is a type of social influence involving a

change in belief or behavior in order to fit in

with a group
is also known as majority influence
1. Normative – desire to be liked or to “fit in”
2. Informational – desire to be correct
3. Identification – simply to conform to a social
role
1. Compliance - 'when an individual accepts
influence because he hopes to achieve a favorable
reaction from another person or group. He adopts
the induced behavior because....he expects to gain
specific rewards or approval and avoid specific
punishment or disapproval by conformity
2. Internalisation - This occurs when an individual
accepts influence because the content of the
induced behavior - the ideas and actions of which it
is composed - is intrinsically rewarding. He adopts
the induced behavior because it is congruent
[consistent] with his value system'
3. Identification - This occurs when an individual
accepts influence because he wants to establish or
maintain a satisfying self-defining relationship to
another person or group
4. Ingratiational - This is when a person conforms to
impress or gain favor/acceptance from other people.
Conformity – a change in behavior or belief as a
result of real or imagined group pressure.

Compliance – conformity that involves publicly

acting in accord with an implied or explicit request
while privately disagreeing

Obedience – acting in accord with a direct order or

command
 Read about Stanley Milgram’s experiment on
Conformity or watch :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGxGDdQnC1Y
 One of the most famous studies regarding
obedience/conformity
 Conducted a study focusing on the conflict
between obedience to authority and personal
conscience
Aim: was interested in researching how far people
would go in obeying an instruction, even if it involves
harming another person.
Details:
 “learner”, “experimenter” and “teacher” -
(administered electric shock)
 Teacher is told to administer electric shock
everytime the learner makes a mistake, increasing
the level of shock (30 switches) each time (15 volts –
450 volts)
 Learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose)
 When teacher refused to administer; there were a
series of prods to ensure they continued
4 Prods:
1. Please continue
2. The experiment requires you to continue
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue
4. You have no other choice but to continue
Results:
65% (two-thirds) of participants continued to the
highest level of 450 volts.
Conclusion:
 Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given
by an authority figure even to the extent of killing
an innocent human being
 Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from
the way we are brought up
 People tend to obey orders from other people if
they recognize their authority as morally right
and/or legally based.
 the process by which a
person’s attitudes or behavior are, without duress,
influenced by communications from other people
 Persuasion often involves manipulating people, and
for this reason many find the exercise distasteful.
Big business
More common
More complex
More subtle
 Travels more rapidly
1. Reciprocation - People will be nice if you’re nice
to them. Therefore, if you do something first, by
giving them something or doing something nice
for them, it is more likely to come back to you.
2. Consistency - Once we have made a choice or
taken a stand, we will encounter personal and
interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with
that commitment.
3. Social Proof - People will more likely say yes when
they see other people doing it too

4. Authority - People will tend to obey authority

figures, even if they are asked to perform
objectionable acts.
5. Liking - People are easily persuaded by other
people that they like
- The halo effect is also something referred to as the
'physical attractiveness stereotype' and the 'what is
beautiful is also good' principle.
6. Scarcity - perceived scarcity of a product makes
consumers want it more.
 Effect of good feelings
 Messages become more persuasive through
association with good feelings
 Good feelings often persuade, partly by enhancing
positive thinking
 “joy marketing”
 Effect of arousing fear
 messages can also be effective by evoking
negative emotions
 Two-step flow of communication – the process by
which media influence often occurs through opinion
leaders, who in turn influence others
 “influencers”
 Ten years ago, the term "influencer marketing"
didn’t exist. Today, the industry is booming, and big
brands are paying attention – Forbes Magazine, Aug 22, 2019
Cult – also called “new religious movement”
A group typically characterized by:
1. Distinctive ritual or beliefs related to its devotion
to a god or a person
2. Isolation from a surrounding “evil culture”
3. A charismatic leader
 Jim Jones
 1978. Guyana
 914 disciples drank kool
aid laced with lethal dose
of cyanide
 David Koresh
 86 people were consumed
in the fire
Group – two or more people who, for longer than a
few moment, interact with and influence one another
and perceive one another as “us”
 For
 Affiliation
 To achieve
 Social identity
What are some groups you belong to?
 Collective influence
 Social facilitation
 Social loafing
 Deindividuation
Social facilitation - is defined as
improvement in individual performance
when working with other people rather than
alone. In addition to working together with
other people, social facilitation also occurs
in mere presence of other people.
 Social loafing refers to the concept that people are
prone to exert less effort on a task if they are in a
group versus when they work alone.
“free riders”
 People in groups loaf less when the task is
 Challenging
 Appealing
 Rewards are significant
Deindividuation
 Loss of self-awareness ; occurs in group situations
that foster responsiveness to group norms, good
or bad
 Crowds give you the opportunity to hide and also
allow you to share the blame, reducing the sense
of individual responsibility
 Looting, mob mentality
 Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone
 Group size
 Larger the group the more its members lose self-awareness and
become willing to commit atrocities
 People’s attention is focused on the situation, not on themselves
 “Everyone’s doing it” attitude
 They contribute their behavior to the situation rather than to
their own choices
 Polarization
 Groupthink
 Minority influence
risky-shift- effect A social psychological term,
referring to the observed tendency for people to
make more daring decisions when they are in
groups, than when they are alone.
 Group Polarization occurs when a group of like
minded people reinforce each other’s opinions,
positive or negative, and these opinions become
more extreme as they’re discussed
 Groupthink occurs when a group of well-
intentioned people make irrational or non-optimal
decisions
 group members value harmony and coherence
above rational thinking
 In a groupthink situation, group members refrain
from expressing doubts and judgments or
disagreeing with the consensus
Examples
 escalation of the Vietnam War
 Invasion of Iraq
 Minority influence, a form of social influence, takes
place when a member of a minority group
influences the majority to accept the minority's
beliefs or behavior.
Example: suffragette