Abstract: Social influence phenomena often are divided into conformity, compliance, and obedience categories. People exhibit conformity when they change attitudes or behaviors to reflect a perceived norm. Conformity can be motivated either by a desire for accuracy, called informational influence, or a need for social approval, called normative influence. Several variables affect conformity rates. These variables include culture, age, gender, and the size of the group. Norms can be divided into injunctive norms (what society says one should do) and descriptive norms (what people actually do). Either of these norms can lead to conformity, depending on which the person attends to. Compliance refers to agreement to an explicit request. Investigators have identified several procedures that increase compliance rates. These sequential-request procedures include the foot-in-the-door technique in which agreement with a small request is followed by a larger request. Other effective procedures include the door-in-the face, low-ball, and that's-not-all techniques. People exhibit obedience when they respond to a command from an authority figure. Studies find surprisingly high levels of obedience to commands. Researchers point to the studies to illustrate the often-unrecognized power of the situation to affect behavior.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 6
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