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0:01
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so last class we covered we just started out in conformity and understanding why people conform what is going on in terms of.
0:14
Alexandria Reynolds: Making the decision to go along with the crowd and we're going to talk more about that, today, what kind of factors are in place to make you more likely to conform. Alexandria Reynolds: And what factors could be in place to make you less likely to conform and then so remember we're all about the context right so social psychology is all about the context. Alexandria Reynolds: All about trying to figure out why people make certain decisions to behave a certain way.
0:39
Alexandria Reynolds: So last class, we talked about this idea behind private acceptance in public compliance and private acceptances when you. Alexandria Reynolds: really believe whatever it is that you're you're you're doing so it might be that you are not sure about a particular situation, and so you follow along because you think.
1:01
Alexandria Reynolds: That must be the way to do it and so that private acceptances you if somebody were to ask you what's the right way to act, you would say, well, it must be this way because of. Alexandria Reynolds: Information or social influence telling you that other people are doing it that way kind of like, if I were to say would use this example last class.
1:21
Alexandria Reynolds: If you've never eaten sushi before you go to a restaurant and do you eat some sushi by following what other people are doing. Alexandria Reynolds: And you know kind of following what like their process and their behaviors on the somebody would ask you what what's the proper way to eat sushi, then you would.
1:40
Alexandria Reynolds: explain that way that you that you did it because you assume that's that's probably the right thing to do and that's the right way to do it, and so what that is is private acceptance, you have. Alexandria Reynolds: Your like that's I believe that that's the way to do it now couple public compliance doesn't always mean that you believe that's the right way to do things.
2:02
Alexandria Reynolds: Public compliance is you complying with other people conforming to whatever standard you see set and you may not agree with exactly what. Alexandria Reynolds: is being done, but you are just doing it to conform to the group so public compliance doesn't always mean that you believe what you're what you're doing is rights or you believe what you're saying is correct.
2:29
Alexandria Reynolds: Public compliance just simply means you're kind of going along remember so private acceptances do you believe what it is that you're you're doing is right. Alexandria Reynolds: And then public compliance is going along, even if you don't believe that's the right thing that you're doing.
2:43
Alexandria Reynolds: informational social influence you usually does result in private acceptance, because you don't you don't really know and so you're going along with what information you have at the time. Alexandria Reynolds: And we're going to talk about an example where some things don't match where you sometimes have a privately held belief that you're not actually expressing but you're complying with the opposite.
3:09
Alexandria Reynolds: way and and we'll we'll talk about that in just here in just a minute, and so, when when it comes to conforming you know there's a lot of reasons why we, we end up conforming and one of the factors that.
3:24
Alexandria Reynolds: sort of predicts or likelihood to conform, is how important it is, the thing that you're doing Okay, and so there's been several experiments on this looking at what kind of factors can we set up an experiment. Alexandria Reynolds: where a person would be more or less likely to conform Okay, and so, in this particular experiment what they did.
3:45
Alexandria Reynolds: Was they set up this this eyewitness testimony experiment, so they had people come in and look at a lineup okay so something like this Okay, and they had to pick out the perpetrator right, so they got to pick the bad guy. Alexandria Reynolds: That you know they have whomever what they think was the you know they're pretending to be an eyewitness.
4:08
Alexandria Reynolds: And they're given you know, maybe a gritty video of a crime or something, and they have to identify the person from a lineup okay. Alexandria Reynolds: And so, remember, this is an experiment, you have people who are you know just going along with you know with they just show up there they're like okay well i'm getting class credit or i'm getting.
4:27
Alexandria Reynolds: Extra credit to do this experiment so i'm just going to show up and do whatever the you know, whatever the the studies about and so. Alexandria Reynolds: What happens is is that in the actual experiment they're trying to kind of mimic and I witness sort of situation where you witness in an event and then you've got to pick out the the perpetrator, so in this case, what it is, is that.
4:49
Alexandria Reynolds: The participants are asked to pick out a perpetrator added that lineup kind of similar to what you just saw that picture. Alexandria Reynolds: And so there's 13 tasks, so the first set the the participants were showing a slide of a man who they're told us the perpetrator. Alexandria Reynolds: And then next they see this slide is lineup proposed a foreman and one of those people is the actual perpetrator, so what is the person that they're supposed to pick out.
5:14
Alexandria Reynolds: And sometimes in the lineup the perpetrators dress differently, sometimes they're just the same and the job is for the participant is to pick out that whoever matches right. Alexandria Reynolds: So they they made the task the researchers, made a task really difficult they made it really hard by presenting the slides really, really quickly, and so it became sort of ambiguous because.
5:38
Alexandria Reynolds: The participants only saw the slides for about a half a second So you see the perpetrator and then you see this lineup and then you know you're trying to match these two, but you don't really have a lot of information to go by, because they are. Alexandria Reynolds: they're doing this, so quickly, and so you don't have time to sit and examine everything so they did this for two groups Okay, so they had one group.
6:02
Alexandria Reynolds: To the the experiment was the same for both groups, but one group was marked high importance and one group is marked whoa important, so they manipulated one variable across the two groups. Alexandria Reynolds: And that was the amount that they paid right the person, so they said Okay, if the person if the participants um.
6:27
Alexandria Reynolds: If the person participant was paid a lot of money to do the task in this case $20 every time they accurately identified.
6:35
Alexandria Reynolds: The the the perpetrator Okay, then that was considered the high important script Okay, and another thing that the participants were told, was that. Alexandria Reynolds: they're developing this task for like a real light, you know we're we're trying to do this on a bigger scale so there's a lot of importance placed on this every accurate identification or resulted in you know money and.
6:59
Alexandria Reynolds: They had to you know, try to do their best on them on the activity. Alexandria Reynolds: Now there was another group, and this other group was told wasn't paid anything, it was just told this is just a regular experiment okay just do whatever do the best you can right.
7:14
Alexandria Reynolds: into that group was deemed as low important, so they weren't paid for you know accurate identification they weren't told this is going to be used to develop a bigger scale study, they were just told. Alexandria Reynolds: It is what it is okay, so what the difference was between the two was level of importance now do you guys remember.
7:35
Alexandria Reynolds: What a person if we have a person who's in on the experiment what that person is called, so we have participants, and then we have these people who were in on the experiment. Alexandria Reynolds: Very good it's actually on the slide right it's a confederate right, so a confederate. Alexandria Reynolds: Is a person who yep very good getting a lot of getting answers on here confederate is the person who's in on the experiment and the participant doesn't know that okay.
8:05
Alexandria Reynolds: The participant does not know that this other seemingly you know innocent looking person right other participant these they think. Alexandria Reynolds: Is in on the experiments person is a confederate and the idea is that we have confederate sometimes because we want a particular manipulation.
8:22
Alexandria Reynolds: And we want to influence our participants so sometimes everybody's a confederate only have one participant, sometimes we have a bunch of participants and only one confederate. Alexandria Reynolds: And lots of mixes in between just depending on what it is that are we trying to manipulate a crowd or we try to manipulate one person, are we trying to use a crowd to manipulate a person, what are we trying to do so in this case.
8:43
Alexandria Reynolds: We had groups in this experiment, there are groups where there is a confederate who is consistently giving incorrect answers, and the question is is does the participants. Alexandria Reynolds: conform to what the confederate is doing so it's this really quick task you don't have time to really identify the people right so it's ambiguous.
9:10
Alexandria Reynolds: In some groups it's a really important task in other groups it's really low important tasks, so when what situation is it going to be where a participant, where a person regular person. Alexandria Reynolds: is going to choose to conform versus not choose to conform Okay, so in this case, where we had the person who was in the high.
