Social influence

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School

Chatham University *

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Course

101

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by JudgeLightning12395 on coursehero.com

Social Influence: changes in behavior because of actions by others 0:07 Sometimes occurs because others say something to 0:12 you or do something in the environment for 0:15 your behavior can also be affected by 0:18 the mere presence of other people if missing the environment and zoo. 0:20 Social influences in just about direct behavioral changes such 0:23 as when your mother yells at you to sit up 0:27 straight and so you go ahead and sit up straight. 0:28 Social Influence happens all the time, 0:30 even without specific directions. 0:33 Think about when you're in a classroom, 0:36 you sit around talking to your friends, 0:38 but as soon as the teacher walks in and says hello, 0:40 you immediately start to quiet down and face in-front for class to start. 0:43 So the teachers actions affected your behavior. 0:46 At the same time, someone simply being somewhere will influence your behavior. 0:50 For example, my behavior is totally different 0:56 depending on whether or not my mother is in the room. 0:58 She doesn't even need to say anything to me. 1:01 Her mere presence would make me act differently. 1:03 I will sit up straight, 1:05 I will make sure I don't cuss when I talk, 1:07 I will avoid any mention of politics or religion because that's just not a good idea. 1:09 The mere presence of a particular person in the same environment as me, 1:14 makes me act differently. 1:18 That happens all the time, 1:21 we act differently among some groups of friends,

1:22 than we do among others, 1:25 we act differently with our partners than we do with our friends, 1:26 we act differently with our parents than we do with our siblings. 1:28 Who is around and what they are doing, 1:31 will influence our own behavior. 1:34 There are two distinct ways that the presence of other people can affect your behavior, 1:41 either in positive way or negative way. 1:46 These two ways are social facilitation and social loafing. 1:48 Social facilitation is when you perform better because other people are around. 1:52 A good example would be running in a race versus running alone. 1:57 When you run in a race or at least with someone else, 2:00 you are less likely to slow down or take a break than if you're running alone. 2:03 But most runners actually post their best running times when they're running 2:07 competitive races because they're cheered on by 2:10 the audience and they're motivated by passing other people in the race. 2:12 Having other people with you when you run improves your running performance. 2:15 That doesn't always happen, right? 2:21 Sometimes having an audience can actually make you perform worse. 2:22 Social Loafing: A good example of this would be public speaking. 2:26 You might perform really well while you're practicing your speech at home, 2:28 but then as soon as you step foot on the stage in front of a lot of people, 2:32 you get really nervous and you screw up your speech. 2:35 That happens because social facilitation is mediated by skill. 2:38 What that means, is that when you are confident in your skills, 2:44 you will perform better with an audience because you're 2:48

competent and pushing yourself and you want to show off your skill . 2:50 But when you aren't confident in your skills, 2:53 you get too nervous with an audience in order for you to perform well. 2:56 The audience can actually make you perform 2:59 worse when you are not confident in your skills. 3:01 The effect of the audience, 3:04 the effective of the social environment is actually mediated 3:06 by the confidence that you have in your skills pertinent to that situation. 3:10 Social loafing is what we call it when having other people around me see perform worse. 3:16 In effect, you actually slack off on your behavior. 3:21 A good example of this would be we knew do group projects. 3:25 So when you know there are five other people in 3:28 your group who were going to do the work, you're going to slack off. 3:30 Merely having other people there to do the project 3:32 means that you will put in less effort and do less work. 3:34 Another example would be what happens when the teacher asks a question in class. 3:37 If you're not the only student and you can 3:41 slack off and let somebody else answer the questions. 3:43 But if you're the only student in that classroom, 3:46 you better pay attention because when the teacher asks the question, 3:48 you're the one who has to answer it. 3:51 As long as there are other students in the class, 3:52 and you can check your email or look at Twitter instead 3:55 of paying attention because you don't have to be the one who answers a question, 3:59 you can loaf in that social situation. 4:03 That's actually one of the reasons why smaller classes work better for learning. 4:05

