PSYC 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Muzafer Sherif, Floyd Henry Allport, Social Influence
Document Summary
The tendency of individuals to change/match their expressed views and attitudes to those of others. How we"re influenced by the people around us to accept norms or group standards, even at the expense of our own preferences. Norms are rules about which there is some degree of consensus that are enforced through social sanctions. The subject/imagined influence of norms is enough to make people conform. Some change in your behavior and/or what you express due to the influence of other people. Floyd allport created the first modern lab study of conformity. Had people come into his lab and smell really bad odors and rate them by themselves vs rate them by other people. Question: would people change their judgements on the odor based on the environment. People make less extreme judgements when in a group vs. when alone. Conforming to other people"s behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right.
