Social Psychology - Social Influence

OBJECTIVES
• Discover why we
conform.
• Factors affecting
Conformity
• Asch’s Experiment
Conformity
• Know the Weapons of
Influence
• Know the Persuasive
Psychological
Manipulation
Techniques
Compliance
• Factors that cause
Destructive Obedience
• How to resist D.O.
• Stanley Milgram’s
Experiment
Obedience

SOCIAL INFLUENCE
— Efforts by one or more individuals to change
attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behaviors of
one or more others.

• To conform is to adjust your actions to a norm.
CONFORMITY
• To comply is to come to an agreement about a course of
action.
COMPLIANCE
• To obey is to do as an authority figure commands
regardless of personal preference.
OBEDIENCE

When have you gone along with
something that others have
said, just because you didn’t
want to stand out?

CONFORMITY
• Changed induced by general rules
concerning what behavior is appropriate or
required in a given situation.
• Pressure to behave in ways that are viewed
as acceptable or appropriate by a group or
society generally.

SOCIAL NORMS
— Rules indicating how individuals are
expected to behave in specific situations.

AUTOKINETIC PHENOMENON (MUZAFER SHERIF)
o The apparent movement of a single stationary source
of light in a dark room.
o Often used to study the emergence of norms and
social influence.
“When placed in a dark tunnel, tendency is to move
towards the light, same goes for norm because
people don’t know what to do without rules so they
follow if there is one.”

FACTORS AFFECTING CONFORMITY
Cohesiveness Group Size
Social Norm
Situational
Norm

Cohesiveness
— The extent to which we are attracted to a
social group and want to belong to it.

Group Size
— The larger the group (8 or more), the greater
the number of people who behave in some
specific way, the greater our tendency to
conform.

Social Norms
o Descriptive Norms
— What most people do in a given situation.
o Injunctive Norms
— What is ought to be done, what is approved
or disapproved behavior in given situation.

Situational Norms
— Norms that guide behavior in a certain
situation or environment.

SOCIAL ROOTS OF CONFORMITY
Why do people choose to go along? It is because of two factors:
Normative Social Influence
• The desire to be liked.
Informational Social Influence
• The desire to be right.

FACTORS WHY
WE CHOOSE
NOT TO
CONFORM
First
The need to maintain Individuality.
Second
The desire for personal control.
Third
Norms that encourage individualism.

FACTORS IN WHICH
THE MINORITY CAN
SOMETIMES
INFLUENCE THE
MAJORITY
First
Must be consistent in their opposition.
Second
Must avoid appearing rigid or dogmatic
Third
Argue for a position that is consistent with
current social trends. (e.g. Nature advocates)

• Solomon Asch (1955)
studied conformity to
see if people would
conform to an
obviously wrong
opinion.
• 1/3 of participants went
along with the
obviously incorrect
consensus.
CONFORMITY

CONFORMITY
• Participants on Asch’s experiment
conformed because of the normative
social influence.
• They did not want to stand out from the
group and face possible ridicule; they
wanted to be part of the in-group.

• Discover why we
conform.
• Factors affecting
Conformity
• Asch’s Experiment
Conformity
• Know the Weapons of
Influence
• Know the Persuasive
Psychological
Manipulation
Techniques
Compliance
• Factors that cause
Destructive Obedience
• How to resist D.O.
• Stanley Milgram’s
Experiment
Obedience

COMPLIANCE
• Change in behavior, generally
produced by a request.
• Direct efforts to get others to
change their behavior in specific
ways.

• Regents’ Professor Emeritus of
Psychology and Marketing
at Arizona State University.
• He is best known for his book
on persuasion and marketing,
Influence: The Psychology of
Persuasion. Influence has sold
over 2 million copies and has
been translated into twenty-six
languages.
ROBERT B. CIALDINI, PH. D.

Weapons of
Influence
Reciprocation
Commitment
Social Proof
Liking
Authority
Scarcity

“The Old Give and Take… and Take.”

PERSUASIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL
MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES
• Techniques used by compliance
professionals (e.g. salespeople, recruiters,
marketers, media, etc.).
• Can be used for manipulative purposes.

FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR
— Consists in getting a “YES” to a low cost
action, difficult to be refused, in order to get
a “YES” to a much more costly one.

LOWBALL TECHNIQUE
— Gaining compliance in which, when the
target person agrees, the requester would
change the deal to a more disadvantageous
place for the target person.

DOOR-IN-THE-FACE
— Consists in getting a “NO” to a costly
request, impossible to be accepted or even
unrealistic, in order to get a “YES” to a much
more reasonable one.

THAT’S-NOT-ALL TECHNIQUE
— Gaining compliance in which the requester
offers additional benefits to target people
before they have decided whether to comply
or reject specific requests.

FOOT-IN-THE-MOUTH
—Consists in preceding the request by a form
of address. Asking how are they. It catches
the person on a personal level.

