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Summary PSY102 - Chapter 8
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Chapter.8 : Conformity Influencing Behavior8.2 : How does informational social influence motivate people to
conform ?
Informational Social Influence : The Need to Know What’s “Right”
- An important feature of informational social influence is that it can lead to private acceptance.
o Private Acceptance : conforming to other people’s behavior out of genuine belief that what they
are doing or saying is right.
- Public Compliance : conforming to other people’s behavior publicly without necessarily believing in what
the people are doing or saying.
o A study showed that people still conform to the group estimate when they participate
individually a year later.
▪ People were relying on each other to define reality and came to privately accept the
wisdom of the group estimate.
- The power of conformity to produce private acceptance has been demonstrated in several areas of life.
The Importance of Being Accurate
- A variable that affects informational social influence: how important it is to be accurate at the task.
o In experiments, researches manipulated how important it was to the research participates to be
accurate at the task.
- The high-importance condition mirrors the concerns of many situations in everyday life – your judgements
and decisions have consequences and you’re motivated to “get things right”.
o Relying on other people as a source is a strategy that also comes with risks.
▪ Ex. Informational social influence among eyewitnesses is not welcome in courtrooms.
When Informational Conformity Backfires
- A dramatic form of informational social influence occurs during crises.
o When an individual is confronted with a frightening, dangerous situation to which he or she is ill
equipped to respond.
- When one’s personal safety is involved, the need for information is acute – and the behavior of others is
very informative.
- Emotions and behavior can spread rapidly through a crowd – an effect called contagion.
- In a truly ambiguous situation, people are more likely to rely on interpretation of others.
o Unfortunately, other people may be no more knowledgeable and accurate than we are.
o Depending on others to help us define the situation can lead into inaccuracies.
, When Will People Conform to Informational Social Influence ?
- WHEN THE SITUATION IS AMBIGUOUS :
o Ambiguity is the most crucial variable for determining how much people use each other as a
source of information.
▪ The more uncertain you are, the more you will rely on others.
- WHEN THE SITUATION IS A CRISIS :
o Crisis often occurs simultaneously with ambiguity.
o In a crisis, we don’t have time to stop and think about exactly which cours of action we should
take.
▪ We need to act immediately.
▪ It is only natural to see how other people are responding and do likewise.
• Unfortunately, people we imitate may also feel scared and panicky and not
behave rationally.
- WHEN OTHER PEOPLE ARE EXPERTS :
o The more expertise or knowledge a person had, the more valuable he or she will be as a guide in
an ambiguous situation.
▪ Experts are no always reliable sources of information.
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