Descriptive Norms
Injunctive/Prescriptive Norms
How its done
How it SHOULD be done (Moral high horse)
social Norm persistence
Norms persist beyond original group settings (If group members are swapped out one after the other)
Formation of Norms
- formed and changed via Group interactions
o Deliberate instruction, nonverbal feedback, observed behavior of others
Compliance Definition
target agrees to a request from influence source
Function of Norms
o Regulate behavior, cognition, emotion in groups, relationships w environment
o Provide shared reality (→ Norm is only spotted when they are not present anymore)
o Provide Identity
Commitment based Compliance (Techniques)
- Foot in the Door technique
o Doing a small favor
§ Must be meaningful and of little effort
§ Must be done voluntarily
o → later commit to bigger favor that, on its own, would have been rejected
§ Self-observation of past behavior→ want to be consistent
o higher personal desire for consistency = higher chance for this effect to work
- Low balling-technique ( not showing full cost up front)
o Social contracts/commitments; need to keep promises/ fulfill obligations
§ Allows intragroup- trust
Compliance based on Reciprocity
- Door in face technique
o First refusing a Big request
§ Has to be refused
o ⇾ more likely to commit to small request
§ Has to be seen as a compromise (person is making a step towards me)
· Reciprocity leads to need to return favors even when unsolicited to reestablish equiliy (eg. Free Samples)
§ Has to be related to first request and asked by same person
Def Conformity
(Public,private)
convergence of individual to group norm
o Private;acceptance of social norm as own
o Public; behavior conforms even though norm is not accepted personally
Factors of Conformity
o Group size
o Salience of the group (awareness of the presence of others)
o Visibility of the own response
Conformity drops with decreasing visibility but is still significant
o Independence of the group responses (belief that Group didn’t arrange responses)
o Unanimity(Einstimmigkeit) of group response
o Social support (non-conforming allies)
Even invalid support causes mild decrease (valid stronger tho)
o (Culture)
Informal Influence
§ desire to understand others and have shared and predictable reality
§ Desire for certainty over own judgement (others as source of validation)
· Inferred via assumption of collective wisdom
-> Private conformity
-> most influential with analytical tasks and clear cut solutions
Normative Influence
o Need for Connectedness
§ sense of belonging
§ Need for approval and harmony
§ Social identity and expression of this identity
-> public (Also private) conformity
-> most influential whith moral/attitudinal judgement
autokinetic movement study
§ If session in groups AFTER alone session (personal norm before group) -> mire interindividual variation, estimates take a few sessions to move closer together and reach common guess
§ If sessions in groups FIRST (group norm was formed before alone estimate) -> less interindividual variation (norm influences personal guess), immediate common guess
§ Persistent in retest after a year (impressive)
Asch paradigm
§ Ppl guessed length of a line with obvious answer,
· Most conformed to obvious wrong answers
· Effect was there even when answer wasn’t public or no direct feedback but just info about previous (but effect is greater when face to face)
examples invalid consensus
o Processed without consideration
o Formed without independence (eg.external rewards)
o PIuralistic ignorance;
pluralistic ignorance
everyone just publicly conforms but real consensus is inferred (everyone wants to do -> no one dares to cuz they think they’re only ones)
ways to activate norms
- Deliberate reminders
Have to be Supervised and nonconformity punished
May lead to resistance
- Subtle reminders
Signs of what others have done (eg. litter on the ground)
Exemplar study;
Littering cyclists with or without graffiti (Keizer)
One form of form of norm violation, encourages violation of different norms as well
- Others presence & behavior
o If formal norm reminders contradicts others behavior -> others behavior is stronger
how norms are enforced/effective
Enforcement (sanction &rewards)
o -> norm is external behavioral standard (risks being public Norm)
o Can be positive or negative consequence or their withdrawal
o Needs surveillance
Others Presence (Consensus support)
o Presence needs to be salient
Frequent activation
o association between triggers/cues & norm
o -> leads to automatic normative bahavior (habit?)
Internalisation
o Not conscious decision but internal standard
o Does not need situational awareness -> automatic
o Helps to function well and without as much effort (shared reality ect.)
Who is agreed with under Informative influence
- (appearant) experts and people with higher social stand
Who is agreed with under Normative influence
- people with similar attitudes, values, relationships or we’re otherwise close to
Who do we agree with in in-/Outgroups
- Ingroup; if unimportant-> superficial processing= acceptance
o If important; systematic processing of message strength ect
- Outgroup : likely rejection regardless of processing mode
group polarization
- Def: Groups of likeminded people have more extreme positions than the average of all individuals attitudes,
o Reasons;
Persuasive arguments (Hearing rguments repeated or even new arguments firm beliefs),
Social comparison (Want to distinguish from groups but in desireable way),
Social categorization (want to distinguish from other groups)
è make the individuals attitudes more extreme
Groupthink Definition and Models
a group unterperforms given its potentials because of extreme normative influence (eg, Bay of Pigs, Water Gate Affair, challenger Spaceshuttle)
Scematic model of groupthink; Cohesiveness as central cause, focus on groupthink
Simplified general problem-solving model; cohesiveness as part of lager set of variables, not focused on groupthink
§ Empirical support is rather weak (esp. in experiments)
Symptoms of Groupthink
o Ingroup favoritism
o Illusion if invulnerability
o Believed moral superiority of own group
o Unwillingness to discuss/seek… discrepant info
o Illusion of unanimous decision (pluralistic ignorance)
§ Pressure on dissenters to conform
o Suppression of independent thinking
o Premature justification of own position
Causes of Groupthink
o High cohesiveness (strong social identity)
o Isolation from other info
o Opinionated and/or authotitative Leadership
o Stress, Time-pressure
o Lack of adequate decisionmaking processes
o Pressure to conform
Prevention of Groupthink
o Avoid Time pressure
o Separate into subgroups
o Increase group diversity
§ invite (decision-independent, non group) experts
o avoid directive leadership
o install devils advocate (question everything)
o avoid public votes
second chance meeting
Last changed3 months ago