The Science Behind Influence by ella olds Persuasion or influence falls under the category of social psychology. Social psychology is defined as “the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another,” according to dictionary.com. Social psychology is apparent in all aspects of our lives.
ment lines, participants were told to match the original line to one of the three given choices. The participants were asked by themselves which one matched best and most gave the correct answer. But when asked in front of a group, one person started with an incorrect answer to see how others would react. The purpose of this experiment was to see if the participants would give the same answer, even if it was the incorrect one. When in front of the group at least 75% of the subjects gave the wrong answer. This experiment proves conformity, they gave the same answer because they didn’t want to be different. The experiment also proved that peer pressure has an immense effect on how we respond/react to situations when in front of a group.
Communication is a vital part of life and a vital part of social psychology. The act of communication has one of the largest impacts in our life, with most human beings spending most of their day communicating. Though, everything we communicate may not have come from our own ideologies. We take cues from our environment on how to speak, react and think. Think of living in a southern small town, most people speak with a southern accent but take into account somebody who moved in from a northern city, such as Boston. The person who moved into a southern town will adapt their own accent over time and begin to start talking similar to their peers. Because there is such a desire to fit in, the northerner who moved into a small southern town, will begin adjusting to their type of life, in more ways than just the southern accent.
Peer pressure is another aspect of social psychology. Peer pressure is apparent in everyday life for kids, teenagers, and adults. The third wave experiment conducted in 1967 by high school teacher Ron Jones shows peer pressure and ignorance in a bigger picture. Troubled with finding a way to explain how the German people accepted the actions of the Nazis, he created a five-day-long social movement as a way to show the appeal of facism. He began the experiment by writing mottos everyday on the chalkboard and slowly getting stricter with his instruction. On the first day, he wrote “Strength Through Discipline,” the students had assigned seating and he started to lecture about discipline. On the second day, he already had the students saluting him. By the third day the experiment took a life of its own. All the students got identification cards and were instructed to start recruiting other members. The fourth day, Jones announced that
Conformity, the want to fit in and changing yourself to do so, is a big part of influence. Conformity is neither good or bad and can sometimes help a society function better. More people are willing to agree when similar mindsets are present. The Asch experiment performed in a series of studies during the 1950’s pulls ideas from peer pressure and conformity. In the experiment, there was a set line and then three choices of different measure-
Graphic by junior Jenna Tipton. “Sheep” is a representation of our culture’s conformity to ideals and the science behind influence.
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