Psychology Degree Social Influence and Behavior 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which factor does NOT typically reduce conformity in Asch-type paradigms?
- Having one ally who gives the correct answer
- Writing answers privately
- Increasing the size of the unanimous majority beyond 3–4
- Increasing the difficulty of the task (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Increasing the difficulty of the task
Making the task harder actually increases conformity because greater ambiguity raises reliance on the group as an information source.
Question 2: The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) distinguishes between two routes to persuasion. The central route requires:
- Attractive sources and emotional appeals
- Heuristic cues such as source credibility
- Careful processing of argument quality (Correct answer)
- Repeated exposure to the message
Correct answer: Careful processing of argument quality
The central route involves deep cognitive processing of message arguments, leading to more durable attitude change.
Question 3: A campaign uses fear-arousing messages about skin cancer to change sun-tanning behavior. According to the extended parallel process model, the campaign will succeed only if recipients also feel:
- High susceptibility but low severity
- High threat AND high efficacy (Correct answer)
- Moderate fear and high source credibility
- Low involvement with the issue
Correct answer: High threat AND high efficacy
Without perceived efficacy (belief one can take protective action), high fear triggers defensive denial rather than behavior change.
Question 4: When a person's private beliefs shift to match the group's position after genuine persuasion, this is called:
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalization (Correct answer)
- Obedience
Correct answer: Internalization
Internalization involves true attitude change where the individual now personally endorses the group's position.
Question 5: Research on 'pluralistic ignorance' most often finds that individuals:
- Overestimate how much others share their private views
- Underestimate how much others share their private doubts (Correct answer)
- Accurately gauge group norms through observation
- Exaggerate their own conformity to others
Correct answer: Underestimate how much others share their private doubts
Because everyone publicly masks private doubts, people assume they alone feel uncertain, when in fact most group members feel the same way.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of the 'lowball' compliance technique?
- Offering a free sample before making a sales pitch
- Getting agreement on a deal, then revealing hidden costs (Correct answer)
- Making a large request followed by a smaller one
- Using a celebrity endorsement to increase liking
Correct answer: Getting agreement on a deal, then revealing hidden costs
Lowballing secures commitment at an attractive price and then adds costs, exploiting the sunk-cost and consistency biases to maintain compliance.
Question 7: According to self-categorization theory, conformity increases when individuals categorize themselves as:
- Unique individuals distinct from the group
- Members of a relevant ingroup (Correct answer)
- Members of an outgroup
- Independent of any social category
Correct answer: Members of a relevant ingroup
When a social identity is salient, people conform to the perceived norms of that ingroup to validate their membership.
Psychology Degree Social Influence and Behavior 5
Which factor does NOT typically reduce conformity in Asch-type paradigms?