social influence

People are gregarious animals, have the psychological need to seek a sense of belonging, need to be with others, need to establish effective social relations, need the existence of groups, and will be unconsciously influenced by society.

Social influence refers to the phenomenon that individuals' thoughts, emotions and behaviors change under the influence of others.

Social influence includes the influence of groups and the influence of individuals on us.

Social psychology pays more attention to the influence of groups on us.

What is a group? It is a collection of people with the same purpose.

Many times, people who stay together are not necessarily a group. For example, we are all waiting for the bus, all in the same place, but it is difficult to form a group consciousness with different purposes. If we are all watching the ball, going to school and listening to classes, that is the real group.

conform to the general trend

The influence of the group on us sometimes makes us do something we don't want to do. This is called conformity. Conformity doesn't just mean that we follow the same behavior as others. Conformity is a phenomenon that individuals voluntarily keep consistent with the majority in cognitive judgments, beliefs and behaviors under the pressure of groups. Commonly known as follow the crowd.

For example, if you cross the street at a red light, but you don't see a car, you may continue to walk, but if you see others waiting in the same place, your possibility of continuing to run the red light will be greatly reduced, and you will be afraid of other people's opinions and don't want to change your original behavior that is different from others.

Conformity has the function of promoting the formation of the same norms and values in society.

For example, you should queue up to buy things, consciously abide by traffic rules, be kind to others, and the minority is subordinate to the majority.

In ancient times, China advocated the values of self-cultivation, keeping the family in order and governing the country. Now citizens advocate the core values of patriotism, dedication, honesty and friendliness.

In a gregarious society, individuals need to adapt to the future world with unified culture, unified folk customs and unified beliefs, so as to facilitate the communication and interaction between groups. Let the society be more orderly, and then achieve consistency, which is conducive to same-sex development.

Conformity can also save us time. For example, when we buy things on Taobao, we will choose them by sales volume and favorable rate. When we go to a restaurant to eat, we will choose according to the number of passengers, saving ourselves time.

Consistency type

There are many forms of conformity.

1 It's really conformity: for example, after dinner in the evening, we will participate in the square dance and run a group in the community on time.

Because we believe that exercise is good for health, this sincere conformity from the heart is called true conformity.

Old people believe that eating health care products can prolong life, which is also true conformity.

Individuals not only keep consistent with the group in external behavior, but also believe in the judgment of the group in their hearts. This is a herd behavior and cognition, and there is no internal conflict.

2. Equity integration

For example, at the company meeting, everyone agreed to plan A, but you think plan B is better. However, due to the pressure of the group, they temporarily meet the requirements of the group in behavior, sometimes obeying the norm that the minority is subordinate to the majority, and sometimes in order to get rewards or escape punishment. Internal and external inconsistencies can lead to anxiety and cognitive dissonance.

3. Anti-consistency

For example, sometimes you agree with the group's thoughts or behaviors and want to do something with the group. When the masses are angry, you want to complain and boo together, but considering your status, such as being a teacher and a unit leader, you can't do that. On the surface, you must behave rationally.

The reason for conformity

Why should we follow the crowd?

Fear of deviation makes us follow the crowd. If we don't follow the crowd, we will be abandoned by most people. There will be a pressure to seek behavioral reference. Conformity will not make big mistakes, and the eyes of the masses are discerning.

1, seeking behavior reference is also called information conformity.

We sometimes don't have enough self-confidence, enough knowledge and enough understanding of others to help us understand the truth and reasons of the facts and collect information through the behavior of others.

Many times, we can determine our own understanding and judgment by observing the behavior of others. There is an experiment called Sharif experiment, which requires participants to judge how much the light spot has moved in the dark. The answer is individual differences. Some people think it moved 25 cm, others think it moved 2.5 cm. Then he asked three people to form a group. After several tests, people came up with the same estimate, and every member of the team followed it. After participating in the group judgment, they made a separate judgment.

When the task is difficult, the individual feels incompetent, and when the individual cares about the correctness of the behavior, the herd mentality is easy to appear. We want to do the right thing.

2. Another reason for conformity is fear of deviation. Also known as canonical consistency

Mu Xiuhui was destroyed by Lin Feng, and the gun would shoot the first bird. Sometimes they are different and often face strong pressure from the group. We have to obey this pressure and do something we don't want to do.

There is an experiment that verifies the existence of normative conformity, which is the famous Ash experiment.

American psychologist Solomon Ashe once recruited volunteers on campus, claiming to do a psychological experiment on visual perception. Six volunteers were invited to each group, but in fact, five of them were "child care" in collusion with Ashi in advance, and only 1 volunteer was the real experimental object.

