OCR GCSE Psychology (J203) · Component 2 · Social influence Social Influence
Mini-Lesson
Social Influence
4 missions. Guess, learn, then check. Your place is saved.
Mission 1Seven people give the same wrong answer. Do you go along with them?
Mission 2A stranger in uniform gives you an order. Why is it so hard to say no?
Mission 3In a crowd, polite people do things they'd never do alone. Why?
Mission 4Most people go along. A few refuse. What helps someone resist?
The specification points and sources are listed under the lesson: see Sources.
Mission 1
Seven people give the same wrong answer. Do you go along with them?
Make a guess: Seven people give the same wrong answer. Do you go along with them?
Social influence · conformity
Going along with the majority
Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match a group, because of real or imagined group pressure.
Majority influence: a larger group pressures one person, or a few, to adopt its view.
You may go along to fit in and avoid looking odd, or because you think the group must know better.
Conformity is not obedience: obedience means following a direct order from an authority figure.
Social influence · conformity
Majority influence in a line test
In a classic experiment, one real participant sat with seven actors told to give the same wrong answer on a line-matching task.
On about a third of these trials, the participant went along with the majority. About three in four went along at least once.
Alone, people almost never made mistakes. The pressure came from the majority.
Social influence · conformity
The group and the task
These are situational factors: features of the situation, not the person.
Group size: with one other person giving a wrong answer, almost nobody conformed; with two, about 13% of answers; with three, about 32%. More than three made little difference.
Anonymity: answering privately, e.g. in writing, reduces conformity.
Task difficulty: when the lines are closer in length, conformity rises. Unsure people look to others.
Social influence · conformity
What the person brings
Dispositional factors are features of the person, such as personality.
Self-esteem: people with low self-esteem conform more; confident people trust their own judgement.
Locus of control: people who feel outside forces control their lives (external locus) conform more.
Brain: people with lower self-esteem tend to have a smaller hippocampus (a correlation, not proof of cause).
Quick check
?A class votes on the answer to a hard history question by raising hands. Which change would most likely reduce conformity?
Sort it
?Is each one a feature of the situation or of the person?
Tap a statement, then tap the group it belongs in. Then press Check.
Sort it
?Is each point a strength or a weakness of these explanations of conformity?
Tap a statement, then tap the group it belongs in. Then press Check.
Mission check
?Seven people give the same wrong answer. Do you go along with them?
Quite possibly, at least once. In the classic line test about three in four people went along with a wrong majority at least once, although most answers stayed correct. How likely you are to conform depends on the situation (group size, anonymity, task difficulty) and on you, for example your self-esteem.
Mission 2
A stranger in uniform gives you an order. Why is it so hard to say no?
Make a guess: A stranger in uniform gives you an order. Why is it so hard to say no?
Social influence · obedience
Following orders
Obedience is following a direct order from an authority figure, someone with the power to give orders.
Conformity is pressure from a group of equals; obedience comes from someone of higher status.
People obey when they see the authority as legitimate: it has the right to give that order, like a police officer or a teacher.
Symbols such as a uniform or an official building make authority look legitimate.
Key studySocial influence · obedience
Bickman (1974)
Aim
To see whether people are more likely to obey someone in a uniform.
Method
Field experiment in Brooklyn, New York; 153 adult pedestrians. Male experimenters dressed as a civilian (jacket and tie), a milkman or a guard ordered them to pick up a paper bag, give a stranger a dime for a parking meter, or move away from a bus stop.
Results
The guard was obeyed most in every situation. Paper bag: civilian 36%, milkman 64%, guard 82%.
Conclusion
A uniform that signals legitimate authority increases obedience.
Strength
Real street setting and people did not know they were being studied, so behaviour was natural.
Weakness
No consent or debrief; little control over extraneous variables, such as how rushed people were.
Social influence · obedience
Agents of authority
Milgram's Agency theory: in the autonomous state you act on your own conscience and feel responsible for what you do.
Faced with a legitimate authority, you shift into the agentic state: you act as the authority's agent and feel they are responsible.
This agentic shift explains why people obey orders they believe are wrong: "I was only following orders."
