Mini-Lesson

Social Influence

This mini-lesson covers the Edexcel Social Influence topic: conformity and Asch's study, obedience and Milgram's study, the factors that affect each, and collective versus prosocial behaviour.

Work through each screen, answer the questions as you go and collect ⭐ stars. Every fact here is anchored to a named study or theory on the Edexcel GCSE Psychology (1PS0) Social Influence topic. Press Start when you're ready.

Social influence · conformity

Conformity & Asch's study

Conformity is changing behaviour or opinion to match a group.

Asch asked participants to match line lengths — an easy task — while confederates gave wrong answers.
Participants conformed to the wrong majority about one third (around 33%) of the time on critical trials.
This shows majority influence — the pressure to fit in with a group.

Quick check

Asch's finding

?In Asch's study, roughly what proportion of critical responses agreed with the wrong majority?

Social influence · factors

Factors affecting conformity

Several factors change how much people conform:

Group size — conformity rises with the majority up to about 3–4 people.
Anonymity — private/anonymous answers reduce conformity.
Task difficulty — harder, less obvious tasks increase conformity.

Quick check

What raises conformity?

?Conformity tends to increase when a task becomes:

Social influence · obedience

Obedience & Milgram's study

Obedience is following a direct order from an authority figure.

Milgram found around 65% of participants gave the maximum (apparently dangerous) 'shock' when ordered by an experimenter.
Factors affecting obedience include the authority of the person giving orders, their proximity, and the location.
Nearer, more legitimate authority produced more obedience.

Sort it

Sort: conformity or obedience?

Tap a term, then tap the group it belongs to.

🔁 Both / general

🪞 Conformity

🎖️ Obedience

Quick check

Milgram's finding

?In Milgram's study, roughly what proportion of participants gave the maximum shock?

Social influence · behaviour

Collective & prosocial behaviour

Edexcel also looks at how being in a group changes behaviour:

Collective behaviour — how crowds behave, including how being in a group can reduce personal responsibility.
Prosocial behaviour — helping others; more likely when we feel responsible.
Bystander behaviour — people are less likely to help when others are present (diffusion of responsibility).

Match it

Match the social-influence idea

Tap a description on the left, then its matching term on the right.

Statement

Answer

Quick check

Bystander behaviour

?People are often less likely to help in an emergency when others are present. This is called:

Social influence · evaluation

Evaluating Asch and Milgram

Both studies are powerful but criticised:

Asch: well controlled, but an artificial task (low ecological validity).
Milgram: striking findings, but serious ethical concerns.
Both may reflect their time and culture.

Social influence · resisting

Resisting social pressure

People can resist conforming and obeying:

Having an ally who disagrees makes resisting easier.
Feeling personally responsible reduces blind obedience.
A consistent minority can slowly shift the majority.

Recap

The big ideas to know

Conformity: Asch — ~33% conformed to a wrong majority

Factors: group size · anonymity · task difficulty

Obedience: Milgram — ~65% gave max shock; authority, proximity, location matter

Behaviour: collective, prosocial and bystander behaviour (diffusion of responsibility)

You've covered the Edexcel Social Influence topic — Asch, Milgram and bystander behaviour. Press Finish to see your score.

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