Transcript Compliance and Obedience

Compliance
Type of social influence in which a person
changes attitudes or behavior in response
to another’s direct request
 Six principles involved in getting people to
comply with requests
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Friendship/Liking
Commitment and
Consistency
Scarcity
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Reciprocity
Social Validation
Appeals to Authority
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Compliance
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Friendship/Liking
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Ingratiation: If someone likes you, they are
more apt to agree with your request
Self-enhancement: If you look good, use
appealing nonverbal behavior, people will
come to like your request as well! (think of
classical conditioning)
Enhancing the other: flattery will get you
places; gifts and favors work too
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Compliance
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Commitment and Consistency
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Once we make a choice or take a stand, we
encounter pressure to behave consistently with
that commitment
Foot-in-the-door
Lowballing
Bait-and-switch
Effortful commitment
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Effortful Commitment
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Aronson & colleagues
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Female participants came to the lab to join a
‘discussion group’
 Control participants: Asked to read a neutral
passage to the male experimenter
 High-Effort participants: Asked to read an
explicit passage from an erotic novel
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Effortful Commitment
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Aronson & colleagues
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They discover that the group is BORING!
High-effort participants rated the discussion
group as
more interesting
 more fun
 they were more willing to come back to the group
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than the control participants
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Compliance
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Scarcity
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Opportunities seem more valuable when they
are less available
Limited number—Item is rare and hard-to-get
Limited-time offer
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Compliance
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Reciprocity
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We should try to repay what another has
provided us
Door-in-the-face
That’s not all
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Compliance
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Social Validation
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We view a behavior as correct in a given
situation to the extent we see others
performing that behavior
Bystander intervention
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Compliance
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Appeals to Authority
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Authority provides benefits to society
Automatic compliance with authority can cause
trouble
Titles
 Material culture
 Experts agree…
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Obedience
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Type of social influence in which a person
obeys a direct order from another to
perform an action
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Nazi Germany—Many people were simply
following orders. Is this legitimate? Are
normal people capable of true evil when
‘following orders’?
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Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
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40 males, aged 20 to 50,
each paid $4.50 for a study on
learning and memory
Participant is the ‘teacher’—
teach a list of word pairs to the
‘learner’ and shock him in
increasing levels if he gets it
wrong
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Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
At certain levels, the ‘teacher’ hears the
‘learner’ protest
 If the ‘teacher’ asks to end the experiment,
the experimenter responds with a verbal
prod
 How far would you go? How far do you
think the average person would go?
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Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
Every participant went to 300 volts
 26 participants — 65% — went all the way
to 450 volts (“X X X”)
 Many showed signs of considerable distress
 Participants were carefully debriefed and
follow-ups conducted
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Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
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Replications
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Distance from participant to ‘learner’
Distance from participant to experimenter
Outside the Yale University setting
Women, other cultures
Autonomy of participant
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What Breeds Obedience?
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Emotional Distance of the Victim
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If ‘learner’ is in same room, full obedience
drops to 40%
If ‘teacher’ has to hold ‘learner’s’ hand to a
shock plate, full obedience drops to 30%
Depersonalization
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What Breeds Obedience?
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Closeness and Legitimacy of Authority
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If experimenter gives commands by phone, full
obedience drops to 21%
If experimenter leaves, and a ‘clerk’ decided
that the shock should be increased, 80% of
participants defied the illegitimate authority
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What Breeds Obedience?
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Institutional Authority
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Authority of Yale University influenced
volunteers
Milgram replicated the experiment in
Bridgeport, Connecticut – 48% fully obeyed
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What Breeds Obedience?
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Disobedience of a fellow group member
liberates us from obedience
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If another person defied the experimenter,
only 10% of Milgram’s participants fully obeyed
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Intense Indoctrination: Cults
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Intense Indoctrination: Cults
Compliance breeds acceptance
 Foot-in-the-door
 Charismatic leader
 Vivid, appealing message
 Potential converts are often at a turning
point in their lives
 Isolation from outside influences
 Social validation
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