Question 1

In a variation of his standard experiment, Solomon Asch (1957) found that when participants could write their responses on a piece of paper, conformity dropped dramatically. This finding indicates that participants exhibited ________, not ________, during the standard experiment.

Accepted Answer

A)  public compliance; private acceptance 
B)  private acceptance; public compliance 
C)  logical reasoning; mindless conformity 
D)  mindless conformity; logical reasoning

Question 2

After checking in to a hotel, Emma suddenly hears pounding on her door. A man in a uniform is standing there telling her that there is smoke on a lower floor and the electricity is possibly going to shut off. She should prop her door open and evacuate as quickly as possible. Later, she returns to find her laptop and jewelry have been stolen. She has fallen victim to informational social influence. Explain why she conformed.

Accepted Answer

The answer of After checking in to a hotel, Emma...

Question 3

Which situation below best exemplifies the tenet of social impact theory that immediacy is directly related to conformity?

Accepted Answer

A)  Mariah will debate actively with her roommate, but during class debates, she is quiet even when she has strong opinions. 
B)  John won't smoke around his girlfriend, but he does smoke when he talks to her on the phone. 
C)  Toby pierces his tongue because his friends are into body piercing, even though his parents disapprove. 
D)  Kelly will walk around in her bathing suit at the pool when there are just other women around, but she wraps a towel around her hips when any men are around.

Question 4

Even though Gerald isn't religious, when he attends church on Christmas with his family, he donates money when ushers pass around a collection basket because everyone else puts something in. It is likely that Gerald is

Accepted Answer

A)  experiencing a high level of cognitive dissonance. 
B)  privately accepting religion. 
C)  being persuaded via the peripheral route. 
D)  publicly complying.

Question 5

Reynald is participating in a research study where he is watching a dot of light in a dark room. In time it appears to move. Later, he finds out that it was really stationary. This phenomenon is

Accepted Answer

A)  proof that people can start seeing things if left alone for too long. 
B)  known as the autokinetic effect. 
C)  also a test for schizophrenia. 
D)  widely used to make people conform.

Question 6

Because of the societal pressures to be very thin, there is a so-called epidemic of eating disorders. Compared to females who developed eating disorders in the past, those who develop eating disorders today tend to be

Accepted Answer

A)  younger: aged twelve and thirteen. 
B)  heavier: about 20 percent overweight initially. 
C)  more easily influenced by their parents. 
D)  relying more heavily on starvation diets.

Question 7

There have been great examples of social influence and terrible examples of social influence. As an example, what do the Heaven's Gate followers and the "Freedom Riders" in the American civil rights movement have in common? They

Accepted Answer

A)  fell under the spell of strong, punitive, charismatic leaders. 
B)  were frustrated, and this frustration caused them to behave aggressively. 
C)  confronted extreme and confusing situations, and looked to others to decide how to behave. 
D)  lacked independence, and thus surrendered control to powerful others.

Question 8

The authors of your text report instances of teens "surfing" on the tops of electric trains in Brazil, and on cars in the U.S. and Australia. Which of the following best explains such dangerous behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)  the power of normative social influence 
B)  the power of informational social influence 
C)  These teens have "excitement seeking" personalities. 
D)  These are usually delinquent teens using this activity for gang initiations.

Question 9

During the Middle Ages, victims of the imaginary illness "dancing manias" lost all inhibitions and whirled wildly through the streets. During the twentieth century, modern Americans fell prey to the misdeeds of a "phantom anesthetist" who entered homes and gassed the inhabitants. According to your text, how is mass psychogenic illness most different today from how it was in the Middle Ages?

Accepted Answer

A)  In the past, symptoms were religious in nature; today they are technological. 
B)  In the past, normative social influence contributed to contagion; today, informational social influences contribute. 
C)  Today there is greater consensus than in the past about the so-called "sources" of such illnesses. 
D)  Today, the modern mass media accelerate the rate of "infection."