9:42
Alexandria Reynolds: Importance group they were much more and we already got the answer here the the group that saw the experiment as high importance they conformed. Alexandria Reynolds: They were much more likely to conform when they felt like there was a lot on the line okay.
10:02
Alexandria Reynolds: When the group, you know was low importance group was watching the confederates give the wrong answers they didn't have anything to lose they're just like oh no I mean that's not right, you know that's it's this guy. Alexandria Reynolds: So, even at a task was slightly ambiguous, it was a hard task Okay, the low importance group very unlikely to conform because really there's not a lot at stake there right okay they're just like oh it's fine.
10:28
Alexandria Reynolds: it's you know it's it's it's this other it's this correct answer, whereas the high importance group they are more concerned with getting it right. Alexandria Reynolds: But Okay, they want to be sure, so they're going to go along with the they're going to go along with the confederate because they want to make sure that what they're saying is.
10:50
Alexandria Reynolds: Because it's so important, they want it they're like maybe i'm mistaken let's go with what this confederate saying, because they seem confident in their. Alexandria Reynolds: answer right so when there's a lot of them. Alexandria Reynolds: is very important and it's you know a lot riding on it a person is going to be more likely to conform, because then they start questioning themselves, they start saying well, am I right.
11:14
Alexandria Reynolds: I don't maybe i'm maybe I misunderstood the task, and they start getting confused the low importance group there's not a lot of cognitive dissonance there they're like oh no the answers this. Alexandria Reynolds: They don't really have anything to lose so they're not going to conform they're going to go ahead and be honest, the answer, and they were like I you know I don't think that I misunderstood this task, I think that.
11:35
Alexandria Reynolds: This person is wrong, you know so when the task is very important you're going to be much more likely to conform so it's a particular context where we will go with the crowd because we think well you know this. Alexandria Reynolds: This is must be a really important thing, and I don't want to mess this up does that make sense, so when you don't want to mess it up you're going to be more likely to go with somebody who seems confident.
11:57
Alexandria Reynolds: Even though there's no private acceptance there you don't you don't think that it's right, you are going to go along with it, because you know it's a really important task.
12:08
Alexandria Reynolds: Now there are cases when informational conformity is going to backfire Okay, so there are and there's a nice there's a fun video here, and this is a funny video from the show scrubs so if you've ever watched that. Alexandria Reynolds: you'll enjoy this YouTube video and it's it's something that happens in ERS all the time, so in this particular clip they're talking about.
12:35
Alexandria Reynolds: I think it was equal I or food poisoning, it was something that it was like something on the news that was happening, and then, when that happens people freak out Okay, so a contagion is when you have a rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd so think about it this way.
12:58
Alexandria Reynolds: you're an ambiguous situation okay and you're in a crowd and you're too big crowd and then everyone starts freaking out right. Alexandria Reynolds: Nobody knows the root cause for why the first freak out happened but because everybody is freaking out it starts to become the emotion becomes contagious. Alexandria Reynolds: And people will conform to these behaviors or emotions and or emotions and we'll also see this happen is somebody starts like running from something.
13:29
Alexandria Reynolds: Again it's a contagion these behaviors become contagious where a person actually will run because they. Alexandria Reynolds: don't know why other people are doing it, but it must be that something's going on right. Alexandria Reynolds: So people tend to in really ambiguous situations rely on the interpretation of others, and a lot of times this interpretation is wrong or potentially dangerous right and we talked about this.
13:55
Alexandria Reynolds: In cases of like it's this survival tactic right, so if everybody's you see a crowd running the opposite in this particular direction you're not going to run opposite of them towards the potential danger you're going to run with them away from it, because. Alexandria Reynolds: You know it's it's been kind of ingrained in our species to do that.
14:14
Alexandria Reynolds: Now, the problem is, is that those people who might be engaging in those behaviors where they start freaking out or they have like you know, a behavior that could be potentially dangerous. Alexandria Reynolds: That can be a problem if the start of that was misinformed, so if it started with the first couple of people and they're overreacting or they're reacting and appropriately okay that can spread things in a dangerous way i'll give you guys an example.
14:41
Alexandria Reynolds: So during the Vietnam War, there was a particular case where there was a group of soldiers who were in a village. Alexandria Reynolds: And when they were in the village on there was some commotion and some of the soldiers sort of like were spooked. Alexandria Reynolds: And they started firing and and with their guns and killing village members so people who weren't armed women and children, they started to open fire.
15:11
Alexandria Reynolds: Well, what happened was this was only a couple of people that started opening fire. Alexandria Reynolds: Well, the other group of soldiers who didn't understand what was going on, they walked into this misinterpreted behavior and emotion and misinterpretation of situation. Alexandria Reynolds: And they started opening fire on the village, because they thought well I don't know what's going on but they're firing and i'm just going to follow them.
15:33
Alexandria Reynolds: And what ended up happening is lots of people in the village almost a whole village was massacred because of this misinterpretation and if. Alexandria Reynolds: we're going to talk about in a minute how we kind of stop and think like Is this the right decision but oftentimes in an ambiguous situation, especially scary situations we just don't think we just act i've got a comment here hold on, let me look at this real quick.
16:01
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so would it be an example of contagion where people get frightened just because other people are even though they weren't initially, yes, this does happen. Alexandria Reynolds: I worked in a haunted house on October I saw several people jump seconds after the people who are actually scared yes so riots and these kinds of and i've got that example here riots and.
16:21
Alexandria Reynolds: These examples of fear contagion absolutely this is contagious and especially when you're in a high emotion situation that could potentially cause. Alexandria Reynolds: You know your first misinterpreted emotion is going to be fear if you're in a fearful situation right, so if you're in a haunted House already.
16:39
Alexandria Reynolds: That is a that is an emotion that you're going to experience or expect to experience, now that contagion becomes very, very clear and very easily spread because everyone's already kind of at this high anxiety level.
16:53
Alexandria Reynolds: Now, in example another example of.
17:01
Alexandria Reynolds: contagion is something called mass psychogenic illness, and so this is an example it's an extreme example of misdirected informational social influence okay and that's really where this comes in. Alexandria Reynolds: Which is really it's a funny clip it's making fun of a really real thing that happens because it's a it's a you know, like a comedy show.
17:24
Alexandria Reynolds: But it's a really interesting clip I want you guys take a look at it, when you get when you get a chance, and so what mass mass psychogenic illnesses is when a group of. Alexandria Reynolds: People actually experienced physical symptoms, where there's no cause there's no physical cause, and so this is an example where you have.
17:46
Alexandria Reynolds: The you know where they call it kind of like mind over matter we start to kind of feel like sick when there's no reason for you to feel sick and, in some cases, some misinterpretation. Alexandria Reynolds: of a particular symptom Okay, and so, when you have an ambiguous situation where you don't understand what's going on, we do our best to try to explain.
18:06
Alexandria Reynolds: as best we can, and in some cases that that becomes a mismatch and it's, it is wrong okay so give you an example in 1998 there was a. Alexandria Reynolds: teacher in Tennessee who reported a gasoline smell in her classroom now they evacuated the school okay.
18:26
Alexandria Reynolds: Over 170 teachers, students and staff reported symptoms of headaches nausea dizziness, which is the same symptoms, that you would experience with a gas leak Okay, now they found nothing they found nothing in the school, there was no smell Okay, as soon as they reported back.
18:51
Alexandria Reynolds: that there was no gas leak that there was there was no smell nobody could go in and do it okay.
