Psychology 2070A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Proof, Cognitive Dissonance, Solomon Asch

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2070A/B
• Professor: Graeme Haynes

Document Summary

Conformity: a change in one"s behaviour caused by others. Norms: expectations held by a group of people about what behaviours are right and acceptable or vice versa: explicit: norms that are written or spoken, ex. Washroom signs advocating that you wash your hands: not a law but it is expected. Implicit: not openly stated but we are aware of them: ex. "salting: filling tip jars convinces people that most people are doing it. "fastest-selling" or "best-selling: convinces people it must be good because many others are buying it, on social media people often talk about how many others have "liked" their content, often harmless (fashion fads) Costs to conformity: people may conform to undesirable behaviours, drinking, smoking, etc, people often overestimate how often people engage in behaviours, norms about body ideals, lead to eating disorders, people may follow harmful or immoral orders, ex.