Question 10

It could be argued that participants in Muzafer Sherif's (1936) study converged in their estimates of the amount of movement of a point of light because they were avoiding public embarrassment or social censure from other participants. Sherif demonstrated that this was unlikely when he found similar results

Accepted Answer

A)  when participants completed the task with their friends. 
B)  two years later. 
C)  when participants later completed the task alone. 
D)  when participants completed an auditory task in groups.

Question 11

In a famous social psychological experiment, participants were led to believe they were to deliver electric shocks of increasing potency to a "learner" for a memorization task. Participants were encouraged to continue even though the learner was clearly in pain, and most participants, in fact, did continue shocking the learner. What famous study is this describing?

Accepted Answer

A)  Asch line studies 
B)  Milgram's studies of obedience 
C)  Shultz' study of injunctive norms 
D)  Moscovici's studies of minority influence

Question 12

In an alternative version of his original experiment, Milgram used two experimenters, who began to disagree with each other when the participants administered 150 volts and the learner began to complain. In this variation, participants refused to continue. According to the authors of your text, this variation demonstrates the importance of ________ in influencing obedience.

Accepted Answer

A)  clear informational influence 
B)  unanimous normative influence 
C)  the foot-in-the-door effect 
D)  the door-in-the-face effect

Question 13

Emilio is designing an ad aimed at increasing seat belt use. He decides to incorporate slogans like, "It's great to buckle up!" rather than "35 percent of adults do not regularly wear a seat belt." Emilio is using ________ in this ad.

Accepted Answer

A)  peripheral cues 
B)  injunctive norms 
C)  normative social influence 
D)  descriptive norms

Question 14

Recall that in an Asch-type conformity experiment (Frager, 1970), Japanese students were less conforming than were North Americans. According to researchers, these findings suggest that

Accepted Answer

A)  Japan is a less interdependent culture than other Asian countries. 
B)  in Japan, conformity is more likely in groups toward which one feels loyalty. 
C)  industrialization has changed Japan into a more independent culture. 
D)  Japanese compete with strangers, but cooperate with friends.

Question 15

The authors of your text discuss several factors that led to the high degree of obedience in the Milgram experiment. All of the following are implicated except

Accepted Answer

A)  normative social influence. 
B)  informational social influence. 
C)  gradual commitment and resulting changes in self-perception (foot-in-the-door). 
D)  aggression.

Question 16

What is the relation between idiosyncrasy credits and normative conformity? Provide a concrete example of this relation.

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is the relation between idiosyncrasy credits...

Question 17

People are especially likely to conform due to informational social influence

Accepted Answer

A)  when the task is intellectual or academic. 
B)  more in private than in public. 
C)  when the situation is a crisis. 
D)  the more flexible and yielding the other people are.

Question 18

Discuss the role of both informational and normative influence in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Discuss the role of both informational and...

Question 19

Research by Baron et al. (1996) on the importance of accuracy indicates that the more important it is for people to be accurate, the

Accepted Answer

A)  more likely people are to engage in both informational and normative conformity. 
B)  less likely people are to engage in both informational and normative conformity. 
C)  more likely people are to engage in informational conformity, but the less likely people are to engage in normative conformity. 
D)  more likely people are to engage in normative conformity, but the less likely people are to engage in informational conformity.

Question 20

According to research presented in the text (Baron et al., 1996), participants were asked to select perpetrators after a lineup in conditions of high ambiguity; the perpetrator wore different clothing in the lineup than in the original photo, and the slides were shown very quickly. Recall also that some participants were told that the task was one that was being designed for use by the police department and were offered $20 if they were the most accurate, while others were told that it was just a laboratory task under development. This study demonstrated that

Accepted Answer

A)  the more important it was to the participants to be accurate, the more they conformed to other group members' answers. 
B)  the more important it was to participants to be accurate, the less they conformed to other group members' answers. 
C)  when the task was more important, people conformed more but their self-esteem decreased. 
D)  people were more resistant to influence in this study than in the Sherif study because of the greater degree of mundane realism.

Exam 8: Conformity: Influencing Behavior

In a variation of his standard experiment, Solomon Asch (1957) found that when participants could write their responses on a piece of paper, conformity dropped dramatically. This finding indicates that participants exhibited , not , during the standard experiment.