18:58
Alexandria Reynolds: All the mysteries illnesses went away everybody's cured okay it's kind of like a placebo that's exactly kind of like what happens is is you. Alexandria Reynolds: The power of the mind is extremely it's it's crazy it's powerful you can sort of experience symptoms, with no with no actual cause and no, no, no real like.
19:24
Alexandria Reynolds: explanation you know just by sort of convincing yourself, so those hundred and 70 people experienced physical symptoms, with no root cause and as soon as an explanation was given.
19:39
Alexandria Reynolds: Their their illness went away, they were no longer nauseated they were no longer you know dizzy nothing like this there's actually a report on it. Alexandria Reynolds: Here, where you can see that um you know there's this mysterious fumes sick and almost 100 and his high school right and it's like.
19:57
Alexandria Reynolds: You know this happens in lots of situations where somebody reports to smell or report something and, in essence, what happens is is that there's no explanation there's no there's no root cause. Alexandria Reynolds: And then, once an explanation is given oh hey you know this this this didn't you know you guys are fine. Alexandria Reynolds: And what ends up happening is that. Alexandria Reynolds: The the side effects go away so one way to cure a mass psychogenic illness.
20:31
Alexandria Reynolds: is to give an explanation Okay, because it's rooted in misinformation it's rooted in mystery and so um. Alexandria Reynolds: When you can clear that up, you can clear up this this psychogenic illness um when we look at what is the root cause of contagions and things like that a lot of times is mass media so mass media can be good and bad right, it has a.
20:57
Alexandria Reynolds: It can it can play a powerful role and spreading psychogenic illness, for example, um. Alexandria Reynolds: Today we have TV, radio, magazines Internet social media all that it can spread information very efficiently very quickly okay um compared to like things like the Middle Ages, so in the Middle Ages, we had the. Alexandria Reynolds: dancing manias that went crisscrossed over Europe and it took 200 years for this.
21:25
Alexandria Reynolds: psychogenic onus to move across Europe because they're the the method of.
21:33
Alexandria Reynolds: Of informational influence with slow, you know we're talking about word of mouth we're talking about newspapers are talking about. Alexandria Reynolds: You know very slow of getting from town to town, so it was a span over 200 years if you have something that you think could be mass psychogenic illness that could be spread around the world that could be done literally.
21:53
Alexandria Reynolds: In seconds to minutes you know it today, because of the REACH that we have with informational spread right now. Alexandria Reynolds: Just like it has a very powerful role and spreading psychogenic illness, it can also cure it almost instantaneously can stop it in its tracks.
22:11
Alexandria Reynolds: Because you introduce a logical explanation for something that's ambiguous it's the same ideas like Oh, you see something in the sky everybody's seeing this color this this shape and they're like oh my God we're the aliens. Alexandria Reynolds: But if you have a very logical explanation that makes sense, you can stop that fear pretty immediately because you're like no, it was just look, it was this.
22:33
Alexandria Reynolds: I don't know rocket launch and maybe they have information about that people like okay you're gonna still some people it's going to believe it but generally speaking. Alexandria Reynolds: The majority are going to say okay that's that that that makes sense right because we're always looking for explanations I got something in chat here hold on i'm okay so. Alexandria Reynolds: This is a OK so i'm going to read this, because this is funny.
22:55
Alexandria Reynolds: NASA genetic illness reminds me of an episode of sponge Bob for when I was a kid sponge bob's pet snail was biting people because he had a splinter, but it was thought that it was some sort of illness that made people violent I remember this episode, by the way. Alexandria Reynolds: I feel like I saw not too long i've seen it before and I, and I remember seeing it not too long ago.
23:12
Alexandria Reynolds: The entire town is episode descended into chaos zombie like hordes of the characters running around, even though nothing was wrong with them. Alexandria Reynolds: It was a strange episode, but it's fascinating that they portrayed this psychological concept somewhat accurate.
23:24
Alexandria Reynolds: yeah that's exactly what happened, I mean they were literally talking about psychogenic illness in sponge Bob because that's exactly how it happens, we have this very logical explanation. Alexandria Reynolds: Gary had a splinter right and everyone freaked out because they didn't have an explanation, and so they thought oh my God this snail is biting somebody and everybody's going to get sick, it would be the same thing as if, for example, you had a pet.
23:50
Alexandria Reynolds: Cat and that cat was started biting people and the cat just had an injured foot or something and everyone's like Oh, my goodness we all have rabies and then everybody starts getting sick. Alexandria Reynolds: And then we turns out that nothing's wrong with the cat except for this her foot and it was just acting out and it's fine.
24:05
Alexandria Reynolds: The now everybody's you know side effects are going to go away because they're like Oh, I guess, I don't have rabies I guess i'm just fine I just had a cat bike right. Alexandria Reynolds: So how often is mass psychogenic illness happen, it does I wouldn't say it happens, like all the time, but it is, it can be a frequent thing just depending on. Alexandria Reynolds: What like what's going on, and you know these sorts of things depends on ambiguity, so you know.
24:30
Alexandria Reynolds: A lot of times the the you know these sort of a psychogenic illnesses occur on a more local level, like a smaller level like we would see, for example, with a school with a you know, a gas leak. Alexandria Reynolds: We see that happening quite often now something big big large scale.
24:46
Alexandria Reynolds: doesn't happen quite as often it's still considered mass psychogenic illness, because we have lots of people who are reporting symptoms right So even if you have a case where you have like. Alexandria Reynolds: 10 people saying that they felt feel ill, and that is still going to be something that we're going to see.
25:02
Alexandria Reynolds: So, for example, you might see it in like food poisoning, you might see it on somebody reports, you know eating at a restaurant they don't feel well and everybody's reporting that they don't feel well with that person might have.
25:14
Alexandria Reynolds: You know, had something unrelated and these other people are reporting that they Oh, they have they must have food poisoning because they ate there too. Alexandria Reynolds: So it actually happens pretty frequently, but not necessarily on the scale of like global right and we're not seeing it quite quite that much it does it has the capacity to happen, though, for sure.
25:33
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay does anybody have any questions about that so usually as soon as we can, we can have like a logical explanation and usually clears up situation pretty quickly um. Alexandria Reynolds: So any other questions about that give me a thumbs up if you feel pretty good about that we'll move on to the next thing.
25:52
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so let's talk about the factors involved when a when a person is going to be more likely to conform to informational social influence remember this is you don't maybe don't know what's going on, and you use the information around you. Alexandria Reynolds: To act right, so if a situation is ambiguous okay ambiguity is a really crucial variable so when you're uncertain you're going to be more likely to be open to influence from from others.
26:23
Alexandria Reynolds: Because you don't know how to judge the situation, especially if you're in a particular situation where you aren't really sure what the right behaviors are you're going to look to other people to. Alexandria Reynolds: to act and to behave and the greater the uncertainty, the more reliance we're going to have on other people. Alexandria Reynolds: So if it's something that's really, really, really uncertain we're going to be more likely to conform.
26:46
Alexandria Reynolds: And this is that example kind of bringing it back to that situation that happened during the Vietnam War, when we look at the people who conformed and the soldiers who fired on the village. Alexandria Reynolds: A lot of those soldiers were very young people, you know 17 1819 years old, they might have never been in a war zone before before.
27:04
Alexandria Reynolds: Barely ever shot a gun very inexperienced and so they're going to you know, this might have been the first combat situation where they're placed into this situation and now they're like Oh, my goodness, what do I do. Alexandria Reynolds: We also see in this is also not only a good example of ambiguity, the soldiers walking in didn't know what they were coming into they just saw people firing. Alexandria Reynolds: But it's also a crisis situation okay.