Social influence · obedience
Authority, distance and culture
Authority: obedience is higher when the authority looks legitimate (uniform, lab coat, official building).
Proximity: obedience falls when the victim is closer or the authority is further away.
Social influence · obedience
The authoritarian personality
Adorno's theory: some people have an Authoritarian Personality, which makes them highly obedient.
Traits: strong respect for authority, rigid "black-and-white" thinking, and hostility towards people seen as lower status.
Cause: a strict upbringing with harsh discipline and love that depended on good behaviour.
It is measured with a questionnaire, the F-scale. People who scored high tended to be more obedient.
Quick check
?A hospital porter is told to move heavy equipment in a way that breaks safety rules. In which version is he most likely to refuse?
Sort it
?Is each point a strength or a weakness of these explanations of obedience?
Tap a statement, then tap the group it belongs in. Then press Check.
Calculate
?In Bickman's paper bag situation, 36% obeyed the civilian and 82% obeyed the guard. What is the percentage increase from civilian to guard, to the nearest whole number?
Mission check
?A stranger in uniform gives you an order. Why is it so hard to say no?
The uniform makes the person look like a legitimate authority. Once you accept that, you tend to shift into the agentic state and feel that they, not you, are responsible. How close the authority is, and personality (such as the authoritarian personality), also affect whether you obey.
Mission 3
In a crowd, polite people do things they'd never do alone. Why?
Make a guess: In a crowd, polite people do things they'd never do alone. Why?
Social influence · crowds and collective behaviour
Crowds can harm or help
Collective behaviour is how people act together as part of a group or crowd.
Anti-social crowd behaviour harms people or property, e.g. rioting, looting or fighting at a football match.
Pro-social crowd behaviour helps others, e.g. a crowd cheering on charity runners, or strangers working together to help in an emergency.
The same crowd processes can push behaviour either way.
Social influence · crowds and collective behaviour
Lost in the crowd
Deindividuation: losing your sense of personal identity in a crowd.
Anonymity (masks, uniforms, darkness, a big crowd) means you are unlikely to be identified, and responsibility feels shared.
With lower self-awareness, you follow the crowd's norms instead of your own standards.
The norms matter: in one study, anonymous people dressed in robes like the Ku Klux Klan gave stronger shocks than people dressed as nurses.
Social influence · crowds and collective behaviour
Culture
Culture is the shared values, norms and customs of a group.
Individualist cultures (e.g. the UK, the USA) value personal goals; collectivist cultures (e.g. China, Japan) value the group's goals.
Cultures differ in their norms for helping and aggression, so similar crowds can behave pro-socially in one culture and anti-socially in another.
Social influence · crowds and collective behaviour
Personality and morality
Locus of control: people with an internal locus (who feel in control of their actions) are less easily swept along by a crowd than those with an external locus.
Morality: people with a strong sense of right and wrong are less likely to join anti-social crowd behaviour and more likely to help.
Brain: regions of the prefrontal cortex help make moral decisions; damage there is linked to poor moral judgement.
Key studySocial influence · crowds and collective behaviour
NatCen (2011)
Aim
To understand why some young people joined the August 2011 riots in England, and others did not.
Method
Qualitative interviews, alone or in small groups, with young people from Tottenham and other riot areas soon afterwards; some had taken part, some had not.
Results
In Tottenham, a peaceful protest about a police shooting turned violent. Reasons for joining: anger at police, excitement, free goods, seeing others go unpunished. Reasons for staying away: parents, a sense of right and wrong, a job or education to lose.
Conclusion
Involvement depended on dispositional factors, such as morality and attitudes to police, as well as the situation.
Strength
Rich, detailed accounts in young people's own words.
Weakness
Self-reports may be dishonest; a few areas may not represent all riots.
Quick check
?At a night-time festival, Leo pulls on a face mask and joins others throwing bottles, something he would never do at school. Which explanation fits best?
Sort it
?Is each point a strength or a weakness of the explanation it mentions?
Tap a statement, then tap the group it belongs in. Then press Check.
Mission check
?In a crowd, polite people do things they'd never do alone. Why?
