the role of

Informational social influence occurs because

Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) conducted a series of studies in which participants were asked to estimate the lengths of lines that clearly differed in length. Participants then heard the other group members give correct estimations for some trials, and blatantly incorrect estimations for others. When confederates in the study gave an incorrect response, how did participants respond?

Dr. Lemitt finds Bibb Latané's (1981) social impact theory very useful when she is researching conformity because its tenets

Ayleen will learn what is considered to be attractive in women's bodies from family, friends, and

Sillain is participating in a fMRI study replicating Asch's line judgment study. When she performed alone at judging the figures, or when she conformed to the wrong answer, what area of her brain was most likely active?

Which of the following phenomena is most likely to result in private acceptance of an idea or behavior?

Consider the following (edited) excerpt from a James Thurber New Yorker piece: "Suddenly someone began to run. It may be that he had simply remembered... an engagement to meet his wife, for which he was now frightfully late. Whatever it was, he ran east on Broad Street. Somebody else began to run, perhaps a newsboy in high spirits.... Another man broke into a trot.... A loud mumble gradually crystallized into the dread word 'dam.' 'The dam has broke!' The fear was put into words by a little old lady in an electric car, or by a traffic cop, or by a small boy: Nobody knows who.... Two thousand people were abruptly in full flight.…" This literary excerpt illustrates the phenomenon known as

Explain how both normative and informational social influence worked to convince Stanley Milgram's participants to deliver powerful shocks to a hapless learner. How did replications of the original study demonstrate the role of normative and informational influence?

Which of the following is an example of a social norm in mainstream U.S. culture?

Public safety officials want to increase the use of seat belts among drivers, and have decided to show a television ad documenting the rising use of seat belts among drivers. This represents the use of ________ norms to change safety behaviors.

In a study by Pope and his colleagues (2000), men were asked to alter a computer image of a male body to accurately depict their own body, their ideal body, and the type of body they thought women preferred. Results from this study suggest that men saw their bodies accurately, but

In a situation such as the War of the Worlds broadcast, where the situation is highly ambiguous, once people begin to believe they know what is happening, they tend to

The Nazi Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda used all of the following techniques except ______ to portray the message that the German people must protect their racial purity and increase their Lebensraum (living space) through conquest.

Informational social influence does not always produce conformity, but informational conformity is more likely in some situations than in others. What factors increase conformity to informational social influence?

What is the moral or the take-home message of Solomon Asch's (1951, 1956, 1957) series of experiments in which participants were asked to judge the lengths of lines? People will go to great lengths

Rachel is attending Catholic mass for the first time with her best friend Maria. Rachel is unfamiliar with when to sit, when to kneel, or when to stand, and doesn't know when to respond to what the priest says and when to remain silent. When it is time for parishioners to receive Communion, Rachel looks quizzically to Maria, who silently shakes her head. Rachel remains seated while the rest of the congregation files toward the altar. This situation best exemplifies

Kelsey has just joined a new ballet company in which thinness is of paramount importance in becoming a successful dancer. From Martha she learns how important it is to remain painfully thin. From Annette she learns that laxatives are useful tools for weight control. The first "lesson" represents ________, whereas the second "lesson" represents ________.

In a field study by Shultz and his colleagues (2007), several households in a neighborhood received weekly feedback about their level of energy consumption relative to their neighbors. Feedback about how much energy they used relative to their neighbors provided participants with ________ norms.