Exam 8: Conformity: Influencing Behavior

Recall that in a field experiment described in the text, participants were more likely to properly dispose of a handbill left on their windshields when they saw a confederate pick up and dispose of a fast food bag. Results of this experiment reveal the power of ________ to reduce littering behaviors.

In the past ten years, the popular American holiday, Halloween, was "imported" to France by retailers hoping to increase revenues. Essentially, the French learned the traditions such as trick-or-treating and wearing costumes from Americans. This is an example of ________ on an international scale.

When participants were first placed in a dark room alone and asked to estimate the apparent movement of a point of light, individuals were consistent in their own estimates, and these estimates differed greatly from participant to participant. When participants made the same estimates in a group setting, their estimates converged. According to Muzafer Sherif (1936), why did this happen? Conformity occurs when people

The members of a local police precinct just had to be evacuated because a number of people reported nausea, blurry vision, and numb hands. It was determined that it was a case of mass psychogenic illness. These types of illnesses tend to begin with people who are

Elise is participating in research and is placed in a dark room and asked to estimate the movement of a dot of light projected on a screen. This is similar to research by Sherif that demonstrated the power of

Milgram surveyed both a panel of Yale undergraduates and a panel of psychology professors before he conducted his original experiment. In these surveys, he found that

In which of the following cases is conformity due to information social influence least likely to occur?

Describe a situation when you were the "odd man out." That is, you were the nonconformist. Did your experience resemble the Johnny Rocco study results? If so, how? If not, why not? Be sure to use vocabulary from the chapter and be specific.

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. Some households received only descriptive norm feedback, and some received descriptive and injunctive norm feedback. Which method of feedback was most effective in producing energy conservation?

Wendy's roommate is laying out her clothes for the first day of classes. Wendy wasn't sure what to wear but now has an idea and picks her outfit to be similar. This type of conformity arises from

All of the following are examples of informational social influence except :

In what kinds of situations are people most likely to yield to normative social influence pressures?

Priscilla is on her way to a concert and has gotten lost. Which of the following people, based on information from your text about informational social influence, would she be most likely to ask for directions?

According to several replications of Asch's line studies, in Japan, Germany, and Britain, people in those countries are more likely to conform to groups

Explain how both informational conformity and normative conformity can contribute to eating disorders in women.

Based on the field study by Shultz and his colleagues (2007) in which several households in a neighborhood received weekly feedback about their level of energy consumption relative to their neighbors, if you wanted to encourage people to use less electricity, what would you do?

Many U.S. troops present at My Lai later reported that they were frightened and confused about whether people in the villages were really enemy soldiers. Others reported that they didn't know whether the rifle-fire they heard was from enemy guns or from the guns of fellow troops. Still, frightened and bewildered, many of them began setting fire to huts and shooting old men, women, and children. This tragic example illustrates that informational influence is most likely to occur when

If an executioner were to be questioned about how he could live with himself after taking someone's life, one likely response (according to the authors of your text) is

Reese is in a study similar to the one by Pope and his colleagues (2000) and is behaving as their participants did. He's able to accurately alter a computer image of a male body to depict his own, but he

In a recent study about how to promote energy conservation, Nolan and colleagues (2008) found that simply telling people that their neighbors conserve energy was a more effective means of reducing energy consumption than telling them other reasons why they should conserve. Why did this message work the best?