27:28
Alexandria Reynolds: And so, when you're in a crisis situation it's very quick right we don't have time to stop and think about the actions that we need to take me just need to act very quickly, because sometimes it might be our life depended on that right. Alexandria Reynolds: You might be scared or panicked and you're going to see how other people are responding and so you're going to tend to follow along.
27:46
Alexandria Reynolds: And, of course, the problem is, is that we might imitate irrational behavior and we're just kind of adding to the to the problem right and so i'm. Alexandria Reynolds: In those particular cases, you know we're we're we tend to also look at is a person i'm. Alexandria Reynolds: An expert right so so, for example on those soldiers who were in Vietnam, or in during the Vietnam, where it happened to be a calm your you know they may have been looking to a.
28:17
Alexandria Reynolds: Higher ranked officer, you know, because that person is more experienced, but sometimes the problem is is even the expert. Alexandria Reynolds: isn't acting appropriately or they're misinterpreting the situation, so it can be dangerous to look it's it's better than then going with just everybody to look for an expert.
28:34
Alexandria Reynolds: But sometimes the expert isn't always doing the right thing, as well, and in that particular situation where we had the soldiers who were you know mass massacring this village. Alexandria Reynolds: You know, they were they were scared they were panic there's a crisis situation, because many of them had been told that sometimes villagers plant landmines and carry guns and sometimes they attack American soldiers because.
29:02
Alexandria Reynolds: That had happened in other locations, and so they go in with this information it's very ambiguous situation even the the hiring officers aren't doing. Alexandria Reynolds: You know the the right thing, because they're scared and panicked as well, and that is, you know, a definitely a bad time to be X rated she said, take a perfect storm of something really bad happened.
29:27
Alexandria Reynolds: Now, had the soldiers, not been in a crisis situation right and had more time to sit and think about their actions chances are that tragedy would have been avoided, simply because. Alexandria Reynolds: They would have had time to stop and say wait a second what's going on here do I really want to do this.
29:41
Alexandria Reynolds: And many of those soldiers, you know really were very affected by that because um you know they they they felt terrible about you know killing innocent people so it's not like it's it's kind of always comes back to you know. Alexandria Reynolds: Are humans inherently good people or you know, or we just you know, have the capacity to to kill when needed when needed, and a lot of times.
30:03
Alexandria Reynolds: there's you know, always a debate of you know, like freud's you know, man is wolf to man, what do we do for survival purposes, and we know that not everybody makes that decision. Alexandria Reynolds: And we'll talk about that in a few minutes, why and and looking at certain examples of when people go against the grain and we're going to we're going to get to that um. Alexandria Reynolds: Now let's go back to this idea of looking at experts right.
30:28
Alexandria Reynolds: And so, when we have people who are we deem as an expert Okay, we tend to look at their particular behavior so let's let's give an example here so let's say you're on a plane. Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, and you are, you know, maybe it's your first time on a plane, or maybe you've only you know, been on a couple of plane rides and you're just not you know you're not as confident.
30:48
Alexandria Reynolds: And you see um you're in the air okay you're flying along had a very high altitude and you look out the window and you see smoke coming from said plane that you're currently on an air and I high altitude.
31:01
Alexandria Reynolds: um what might be the first person you look at that you might deem as an expert in the situation to judge their reaction so who might you look at if you're on a plane, you see smoke coming out of maybe like the engine whose reaction, are you going to be probably focused on.
31:21
Alexandria Reynolds: So we have it in chat the flight attendant right if they're panics you're probably going to panic right if they're freaking out and like. Alexandria Reynolds: Smoke okay you're probably going to then be you know pretty pretty scared okay and chances are you're going to look at the flight attendants. Alexandria Reynolds: over your seatmate unless you have determine that the person sitting next to you is potentially an expert flyer.
31:57
Alexandria Reynolds: Now, it could be that you've talked to that person, and they are like oh I fly all the time, and you might deem them as more of an expert than you. Alexandria Reynolds: So it is possible for you to look at other people's reaction, I mean you're definitely going to look at other people's reactions, because if everybody's freaking out, but the flight attendants calm.
32:13
Alexandria Reynolds: Then everybody's going to stay calmer right it's one the flight attendant when the expert in the room is starting to act. Alexandria Reynolds: Like something's wrong that's when everybody else is going to start getting really nervous okay um alright another great example here if the pilot freaks out. Alexandria Reynolds: yep that's the time that's it's time to freak out when the pilot is a very obviously like not okay.
32:39
Alexandria Reynolds: That everybody else is going to be not Okay, and you know and that's who so so you're looking at the flight attendant. Alexandria Reynolds: The flight attendants looking to the pilot right so everybody's looking to the next person up and the pilot is supposed to be literally the expert in the room, or on the plane.
32:54
Alexandria Reynolds: And so that's kind of who we're all looking at so usually we can't see the pilot, but if we can hear you know, in his voice or her voice that they sound very nervous. Alexandria Reynolds: They were probably going it's like when they come over on the intercom then we're probably going to be nervous as well right.
33:09
Alexandria Reynolds: But as we have determined experts aren't always reliable sources of information, we like to think that the more expertise or knowledge, a person has and the more valuable that person is going to be as a guide and ambiguous situations, but. Alexandria Reynolds: You know, some people aren't is really good about controlling the way that they look and act.
33:27
Alexandria Reynolds: But you know those individuals are trained they're supposed to be trained to keep calm, even in very nervous situations and there was a there was a situation where I was actually on a on a plane. Alexandria Reynolds: It was a really late night flight, we were on flying it felt like we were flying in a circle, and if you phone a lot you kind of it was at night so it's hard to tell.
33:50
Alexandria Reynolds: Because it, but if you if you fly a lot you start to like you can kind of you can kind of feel when you're going in a circle. Alexandria Reynolds: It feels it feels different it's really hard to describe, but if you're flying in daylight, and you look out your window, you can tell that you're flying in a circular pattern. Alexandria Reynolds: And it's you know it's a broad circle and a lot of times what pilots will do is they'll circle.
34:12
Alexandria Reynolds: right before they land because maybe like a terminal isn't open yet and so you're just kind of buying time in the air, obviously, you know you can't land if there's no place to land. Alexandria Reynolds: And so I remember, there was there's this particular time. Alexandria Reynolds: or just felt like we were flying like in circles, and it was a really bad storm and we're you know, everybody was kind of like nervous and looking at each other and the.
34:34
Alexandria Reynolds: The flight attendants were super chill like right they were just like oh it's fine. Alexandria Reynolds: we're just you know we're just we're waiting for terminal that open because because of the storm and there's there's a little bit backed up. Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so it turns out after we landed, we found out that our plane had been struck by lightning Okay, nobody knew on the plane for the flight attendants in the pilot.
34:56
Alexandria Reynolds: And we couldn't land yet because i'm all because it was such a bad storm that they had closed the airport. Alexandria Reynolds: And so we know that in the air i'm pretty positive that literally everybody on that flight would have freaked out. Alexandria Reynolds: hey Oh, by the way, guys are playing just got hit by lightning we're Good though you know you you there's certain information that you definitely don't want everybody on the plane to know.
35:17
Alexandria Reynolds: um but the pilot the pilot and the flight attendants had such a very you know calm demeanor that nobody will you know, nobody was nervous and so you know that's how you control the crowd right um there's another really interesting example of this.
