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Social influence: key terms
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Other people affect what we do, often without us noticing. Four key terms describe the main ways this happens.
Obedience and conformity
Obedience: following a direct order or instruction from an authority figure, such as a teacher, police officer or manager.
Conformity: changing your behaviour or beliefs to fit in with a group (majority influence). Nobody orders you to do it; you feel pressure to match others.
Example: wearing what your friends wear is conformity; putting your phone away when a teacher tells you to is obedience.
Conformity: changing your behaviour or beliefs to fit in with a group (majority influence). Nobody orders you to do it; you feel pressure to match others.
Example: wearing what your friends wear is conformity; putting your phone away when a teacher tells you to is obedience.
Deindividuation and the bystander effect
Deindividuation: a loss of personal identity and sense of personal responsibility when part of a group or crowd, often because of anonymity. People may then act in ways they normally would not.
Bystander effect: people are less likely to help someone in an emergency when other people are present. The more bystanders, the less likely any one person is to help.
Bystander effect: people are less likely to help someone in an emergency when other people are present. The more bystanders, the less likely any one person is to help.
Telling them apart
Ask: is there an order from someone in authority (obedience)? Is there group pressure with no order (conformity)? Is the person anonymous in a crowd (deindividuation)? Is someone failing to help because others are around (bystander effect)?
At a concert, everyone stands up, so Priya stands too. Is this obedience or conformity?
- Nobody in authority told her to stand.
- She changed her behaviour to match the group.
Answer: Conformity.
Obedience is following orders from authority. Conformity is changing behaviour to fit a group. Deindividuation is losing your sense of identity in a crowd. The bystander effect is being less likely to help when others are present.
The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.
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