Social Influence and Behavior Flashcards

Robert Cialdini's principle of 'social proof' states that people are more likely to comply when:

Answer: They observe similar others doing it

Social proof relies on the heuristic that if many similar people are doing something, it is probably the correct behavior.

In Sherif's autokinetic effect studies, convergence of group estimates best demonstrated:

Answer: Informational social influence

When the situation was ambiguous, participants used others' judgments as information to form their own, illustrating informational influence.

The 'door-in-the-face' technique involves:

Answer: Making a large request first, then a smaller one

After refusing an unreasonably large request, people feel obligated to comply with a more moderate follow-up request.

Deindividuation most commonly increases antisocial behavior because it reduces:

Answer: Self-awareness and accountability

When people feel anonymous in crowds, their self-monitoring decreases and they are more likely to act on impulsive or group-sanctioned behaviors.

Which finding from Asch's line-judgment studies is considered most surprising?

Answer: Participants conformed even when the correct answer was obvious

The shocking aspect was that people denied clear perceptual evidence to match a unanimous but incorrect group, showing the power of normative pressure.

Reactance theory predicts that when people feel their freedom is threatened, they will:

Answer: Become more motivated to reclaim the threatened freedom

Psychological reactance motivates people to reassert autonomy, often by doing the very thing they were told not to do.

In the context of social influence, 'idiosyncrasy credits' refer to:

Answer: Accumulated goodwill that allows group members to later deviate

Hollander's concept holds that conforming members build up credits they can later 'spend' to deviate without losing group standing.