35:35
Alexandria Reynolds: Where back in in in I believe it was 1940 it might have been the late 1930s 1940 so at the time the. Alexandria Reynolds: The source of entertainment was radio right so everybody tunes into the station and they listen and so there was a particular broadcast which was Orson Welles. Alexandria Reynolds: War of the worlds now if anybody's read this Okay, it is like very dystopian like scary.
36:06
Alexandria Reynolds: You know martian invasion story okay it's it's it's it, you know when you reading it it's like oh man that's you know. Alexandria Reynolds: that's that's that that would be crazy if that was happening now, the problem is, is that some people tuning in didn't know that it was a story. Alexandria Reynolds: They thought, this is a news broadcast of what was happening currently in the world, and it was that there were Martians that were invading the earth.
36:33
Alexandria Reynolds: So when people are listening to this broadcasts, a lot of people started freaking out because they were like oh my God it's the end of the world right and so people started calling into like police departments, and then the police departments didn't know. Alexandria Reynolds: So they were like so people were calling into the police and the police were like what we're being invaded.
36:54
Alexandria Reynolds: And so you know the you're looking to the expert to give you information, and so this was a crisis situation where people started really freaking out because they thought that. Alexandria Reynolds: You know, it was the end of the world, and so it was just a broadcast dude they were just reading a story and. Alexandria Reynolds: So i'm in this particular situation, this was this was this was very scary for a lot of people tuning in.
37:20
Alexandria Reynolds: And there were a lot of reports written on this about this sort of mass contagion this fear that went across everybody because they didn't know. Alexandria Reynolds: That this is actually a fake is a fictional story and that things weren't actually happening. Alexandria Reynolds: And we're going to talk about situations where people had this happen, and they didn't they didn't follow through with the fear and i'll explain why, in just a minute.
37:42
Alexandria Reynolds: And we're going to get to this later into the Semester, but something that we're going to talk about is the bystander effect or later into actually. Alexandria Reynolds: Possibly some of this material I can't remember if it's in this chapter or another chapter.
37:53
Alexandria Reynolds: But the bystander effect when you're in a situation where you know you're looking around to see if people are asking for help and you're assuming that you know people are asking for help you tend to not.
38:05
Alexandria Reynolds: Call nine one if you think other people are have are already called and so on, you know.
38:11
Alexandria Reynolds: An emergency or crisis situation can sometimes cloud are thinking and we make assumptions right we don't know. Alexandria Reynolds: If we can help or not, or if we even should bother and sometimes what ends up happening is we choose not to help because we think it's covered and so. Alexandria Reynolds: You know that is also clouded by ambiguity as well i've got another thing on chat here.
38:32
Alexandria Reynolds: Would another example of this be like when they tell doctors and nurses to keep their pool and don't use any words that could freak out patients. Alexandria Reynolds: Are the patient's family absolutely for people who do things like sonograms X rays MRI scans. Alexandria Reynolds: they're trained to keep very calm, because they don't want to you know, like, for example, if you are in a situation where the.
38:52
Alexandria Reynolds: The technician sees something that is probably going to be bad news, they don't want to freak that personnel they the end and sometimes it might be incorrect, so they don't want to scare somebody. Alexandria Reynolds: With their reaction and causes fear contagion, because then everybody's going to start freaking out in the room instead they wait for the doctor, to be able to make sure that they can deliver the news appropriately with the right facts and information.
39:19
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so i've got something on chat here my dad told me that some people were freaking out and saw lights over the horizon at night for that world of the words world broadcast absolutely people were actually reporting. Alexandria Reynolds: That they were seeing things that were accurate with the broadcast. Alexandria Reynolds: When it wasn't true, it was just a fictional story being read being broadcast on the radio very good point i'm glad you brought that up.
39:39
Alexandria Reynolds: We start to see things and hear things and think things that really aren't there because. Alexandria Reynolds: You know it's basically our mind playing tricks on us, because we want to be right, and so, because of that we start interpreting every little ambiguous thing.
39:54
Alexandria Reynolds: As lining up with the thing that we think is happening right, so it could be that there was a plane going over during the broadcast and somebody looked outside and they're like don't start this spaceship.
40:06
Alexandria Reynolds: You know, because their explanation is going to fit in with exactly what they think is happening right there expectation to absolute very good point there.
40:15
Alexandria Reynolds: Now, how is it that we can be in a situation and we can resist informational social influence right, so we have to ask a few critical questions of ourselves, first of all, do I know more about what is going on okay.
40:29
Alexandria Reynolds: then that person or do other people know any more about the situation than what I currently do. Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so stopping and asking yourself what is, what do we, what are the facts, what do we know what's going on right do they know more than I do, because it doesn't seem like they do. Alexandria Reynolds: Right so maybe they aren't interpreting this correctly, is there an expert who should know more Okay, and maybe see what they're doing.
40:54
Alexandria Reynolds: And so, like if you're on a plane, and you have a seatmate who's freaking out ask yourself, maybe I should be looking to the to the flight attendant or maybe Maybe I should be looking to the pilots behavior. Alexandria Reynolds: Do the actions of other people or the experts seems sensible does this make sense is this logical.
41:11
Alexandria Reynolds: And if I Act, the way that they're acting if I follow through with what they're doing and is this going to go against common sense, my common sense is this going to. Alexandria Reynolds: be immoral is this going to go against my moral compass is this going to go against my sense of right and wrong now i'm going to give you guys let's jump back to that.
41:31
Alexandria Reynolds: That example looking at being able to resist illegitimate information and accurate information if you just stop and think. Alexandria Reynolds: We can we can resist this inaccurate informational social influence as long as we stop and think right when we are freaking out and not thinking that's when we're going to be more likely to do something that might be immoral or wrong or.
41:57
Alexandria Reynolds: You know something that's against our common sense in this situation, where we had during the Vietnam War those soldiers set open fire. Alexandria Reynolds: Not everybody did this not every single soldier open fire or engaged in combat okay so. Alexandria Reynolds: i'll give you a couple examples one surgeon said he'd been ordered to destroy the village like literally quote destroy the village okay.
42:24
Alexandria Reynolds: And he refused to follow that order because he didn't feel right Okay, so he went against his order because he stopped and thought. Alexandria Reynolds: If I did this is this going to be against my moral compass, and so he chose not to engage in firing on the on the village. Alexandria Reynolds: Another soldier watching people fire on civilians okay actually intentionally shot himself in the foot, so that he would have an excuse to be evacuated from the scene.
42:55
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, because, again, he was like this isn't right, I and he actually engaged in hurting himself just so that he could be evacuated out because he's like this doesn't seem right okay. Alexandria Reynolds: One helicopter plot pilot who looked down and saw the whole thing happening landed and rescued 15 Vietnamese children and actually ferried them often to.
43:16
Alexandria Reynolds: a safer place further into the forest because again just not feeling right about the situation actually was able to rescue several of the villagers.
43:27
Alexandria Reynolds: So the question is is.
43:30
Alexandria Reynolds: Do you have time to stop and think about what the right thing is to do, and you know how do you what questions should be. Alexandria Reynolds: You should you be asking yourself in this particular situation to know, am I doing the right thing right and so.
43:49
Alexandria Reynolds: The those people who listen to the world, the war of the worlds broadcast right, some of them engaged in just simple problem solving right they said, you know what i'm going to check the other stations on the radio and see is this you think if we have Martians invading.
44:08
Alexandria Reynolds: it's probably going to be on more than one radio station right, so they started going to different radio stations and they. Alexandria Reynolds: found that nobody else is broadcasting, the same news, you know they were they were trying to do, rational things. Alexandria Reynolds: That told them that that that first initial thoughts probably wrong, so those individuals didn't panic, because they realized wait, there must be something else going on here.