Being in a crowd can cause deindividuation. Feeling anonymous and sharing responsibility lowers self-awareness, so people follow the crowd's norms instead of their own. If those norms are anti-social, behaviour gets worse; if they are pro-social, it can get better. Personal factors, such as morality and locus of control, help some people resist.
Mission 4
Most people go along. A few refuse. What helps someone resist?
Make a guess: Most people go along. A few refuse. What helps someone resist?
Social influence · resisting and changing
Not alone
A unanimous majority or authority is hard to resist. One other person who refuses breaks the pressure: this is social support.
In Asch's line test, one ally giving the right answer cut conformity to about 5%.
In a Milgram variation, when two fellow "teachers" refused, only 10% went to 450 volts, compared with 65% normally.
A resister shows refusing is possible, so you don't stand out alone.
Social influence · resisting and changing
When a minority changes minds
Stigma: negative attitudes and stereotypes, e.g. about people with mental health problems. Discrimination: treating them unfairly.
Minority influence: a small group changes the majority's views and behaviour.
It works best when the minority is consistent (same message over time), committed (making sacrifices) and flexible (willing to listen).
As more people are persuaded, the snowball effect turns a minority view into the majority view: social change in awareness, attitudes and behaviour.
Social influence · resisting and changing
When most people change
Majority influence: people change to fit the social norm, what most others think or do.
Campaigns showing most people talk openly about mental health can lead others to change attitudes and behaviour.
Time to Change (2007–2021), run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, used national campaigns and encouraged contact with people with mental health problems.
Attitudes improved from 2009 to 2019, but some gains fell back after it ended.
Quick check
?In a meeting, a manager tells staff to skip a safety check to finish faster. Which situation makes Sam most likely to refuse?
Quick check
?A student group campaigns against mental health stigma. For two years they give the same message in every assembly, even giving up their lunch breaks, and they adapt their posters after feedback. Which feature of minority influence is shown by giving up their lunch breaks?
Sort it
?Is each example minority influence or majority influence?
Tap a statement, then tap the group it belongs in. Then press Check.
Mission check
?Most people go along. A few refuse. What helps someone resist?
Support. Seeing even one other person refuse makes resisting much easier, because the group or authority is no longer unanimous. A consistent, committed few can then win over the majority, which is how attitudes to mental health have begun to change.
Recap
Big ideas
Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match a majority, even when the majority is clearly wrong.
Situational factors (group size, anonymity, task difficulty) and dispositional factors (self-esteem, linked to hippocampal volume) affect how much people conform.
Criticisms: situational explanations raise the free will/determinism debate; dispositional explanations have generalisability problems.
Obedience is following a direct order from an authority figure; symbols such as uniforms make an authority look legitimate.
Situational factor: authority figures (Bickman, 1974). Dispositional factor: the authoritarian personality. Criticisms: free will/determinism and generalisability.
Crowds can produce pro-social or anti-social collective behaviour.
Deindividuation: anonymity and shared responsibility lower self-awareness, so people follow the crowd's norms.
Situational factors: deindividuation and culture. Dispositional factors: locus of control and morality (prefrontal cortex). NatCen (2011) linked riot involvement to morality and attitudes. Criticisms: free will/determinism and generalisability.
Social support: one other person who resists makes it much easier to resist a majority or an authority.
Application: minority influence (consistency, commitment, flexibility, the snowball effect) and majority influence (social norms) can change attitudes and behaviour, raise awareness and reduce mental health stigma and discrimination.
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Mini-lesson complete!
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You've worked through Social Influence for OCR GCSE Psychology (J203). 🎉
Mission 1Seven people give the same wrong answer. Do you go along with them?
Mission 2A stranger in uniform gives you an order. Why is it so hard to say no?
Mission 3In a crowd, polite people do things they'd never do alone. Why?
Mission 4Most people go along. A few refuse. What helps someone resist?
3 Cambridge OCR GCSE Psychology J203 spec v2.0, Social Influence: Application, changing attitudes (specs/pdftxt/ocr-j203-spec.txt, line 676); acknowledgement of Time to Change (5e)