EXAMPLE:
Person 1: You look blooming today.
Person 2: Why, thank you. (flattered)
Person 1: How are you? You seem happy!
Person 2: Oh yes I am!
Person 1: That’s good to know! You go have a good day. 
Person 2: Thank you.
Person 1: Oh, by the way, could you lend me 150 pesos, because […]
See how the “BECAUSE” technique is also utilized.

“BECAUSE” TECHNIQUE
—People are more compliant when you give
people a reason for why you want them to
do something.

PLAYING-HARD-TO-GET
— Increasing compliance by suggesting that a
person or object is scarce or hard to obtain.

DEADLINE TECHNIQUE
— Increasing compliance by suggesting that
they only have limited time to take
advantage of some offer or to obtain some
item.

FEAR-THEN-RELIEF
— Consists of creating stress before providing
a relief as a preparatory step for a later
request.

“BUT YOU ARE FREE OF” TECHNIQUE
— Consists in clarifying after a request that the
targeted person should feel free not to
comply to the said request.

EXAMPLE:
“Could you please throw the garbage? I mean,
you’re free to refuse, if anyone forces you.”
—The evocation of freedom provoked the
compliance.

“A LITTLE IS BETTER
THAN NOTHING” TECHNIQUE
— Consists in helping the target to understand
that even a tiny contribution or
participation is better than nothing.

EXAMPLE:
Hello sir! I forgot my wallet and I really
need money to buy a bus ticket. Could
you please help me? Even 10 pesos
could help me.

ATTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE
— Consists in giving a persona good image of
his/herself, just by a simple sentence, which
will lead this person to accept your request
more easily.

TOUCH TECHNIQUE
— Touching the person for a few second will
submit to your request.

PERSUASIVE
PSYCHOLOGICAL
MANIPULATION
TECHNIQUES
1. FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR
2. LOWBALL
3. DOOR-IN-THE-FACE
4. FOOT-IN-THE-MOUTH
5. THAT’S-NOT-ALL
6. “BECAUSE”
7. HARD-TO-GET
8. DEADLINE
9. FEAR-THEN-RELIEF
10. BUT-YOU-ARE-FREE-OF
11. A LITTLE IS BETTER THAN NOTHING
12. ATTRIBUTION TECHNIQUE
13. TOUCH TECHNIQUE

SYMBOLIC SOCIAL INFLUENCE
— Psychological presence of others in
ours mental representation of them
influence our behavior and thought.

First, the extent people are present in our thoughts, this may
trigger relational schemas. When relational schemas are
triggered, goals relevant to them may be activated.
Presence of
a person in
our
thoughts
Triggers
relational
schemas
Goals
relevant to
them may
be
activated

• For instance, if the goal of
helping others is triggered,
then we may become more
helpful.
• Our goals may affect our
behavior.

SECOND,
Psychological
presence of others
may trigger goals
which that person is
associated.
Goals they want us to
achieve.

PERCEPTUAL CONTRAST
• A principle in human perception; it affects
the way we see the difference between two
things that are presented one after another.
• Simply put, if the second item is fairly
different from the first, we will tend to see
it more different than it actually is.

Sharon may be failing
Chemistry, but she gets
an “A” in Psychology.

OBEDIENCE
— Social Influence in which one
person simply orders one or more
others to do what they want.

Not much is to be said regarding obedience, only
that it is unparalleled in controlling people
because it is exhibited by people in power
especially authorities in position. Stanley
Milgram’s famous experiment, “Destructive
Obedience,” is to be remembered.

• The Milgram experiment on
obedience to authority
figures was a series of
notable social
psychology experiments
conducted by Yale University
psychologist Stanley Milgram
• Which measured the willingness
of study participants
to obey an authority figure who
instructed them to perform acts
that conflicted with their
personal conscience.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

“Ordinary people, simply doing
their jobs, and without any
particular hostility on their part,
can become agents in a terrible
destructive process. Moreover,
even when the destructive effects
of their work become patently
clear, and they are asked to carry
out actions incompatible with
fundamental standards of
morality, relatively few people
have the resources needed to
resist authority.”

FACTORS THAT CAUSE DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE
Persons in authority assume
responsibility
Persons in authority often have
visible signs of their status and
power
Commands are gradual in
nature, and do not start out
with orders to perform extreme
actions
Events move at fast pace,
giving the persons involved
little chance to consider their
options
Strong tendency
to obey

Individuals must remind
themselves that they, not the
authorities, are responsible for
any hard produced
Individuals must have a clear
indication that total submission
to destructive commands is
inappropriate
Individuals may find it easier to
resist influence from authority if
they question the expertise and
motives of these figures
Simply knowing about the
power of authority figures to
command blind obedience may
be helpful in itself
How to resist D.O.

“It takes tremendous discipline
to control the influence, the
power you have over other
people's lives.”
—Clint Eastwood

Social Psychology - Social Influence

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