psychology - Theories - Social Influence

A minority must be:

• CONSISTENT - both over time and between the entire group
  • this draws attention to the issue 
  • making the majority reassess the situation at hand
• COMITTED - 'augmentation principle'
  • the minority must make personal sacrifices 
  • showing they arent acting out of self interest 
  • the majority now sees the minority as serious
• FLEXIBLE - willing to compromise
  • shows the majority that they arent unreasonable and are willing to adapt and listen
  • majority now sympathises with the minority

all these equate to causing a cognitive conflict within the majority and eventually causing them to internalise the view of the minority

A dispositional explanation for why individuals resist social influence which refers to:

"the extent to which people belive they have control over their own lives"

Its measured on a continuum with two extremes:-

• INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL 
  • more likely to resist social influence 
  • believe they have full control over their own lives 
  • feel high levels of personal responsibility
  • have less of a need for social approval

• EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL
  • less likely to resist social influence 
  • believe they have no control over their own lives 
  • feel external factors such as luck and fate determine their lives 
  • low personal responsibility
  • highly seeking of social approval 

A situational explanation for why individuals resist social influence which covers both aspects:

• CONFORMITY
  • the presence of a non-conforming 'ally'
  • breaks the unanimity of the majority
  • this increases the confidence of the individual
  • and 'frees up' the minority to show independence 

• OBEDIANCE 
  • the presence of a 'disobediant model'
  • whom the minority sees as a role model
  • this presence then challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure
  • and empowers the minority to disobey also

an situational explanation as to why individuals obey immoral or even moral demands in general:

• AUTONOMOUS STATE
  • an individual is acting off their own accord
  • they assume full personal responsibility for their actions

an agentic shift will occur in which they move from the autonomous state to the

• AGENTIC STATE
  • an individual is acting on behalf of someone else
  • they feel diminished responsibility for their actions
  • are more likely to obey demands 
  • due to this 'diffusion of responsibility'
  • and dont feel as though they can be accountable for any consequences 

A situational explanation as to why people obey possible immoral demands refering to the 

• SOCIAL POWER of an individual
  • related to their social roles e.g. police officer 
  • related to their social status e.g grandparent or elder 

an individual is more likely to obey someone with a high legitimacy of authority due to 

• a fear of consequences the authority figure is able to instill
• trust in the individuals judgment and orders 

A dispositional explanation as to why an individual may obey demands from an authority figure.

Those with a highly authoritarian personality display certain:

CHARACTERISTICS:

• identify with 'strong' individuals 
• strong dislike towards those with a percieved lower status than themselves 
• act with hostility towards 'weak' individuals 
• hyper-conscious of their own and others status 
• hold an excessive respect for authority
• extremely obediant to those with a higher status than themselves
• highly conformist, conventional and dogmatic 

This refers to the process which occurs whereby a society adopts a new belief or behaviour due to a minority influence:

• ATTENTION
  • minority draw attention to the issue through being consistent
• COGNITIVE CONFLICT
  • occurs within the majority as they begin to reasses their own current position
• CONSISTENCY
  • is maintained by the minority which cements this cognitive conflict 
• AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE
  • whereby the minority make personal sacrifices so show they arent acting out of self interest 
  • this causes the majority to take the ideas of them seriously 
• SNOWBALL EFFECT
  • one individual internalises the minorities ideas, causing another to and so on

however SOCIALCRYPTOAMNESIA may occur in which the majority are aware of the social change which has occured but have forgotten the initial minority which snowballed this change 

• COMPLIANCE:
  • public conformity
  • private maintenance of your own personal beliefs 
  • wish to gain acceptance and avoid disapproval 
  • temporary change
• IDENTIFICATION:
  • they wish to become a part of the group
  • individuals in said group are seen as role models 
  • public conformity
  • private conformity to their views also
  • not maintained once the individual leaves the group
• INTERNALISATION:
  • complete conversion to the majorities viewpoint
  • permenant change 
  • views are adopted into their own belief system

Deutsch and Gerard proposed a dual process model by which individuals conform due to one of two factors:

• INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE:
  • conforming individual has a desire to be right 
  • generally in ambiguous situations 
  • they will turn to 'believable' individuals for aid 
  • associated with internalisation
• NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE:
  • conforming individual has a desire to be liked
  • wish to avoid rejection and gain social approval
  • dont generally believe in or agree with the viewpoint 
  • associated with compliance