44:31
Alexandria Reynolds: And so that's what's important in these situations is to stop and think and ask yourself does this make sense, right now, I know a lot of times we don't have the time to do that, but the idea is that you try to make time for it, so that you engage in the correct behavior now.
44:51
Alexandria Reynolds: We talked about informational social influence now let's kind of switch to normative social influence, so this is a different type of influence, and so what this is is that. Alexandria Reynolds: The the influence of other people is going to lead us to conform, because we want to be liked and accepted by.
45:10
Alexandria Reynolds: By by other humans right, and so a lot of times what happens is is this ends up resulting in public compliance, but not private acceptance so social informational influence a lot of times leads to private acceptance, because you just don't know.
45:26
Alexandria Reynolds: Whereas normative social influence a lot of times ends up that you may not privately accept what you're what you're saying, or what you're doing but you're going to go along with it, because you want to be. Alexandria Reynolds: going along with everybody else, so, whether it is because you want to be liked you want to be accepted, you don't want them to think you're stupid, whatever it might be.
45:50
Alexandria Reynolds: You know you're going to go along with the crowd.
45:53
Alexandria Reynolds: We know this, because you know we're human we're human we're social species right, we know that one of our basic needs, is to feel a sense of belonging, yes it's to feel acceptance from others, that is a very basic human need and it's important for our well being it's important for.
46:13
Alexandria Reynolds: You know our development it's very stressful and traumatic when we're rejected by others, and so you know that is a lot of times the explanation for why we tend to go along with the crowd. Alexandria Reynolds: Now, another important kind of concept here is this idea of social norms So these are rules right, these are rules that a group has for acceptable behaviors for acceptable values and beliefs of its members.
46:38
Alexandria Reynolds: Sometimes these rules are spoken right, these are kind of explicit rules where we know that we're supposed to follow this and sometimes they're implicit or they're sort of unspoken rules. Alexandria Reynolds: That we know that we're not allowed to go against the crowd or go against these rules, because it might mean that we get rejected out of the group right.
46:56
Alexandria Reynolds: And so we know that it's very important to have companionship it's very important that we have this human contact and so. Alexandria Reynolds: A lot of times we go along with these social norms, even if we don't agree with them, because we want to keep this sense of belonging, this. Alexandria Reynolds: um so let's let's think about some what let's think about some groups right, and this could be anything, it could be, you know college students your age group, it could be a.
47:25
Alexandria Reynolds: living in Southwest Virginia, it could be living in America, what are some rules, whether spoken or not. Alexandria Reynolds: That you really should follow given a particular groups, so can send people give me some examples of social norms like what are some things that you know behaviors or values or something that you need to say or do or don't say or do based on a particular group.
47:50
Alexandria Reynolds: smile back when someone smiles at you that's the polite thing to do right what else.
48:03
Alexandria Reynolds: So what are some other spoken or unspoken social rules.
48:10
Alexandria Reynolds: um Okay, we got say, excuse me when you're passing someone closely.
48:15
Alexandria Reynolds: Yes, ma'am yes, Sir, pointing is rude uh huh always say you're doing fine, even if you're not when you're asked right, even if you're having a bad day someone's like how you doing i'm good but. Alexandria Reynolds: you're dying attack yep that is definitely something that we do, because what happens if you go against a social norm right, what if a stranger comes up to you and passing they smile you smile back okay.
48:39
Alexandria Reynolds: Rule number one check a smile and they're like hey and you're like Oh, my goodness, I am not doing fine i'm, this is why i'm not doing fine and then you go into about you know, a five minute situational rant of what, why are not fine.
48:54
Alexandria Reynolds: What will happen in that situation you think.
49:01
Alexandria Reynolds: People assume they often over share whoa Okay, that person is over, sharing that's odd right uh huh. Alexandria Reynolds: So, are they gonna think you might be you weird or different or on she didn't go by the script very good we have scripts we have social scripts and that person not follow the script.
49:21
Alexandria Reynolds: it's good things are gonna get awkward very good it's good to feel weird right they're gonna assume you're they might walk off, you might be in the middle of explaining why you're not fine and they're like whoa okay. Alexandria Reynolds: And they might just walk off right um do you think that person is going to approach you again if they ever see you again.
49:41
Alexandria Reynolds: nope nope they're gonna be like well we're going to avoid that one okay. Alexandria Reynolds: Even though you're telling the truth and even though this is something that's happening in your life in your body, right now, and you just need to tell somebody. Alexandria Reynolds: um it's not an acceptable thing to do right it's a goes against its deviant right people don't like it and you could.
50:00
Alexandria Reynolds: Somebody might might might say something rude to you, they might make funny you, you know they can ridicule you they could just literally walk away. Alexandria Reynolds: They could reject you, and so, depending on how you know deviant behavior is that person is going to react, a certain way that's it and it may be polite and i'd be like okay.
50:21
Alexandria Reynolds: I hope it gets better and they might be polite about it, but that does not mean that they don't think that you're an odd person right. Alexandria Reynolds: um they're going to have certain certain thoughts that go through their head that's going to be oh this isn't a normal functioning human being right so.
50:37
Alexandria Reynolds: We have these social norms and you know that's why sometimes when you travel, this can be really difficult because if you go to different countries if you go into different cultures, if you go to different parts of even different parts of the United States. Alexandria Reynolds: You are going to experience different different social norms so saying yes ma'am yes ma'am and, yes, Sir that's a southern thing it's also a military thing you go up north or.
50:59
Alexandria Reynolds: In other places, and you say yes ma'am yes, Sir, you might actually be considered rude because yes ma'am yes, Sir, is for older people and they may think that you're calling them old. Alexandria Reynolds: Right So these are definitely situations where you have to understand the social norms where you're at and sometimes it doesn't match.
51:19
Alexandria Reynolds: What you grew up with right.
51:22
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so I know therapists often have issues with this, how are you doing today i'm fine. Alexandria Reynolds: Okay okay excellent tell me what's been going on with you, oh my dog died my anxieties been through the roof, and my life is falling apart at my feet. Alexandria Reynolds: very interesting comment that's exactly what happens right we're so trained in the script that.
51:40
Alexandria Reynolds: That we don't tend to say what's really going on right, and you have to train people out of that So if you want to go into counseling that's something that you have to be mindful of what are the scripts. Alexandria Reynolds: What are the things that we're used to saying, and you got to break out that script and it doesn't feel right but that's sometimes rewarding the question can help people come out of that script So if you ask somebody.
52:02
Alexandria Reynolds: It does feel automatic because that's a script that we've learned so as an counselor as a therapist you don't. Alexandria Reynolds: You don't sit you don't start with a script because we know that if you start with the script what's going to happen, so you start with a part of the script what what's going to happen to your client.
52:20
Alexandria Reynolds: they're just gonna they're just going to continue the script they're going to say their part right they're going to say they're part of the scene. Alexandria Reynolds: And so you need to make sure that you break out of that because, if not you're never going to get anywhere. Alexandria Reynolds: With your people, and you need to you know make progress so um so yeah absolutely.
52:37
Alexandria Reynolds: But that's just because we've been been built and conditioned for the social norms and anytime we go outside the social norm, we will get punished for it. Alexandria Reynolds: And so, if you think about everything that we do we're conditioned to do everything um, how do you rephrase how are you when speaking to others to get an honest answer so they don't follow the script.
52:56
Alexandria Reynolds: This can be different, based on the person, you know you if it's somebody that you know, and you and you want to kind of get at. Alexandria Reynolds: You know what they're what they're experiencing um you know you might you would just need to phrase, the question differently to something like. Alexandria Reynolds: How you've been feeling recently, so you know what's really been going on with your life or you know.
