Social Influence — Flashcards & Quiz

Key Points

• Conformity: changing behaviour to match a group. Asch's line experiment showed ~33% conformity to clearly wrong answers.
• Normative social influence: conforming to be liked or accepted (fear of social rejection).
• Informational social influence: conforming because you believe others have more accurate information (especially in ambiguous situations).
• Obedience: following instructions from an authority. Milgram's shock experiment showed ~65% of participants delivered supposedly fatal shocks under authority pressure.
• Bystander effect: individuals less likely to help a victim when others are present — diffusion of responsibility (Darley and Latane's studies).
• Ethical issues: Milgram and Zimbardo faced significant criticism for psychological harm and informed consent failures; these shaped modern research ethics.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Confusing conformity (peer influence) with obedience (authority influence).
2. Treating Asch and Milgram as the same study — they test different phenomena.
3. Forgetting ethical critiques when asked to evaluate classic studies.
4. Claiming diffusion of responsibility is the only explanation for the bystander effect — evaluation apprehension and pluralistic ignorance also contribute.
5. Using outdated figures (e.g. Milgram's study is from the 1960s, modern partial replications confirm the general pattern).

Exam Strategy

QCAA Unit 4 social influence questions ask you to describe studies, apply concepts, or evaluate methodology. Method: (1) define the type of influence (conformity, obedience, bystander), (2) describe the classic study's procedure and findings, (3) explain the mechanism (normative/informational), (4) evaluate ethics and validity.

Revision Tip

Classic studies are recall-heavy — drill a Revizi deck with study name, aim, procedure, key finding, and ethical critique for Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo, Darley and Latane.