Because there aren't enough people for you to look during class, 4:09 you have to pay more attention, 4:11 you have to work harder than you would in a big class. 4:13 Another type of social influence is conformity. 4:19 Basically we do what everybody else is doing. 4:24 Now people tend to talk about conformity as if it's a bad thing, 4:26 but actually it is 4:29 a necessary behavioral pattern in order to avoid complete chaos in the world. 4:30 Think about if you walk into a bank and you notice that everyone is 4:36 standing in a line and you don't really know what the line is about, 4:39 but you go ahead and stay in the lane because you assume that everyone else is doing it. 4:43 You should be doing it too. 4:47 That is basic conformity, 4:48 and nine times out of 10 conformity will 4:51 lead you to the right behavior in that situation. 4:54 To think about if you didn't conform, 4:57 let's say you just walk to the front of the line of this bank. 4:59 Someone is going to yell at you, they're going to say, 5:01 "Hey, back in line." 5:03 If you don't go to the back of the line, 5:06 everyone in that line is going to be pissed at you and they're going to reject you. 5:08 The bank might even ask you to leave. Conformity effect 5:12 As long as you conform to what everyone else is doing, 5:14 then you can anticipate their reactions to you when they will react 5:18 positively to your behavior and when they will react negatively to be your behavior. 5:22 You can avoid rejection and ridicule by choosing to conform.

5:26 We conform in lots of ways we conform and how we dress, 5:31 how we talk, when we eat, lots of things. 5:34 By conforming to what everyone else is doing, we're avoiding ridicule. 5:37 No one is going to make one of our cloths if we're wearing what everyone else's wearing. 5:41 Nobody is going to make fun of us for 5:45 joining a club with a bunch of other people who are joining a too. 5:47 We are driven as human means to fit into a social group or to fit into society at large. 5:50 We conform in order to be fit in and to be accepted, 5:57 to make friends and to be part of a group. 6:01 Our brains are actually built by evolution to maximize this conformity. 6:03 The better we can fit in, 6:09 the more social groups we can be part of, 6:10 the greater our chances of survival in this world. 6:12 Generally, we think about conformity as a negative thing, 6:15 but it's actually a very necessary thing to society. 6:19 We talked a little bit earlier about social norms, 6:23 those unspoken behaviors you engage in, 6:28 in order to be accepted by society. 6:31 But I'm going to show you this video about conformity. 6:34 This is about how other people's behaviors, 6:37 even when they occur in violation of accepted social norms, 6:40 will affect your own behavior. 6:45 This give you a good idea, 6:46 about the difference between social norms and conformity. 6:48 In this video, noticed that people are conforming to a violation of 6:52 social norms in order to avoid the rejection and ridicule of others around them.

6:58 >> We set up a hidden camera experiment to see if 7:06 this woman would stand up at the sound of this tone. 7:09 [NOISE] Simply because everyone else is, 7:12 you might be thinking you'd never go along with this, or would you? 7:15 [NOISE] 7:19 After just three beeps, 7:28 and without knowing why she's doing it, 7:30 this woman is now conforming perfectly to the group. 7:32 [NOISE] But what happens if we take the group away? 7:35 >> Elaine please? 7:43 [MUSIC] 7:45 [NOISE] 8:06 >> Okay. Now she's alone. 8:06 The crowd is gone and nobody is watching her except our hidden cameras. 8:08 What do you think she'll do? 8:12 [NOISE] She's now conforming to the rules of the group without them even being there. 8:14 Now, watch what happens when we introduce another outsider who doesn't know the rules. 8:24 >> Have a seat and they'll be out in just a couple minutes. 8:30 Thanks so much. [NOISE] 8:33 >> Why are you standing? 8:51 >> Everybody was doing it, 8:52 so I thought I was supposed too. 8:54 >> Think she'll teach the new guy what to do? 8:56 [NOISE] 8:59 We kept the cameras rolling as more unsuspecting patients arrived. 9:13 [NOISE]

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