53:19
Alexandria Reynolds: Maybe start sometimes starting off script yourself saying something like hey you know what i've been really struggling lately. Alexandria Reynolds: And then you know explaining the situation and then saying, do you, you know how has your experience been and so So if you go off script a lot of times you've basically said it's okay.
53:38
Alexandria Reynolds: For them to go off script and to go against the social norms, so if you if you present it with you know with that, instead of saying like oh i'm fine how have you been done, they know we're back on the script again.
53:51
Alexandria Reynolds: I got one here i've experienced that yes, ma'am yes, Sir thing a lot when I moved around it felt normal for me to say that because i'm from the South, but when I would say to other people in the West, or they would actually get offended. Alexandria Reynolds: And they think I was rude from then on yeah absolutely because that social norm being present in the Midwest or more like Northwest.
54:11
Alexandria Reynolds: North saying yes ma'am yes, Sir, unless it's on like a military base usually does not get is not well accepted because. Alexandria Reynolds: it's considered something that you do for like elderly people, you know. Alexandria Reynolds: And so you want to make sure that you're not offending anybody and that's that's really hard to do it's really hard not to offend somebody when you're in somebody else's territory.
54:33
Alexandria Reynolds: So you know and then sometimes asking like oh you're explaining i'm from the South, you know that's that's you know I apologize that's just in my vernacular you know. Alexandria Reynolds: kind of making people aware that you're not trying to be offensive, this is just the way that you know you're used to talking and having being open about that conversation.
54:52
Alexandria Reynolds: Now let's talk about an example of when we have situations where people experience this normative social influence and don't like to go against the grain so ashes line judgment studies is a series of studies really interesting stuff where.
55:15
Alexandria Reynolds: People demonstrated that they were conforming to a crowd, even though they knew that the answer was incorrect okay so typically I like to do this in the classroom so. Alexandria Reynolds: it's unfortunately we don't have the whole class and even if we did have the whole class it's it's it's it's something really interesting to set up, so you have to have a lot of people to do this.
55:37
Alexandria Reynolds: So what this is is essentially an experiment, where you have like a panel right, and so you might have five people and it varies depending on the type of experiment, so this has been done with just like two or three people all the way up to 70 people. Alexandria Reynolds: So you know if you have a panel of like four or five people and what the.
55:56
Alexandria Reynolds: experiment is is that you are giving it a line okay so you're given this reference line, so this line, right here you're you're told this is the line that I want you to measure everything against okay So you see a slide where you see the line. Alexandria Reynolds: And then you get a slide of comparison lines together so you'll have one, two and three so tell me just from looking at this.
56:18
Alexandria Reynolds: What line close most closely matches it matches the comparison lines just looking like this, if I had to ask you one, two or three which one most closely matches the standard line.
56:33
Alexandria Reynolds: So if you had to answer so put it in chat is it one, two or three that most closely matches the standard line.
56:42
Alexandria Reynolds: what's funny is I could actually recreate this experiment right now that's it's really funny i'm not going to.
56:49
Alexandria Reynolds: But.
56:51
Alexandria Reynolds: You need to pre plan it, but I realize now I could have just I could have done this one on on zoom i'm okay so everybody's saying to to is correct choose the right answer it, it is the line that most closely matches the standard mind in the real experiment.
57:06
Alexandria Reynolds: there's one participant and there's several confederates so let's say we have Okay, so in class we have 25 people in class right now get on zoom right now.
57:18
Alexandria Reynolds: let's say that I told i'm i'm maybe like 20 of you to say the wrong answer okay. Alexandria Reynolds: So if I said to you yep you got it on chat somebody just said would involve telling a group of people to pick one or three.
57:33
Alexandria Reynolds: If I told 20 of you to pick one the answer one which is very obviously the wrong answer that would lead five of you, not knowing what's going on and being like wait a second, why is everybody saying one it looks like it's too, and then you do this number you're like.
57:53
Alexandria Reynolds: And you're like looking and you're like but it's obviously to Why is everybody say one and then what are you going to do so if I asked you that question and on chat everybody put one. Alexandria Reynolds: Instead of the very clearly right answer to how many of you would say one, what do you say what's the likelihood of you doing that everybody on chat put one is the answer 20 out of 25 people were putting one.
58:23
Alexandria Reynolds: What would you and I had them all answer first What would you put.
58:29
Alexandria Reynolds: Would you put the correct answer, or would you put one to follow the crowd.
58:42
Alexandria Reynolds: Oh that's a good one okay so somebody said they wouldn't answer their answer anonymously okay we're we're we're going to circle back to that because that's an important point. Alexandria Reynolds: Everybody knows your name everybody sees your answer, so this is not, this is not an anonymous answer this is everybody sees your name or you're in the room, and you pick it okay you never explained why we were using the word confederate is there a reason.
59:08
Alexandria Reynolds: So it considered as a person who's in on the experiment Okay, so if 20 of you, I told you, before the experiment, I need you to pick answer one. Alexandria Reynolds: You were in on it, you are a confederate if I told one of you, if you if one of you were just explained the experiment and you don't know anybody's in on it you're a participant. Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so I explained this term last class in the beginning of class this class.
59:31
Alexandria Reynolds: So confederate is a person who's in on it, so if I told 20 of you hey we're going to just experiment, I want you to pick answer one, even though it's obviously incorrect. Alexandria Reynolds: that's a confederate that's a person who's in on it.
59:44
Alexandria Reynolds: So a lot of you say you know I probably would go ahead and pick one so tell me why would you do that, like you know it's wrong so you're not privately accepting this information, you know it's incorrect why, why would you choose the wrong answer.
1:00:04
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay wouldn't want to stand out.
1:00:07
Alexandria Reynolds: because everyone else's and I don't want to stand out that's usually the reason why, maybe my perception is awesome how you start questioning yourself.
1:00:18
Alexandria Reynolds: You question did I understand the rules correctly.
1:00:22
Alexandria Reynolds: it's something wrong with my eyes, you feel the peer pressure and we're going to get back to that that's really good comment okay so let's let's let's look back to the study okay.
1:00:31
Alexandria Reynolds: So in this in this ashes line experiments study is called the line judgments studies, a series of studies we're going to talk about the differences in them so. Alexandria Reynolds: You have that box, where you evaluate you know you have a standard line, and you have all these other lines, and you have to evaluate which one closely matches it right and so.
1:00:50
Alexandria Reynolds: In a lot of the trials at confederates going to give the wrong answer Okay, because that's what they're told to do the participant doesn't understand this, they don't know that someone's in on it, so what happens is is that you do this hold on one second.
1:01:07
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, and what happens is is that.
1:01:13
Alexandria Reynolds: I think it's like 76% of the time and at least one trial these groups of people were saying the wrong answer. Alexandria Reynolds: Knowing that it was the wrong answer okay so here, this is not an unambiguous study it's very clearly the wrong answer Okay, and between i'm so looking at the breakup of trials so only about 24%.
1:01:40
Alexandria Reynolds: of participants never confirmed, even on even on any trial, they said know the answers to and they give it correct every single time so out of all of the trials about only less than 25% of people will not conform. Alexandria Reynolds: know that is the wrong answer I don't care what those people are saying this is the answer Okay, now that means that 76% of people are going to conform at least one, at least during one trial and here.
1:02:15
Alexandria Reynolds: We have over 10% conforming to lots of trials like almost the entire experiment right, so a lot of times what we see is that somebody isn't feeling comfortable and so they'll conform some of the time and then sometimes i'll give the right answer but.
