PSYC 2310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Idiosyncrasy, Minority Influence, Normative Social Influence
31 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
It is our job to understand the psychological mechanism of conformity and obedience. Conformity is the change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined pressure from others. You are much more inclined to do something if everyone else is doing it; you do as others do. Accepting others interpretation of an ambiguous reality in order to obtain accurate information. Studied autokinetic effect; it is a visual illusion that doesn"t exist. When we conform because of information processing, we tend to privately accept what we have told out loud. Once you understand the mechanism, the less likely you are to conform again in a similar situation. We conform to norms in everyday life that we don"t know the origin of, partly because everyone is doing the same thing. The need to be accepted normative social influence. We do many things to be accepted by others, even if they are strangers to us strangers to us.
