Studying Social Behavior
• Social Psychology: The scientific study of
how we think about, influence, and relate
to one another
• Two types of social psychology
– Psychological: tends to focus on the influence
of individuals on the group
– Sociological: tends to focus on the influence
of the group on individuals
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Social Psychology
• Conformity: adjusting one’s
behavior to coincide with a
group standard
• Muzafer Sherif (1906 – 1988)
– Social norms formation
– Stimulus
•
•
•
•
Pinpoint of light in dark room
Stationary
Light appears to move
Movement is different for everyone
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Sherif’s Conformity Study
• Subjects asked how far the light moved
• Phase 1 Individuals alone
– Variable responses
• Phase 2 Individuals put in groups
– Where they could hear each other
– What would the effect be?
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Sherif’s Conformity Study Results
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Conformity Research
• Sherif’s study was an important 1st step
– Demonstrated norm formation
– But the stimuli were subjective
– We really don’t know what the subjects
perceived
• Solomon Asch (Sherif’s student)
– Tested conformity with
objective stimuli
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Conformity Research
• Asch Conformity Stimuli
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Conformity Research
• Individuals were asked about the lines
– Which of the comparison lines was identical
to the standard line?
– Individually, the error rate is less than 1%
• Asch included confederates
• Confederates = in cahoots with the
experimenter and unknown to subjects
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, …. 15
• On some trials the confederates unanimously
gave the wrong answer
• And then it was the subject’s turn
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Conformity Research
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Conformity Research
• Asch found those who did not conform
were independent (I’m right, they’re wrong)
• Asch found those who conformed said that
they conformed to hide their deficiency,
thought they were incorrect but ‘had to call
it as they saw it’, or not spoil the
experiment
• Asch found that when two real subjects
were among confederates, conformity was
decreased greatly
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Conformity Research
• Obedience: conformity to an authority
• Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)
– A student of Solomon Asch
– Recognized that some conformity was not to a
group but to a person of authority
– As a teenager and young adult after WWII,
he found about the atrocities of Nazi
Germany
– Many people attributed the European
holocaust of WWII to the German culture
(overly strict and obedient)
– Many people thought it couldn’t happen
elsewhere (outside of Germany)
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Conformity Research
• Milgram experimental design
– Advertised: subjects for learning
experiment
– Two arrived at a time at Yale
laboratory
– One randomly chosen to be a
teacher and one to be a learner
– The learner strapped in a chair
– The teacher and experimenter
sat in an adjacent room
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Conformity Research
Learner
Experimenter
Teacher
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Conformity Research
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Conformity Resarch
• The teacher reads list of pairs of words and the
learner needs to recall them
• If the learner gives an incorrect answer, the
teacher administers a painful shock
• Each incorrect answer leads to an increased
intensity of shock in
• If the teacher falters or hesitates, the
experimenter says,
–
–
–
–
“Please continue”
“The experiment requires that you continue”
“It is absolutely essential that you continue”
“You have no choice, you must go on”
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Conformity Research
• With each increase in shock, the teacher
heard the learner cry in pain, beg to be let
out, complain of his heart, moan, and then
go silent (as if dead)
• But that wasn’t important
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Conformity Research
• The real Milgram experiment
– The real subject was the teacher
– The learner was a confederate who was never
shocked
– The moans, protests, and ostensible death
were taped
– The real dependent variable was how far
would the teacher go
– Would he obey the experimenter?
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Armstrong Atlantic State University
Conformity Research
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Conformity Research
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Basic Scenario with men –
Basic Scenario with women –
Learner sat beside teacher –
Learner manually shocked –
Two teachers (subjects) –
Two experimenters argued –
No experimenter after start–
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65%
65%
40%
30%
10%
0%
2%
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Conformity Research
• Milgram’s Obedience Research Legacy
– Obedience to authority is easy and potentially
horrible
• Legacy of human subjects treatment
– Many people thought Milgram went too far
– Inflicted insight
– Institutional Review Board
– Informed Consent
– Debriefing
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Replications
Country
Participants
Italy-1968
Students
Germany- 1971 Male- General pop.
Australia-1974
Male students
Female students
UK - 1977
Male students
Jordan – 1978
Students
Spain - 1981
Students
Austria - 1985 General population
Holland - 1986 General population
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% Obey
85
85
40
16
50
62
90
80
92
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