1:02:36
Alexandria Reynolds: almost everybody does it right it's a huge percentage of people who will actually conform. Alexandria Reynolds: Even though they know the answer is wrong, so this is a screenshot of one of the videos of the actual ashes line experiment, what I want you to do, can you guys get out of these three people who was the participants.
1:03:00
Alexandria Reynolds: don't look at them don't look at the words just guess based off of body language, who is the participant so there's two confederates and there's one participant, who is not in on this study.
1:03:19
Alexandria Reynolds: Number six the man in the middle right the man in the middle, why, why do you think this person is the participant what is their body language tell you they see engaged. Alexandria Reynolds: they're dressed differently that's that's a good point that's actually that's a really good observation that's probably a problem. Alexandria Reynolds: He was concerned the other two are relaxed he looks anxious Okay, he is like he is pulled up looking at he's like.
1:03:46
Alexandria Reynolds: he's like what like he is confused he's looking up and going are are my eyes are playing tricks on me his posture seems anything you what is wrong with these people right. Alexandria Reynolds: So what was happening in this situation, and they did so many different variations of this right, so they tried it with like two confederates or six confederates.
1:04:07
Alexandria Reynolds: They tried it with one participant to participants they didn't like literally every iteration you can imagine. Alexandria Reynolds: And, in some cases, they would have the confederates look at the participant every time he gave the actual correct answer, but it was against the other answers and be like. Alexandria Reynolds: given him like nasty lugs and be like what's wrong with you and really kind of punishing the participant in a way.
1:04:32
Alexandria Reynolds: of being like, why are you giving this incorrect answer, and so do you think that's going to make a person more likely to conform. Alexandria Reynolds: Do you think if they're getting these this feedback from other participants or participants that they're an idiot do you think that's going to make them continue to conform, or do you think that's going to make them want to go against the grain.
1:04:56
Alexandria Reynolds: So if they say the correct answer.
1:04:59
Alexandria Reynolds: out loud the answers to and everyone's like oh what's wrong with him, are they going to continue going against the grain or do you think they're going to be more likely to conform as time goes on.
1:05:11
Alexandria Reynolds: If they visibly see people irritated with them.
1:05:21
Alexandria Reynolds: they're going to change your answer exactly they're going to be much more likely to conform, because now, they are getting a feedback from the participant that participants that Oh, my goodness.
1:05:35
Alexandria Reynolds: They think i'm an idiot and so that's going to kind of come back and hit their self esteem, a lot right. Alexandria Reynolds: it's going to confirm, unless they already knew and dislike the one who's looking at them funny yeah and then, in this case is, it should be all strangers, so they actually don't know. Alexandria Reynolds: The individuals but yeah you are going to be more likely to confirm if you're being punished for the fact that you are going against the grain.
1:05:57
Alexandria Reynolds: we're going to talk about that a minute, so what are some reasons why we go, you know and conform right so. Alexandria Reynolds: We don't want to feel weird you guys have already told me that in the in the experiment that we did at the beginning of class last class last week. Alexandria Reynolds: Where all of you answered and said i'm here, and you know, and we did that kind of little experiment, the beginning of class.
1:06:22
Alexandria Reynolds: You you all even said, you know I don't want to feel peculiar I don't feel like a fool I don't you know want people to think i'm an idiot or maybe I thought I missed something right. Alexandria Reynolds: And so i'm even with complete strangers we don't want to look stupid we do care what other people think, and we don't. Alexandria Reynolds: We don't want people to think that we don't know what we're doing and don't know what we're talking about.
1:06:46
Alexandria Reynolds: Even if we know that we're never going to see those people ever again we still want approval from them okay um, and so this is, you know kind of an important factor, because. Alexandria Reynolds: This predicts how we're going to behave in certain situations okay so alternatively I would fear in the line study that the others would think I thought they were done.
1:07:08
Alexandria Reynolds: And i'd feel bad if I went consistently against them absolutely so that's another factor you care about what they think about you and what you think about them. Alexandria Reynolds: And so you don't want them to think that you think they're stupid because they're answering incorrectly right you'd be like, oh no i'm gonna give this one to them right. Alexandria Reynolds: let's go with one because that seems right so when you change the factors on this experiments.
1:07:32
Alexandria Reynolds: We actually see differences in behavior so we're going to talk about that in just a minute now what happens in this experiment here this normative social influences causes us to conform. Alexandria Reynolds: And it results in public compliance, so we are actively going with answer one, even though we know that the true answers to. Alexandria Reynolds: we're going along with it, even though you know it's incorrect, so it does not result in private acceptance you're like.
1:07:57
Alexandria Reynolds: This is not an ambiguous situation I know the answers to but i'm going along with the answer one because. Alexandria Reynolds: I don't want to feel weird I don't want them to think i'm dumb I don't want to think they're doing sort of thing so that results in public compliance without private acceptance now in situations where there is a very ambiguous experiment.
1:08:17
Alexandria Reynolds: Where we're just not sure there's another there's another example of an experience we're going to talk about in a minute where it's ambiguous that's when you're just not sure you will actually privately accept it. Alexandria Reynolds: But in this example super not ambiguous, you know what the answer is and you're choosing to go with the wrong answer because of.
1:08:36
Alexandria Reynolds: normative social influence now, when we do variations of this study, for example, and there's a really good comment earlier if I knew it was anonymous I would go with the right answer okay. Alexandria Reynolds: When they made the answers anonymous written on paper versus saying out loud when the answers were private and not public, very few, very few conformed okay.
1:09:00
Alexandria Reynolds: When people didn't have to worry about the likelihood of somebody you know hearing their answer Okay, they were not not likely to conform Okay, and so on, that confirmed he dropped from to an average only 1.5.
1:09:21
Alexandria Reynolds: Of the 12 trials very, very few actually confirmed in that situation, and so one really interesting observation and i'm going to read you this quote from one of the papers that were written in 18 1985 from this.
1:09:35
Alexandria Reynolds: So the ash studies are one of the most dramatic illustrations of conformity of blindly going along with the group, even when the individual realizes that by doing so, he turns his back on reality and truth. Alexandria Reynolds: Even though he knows it's not right, the participants still went against the correct answer, so this is just a really interesting example, the last thing I want to talk about.
1:09:57
Alexandria Reynolds: To kind of summarize what what we've done here, and then next class will get into consequences of social informative normative social influence. Alexandria Reynolds: last thing I want to talk about is the fact that we want to be accurate now as you study their very. Alexandria Reynolds: own ambiguous stimuli, it was a clear right or wrong answer and these you know you you measure these lines, this is where we saw conformity participants agreed.
1:10:22
Alexandria Reynolds: And it resulted in public compliance because they wanted to be accepted, but they didn't privately accept the answer. Alexandria Reynolds: sheriff did a series of studies, where is a really ambiguous lights and you can't really tell where it's going.
1:10:34
Alexandria Reynolds: And so we were participants were much more likely to conform because, instead of wanting to go with the group because they wanted to be accepted, they just didn't know the answer, and so they wanted to know what was right, so to fill that need. Alexandria Reynolds: They actually privately accepted that yeah that's probably the right answer because I don't know because it's so ambiguous.
1:10:57
Alexandria Reynolds: Okay, so i'll cover that a little bit i'll start back over with that, just so that we're clear on that next class we just had time so I want to give a chance for anybody clear up any questions. Alexandria Reynolds: And then we will pick back up on this on Thursday, so does anybody have any questions for me remember we're going to do class on Thursday next week is self study.
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