After the experiment began, Ashi took out a card with vertical lines, and then asked everyone to judge which of the three lines on another card was as long as this line. This judgment has been made eighteen times. In fact, the length of these lines is obviously different, and it is easy for normal people to make correct judgments. However, after two normal judgments, the five "childcare" deliberately said a wrong answer in unison. Then look at the real volunteers together. How will the volunteers who are kept in the dark react? Many volunteers began to wonder. Do they firmly believe in their eyesight, or give an answer that is the same as others, but they think it is incorrect? After several questions, the volunteers completely gave up the correct answer. 75% of the volunteers were biased by "child care" and made at least one wrong conformity judgment.

After the end, the volunteers understood the ins and outs of the matter. He said, I know they are wrong, but everyone chose B. Only I chose C. I didn't want to be too different, so I followed them.

The huge cost of deviating from the group will make people conform to the group against their will, or at least suppress their own opposition. Being out of the group is painful. If we deviate from the group norms, we often have to pay the emotional price. The influence of norms comes from our desire to be liked by others.

Factors affecting consistency

Under what circumstances will people show conformity behavior? Who is more likely to show conformity? Who is more likely to resist the pressure of conformity?

Group factor

1, consistency of group members

When the cognitive judgments of group members are more consistent, the greater the pressure of conformity.

When doing the Ashi experiment, if a person and a volunteer have the same judgment, and only one of them is an ally with the same understanding as us, then the pressure of conformity will be reduced.

2. The greater the cohesion of the group, the stronger the attraction to the individual, and the easier it is for the individual to follow the crowd. That's why advertisers don't hesitate to hire famous stars to do it. If group members are important to us, and they are our classmates and friends, the more our behavior will be influenced by them. If the group is randomly formed, others will be less important to us, and the pressure on us to conform will be much less.

The most extreme example is the Cultural Revolution. At that time, the new China was just established, and the group cohesion was particularly high, and the Great Leap Forward steelmaking was carried out. Even if everyone feels psychologically wrong or bad, they will follow.

3, the size of the group

In a certain range, the increase of group size will improve people's herd behavior, and the critical value of group size is 3 to 4 people.

1-2 people are not easy to follow the crowd. 3-4 people's herd behavior increases, beyond which it is not obvious and uncertain.

3-4 people have the greatest degree of conformity, and the increase of conformity behavior of more than 4 people is not obvious.

Ash found it. When he found 3-4 trustees, the proportion of coincidence increased, but it was not obvious when he found 10, and volunteers would be suspicious.

Individual personality factors

Being a minority in a group is really not easy. In ASHI's experiment, 24% people still stick to their own judgment and don't follow the crowd.

You go your way, I'll go my wooden bridge,

1, people with high self-evaluation and strong independence have less conformity behavior,

2. People with low self-evaluation and high individual dependence tend to follow the crowd.

3. Cultural background

Oriental culture emphasizes collectivism, is under great pressure from conformity, and is more easily influenced by others.

Western countries emphasize individualism, so the pressure of conformity is small.

For example, our country's prevention and control measures have been effectively implemented, and everyone has complied with social norms, such as wearing masks when going out, keeping social distance from people and not gathering. Although not following the crowd helps to solve problems creatively, the group can play a greater role only when we work together in Qi Xin in the face of the crisis.

4. Gender, intelligence and other factors also have some influence on it, but these factors have no obvious definite relationship with conformity.

Social psychology attaches importance to the power of social pressure, but it also attaches importance to the power of people. We are not passive puppets. When social coercion becomes too high-profile and conspicuous, people often show rebellious psychology-the motivation to openly resist coercion in order to restore their sense of freedom, such as Romeo and Juliet. If we deviate too far from the group, we will feel uncomfortable, but we don't want to be too consistent with others, so we will act in a way that insists on our uniqueness and personality. In a group, we are most likely to realize our uniqueness. We pursue not only uniqueness, but also ethical uniqueness. Our pursuit of uniqueness is not only different, but also better than others.

We can't judge the value of conformity in an absolute sense, but we should balance our own needs such as self-reliance and attachment, privacy and publicity, personal characteristics and social identity.

Social promotion and social slack

The influence of the group can be reflected in many aspects. Sometimes, just the existence of others can affect us, and the existence of others will make us do things more actively, effectively and quickly.

Psychologist triplett (M.Triplett, 1897) did an experiment, in which he asked the subjects to walk 25 kilometers by bike in three situations. The first is riding alone. The results show that the average speed is 24 miles per hour (1 inch = 1.6 1 km). The second is that someone runs with you, with an average speed of 3 1 mile; The third kind rides with other cyclists at the same time, with an average speed of 32.5 miles per hour. He found that the existence of others or group activities will obviously promote the efficiency of people's behavior. This phenomenon is called social promotion or social promotion.

Social promotion has two effects.

1 peer effect

If you work with the opposite sex friends you like next to you, will you work harder? As the saying goes, men and women are not tired when they work together. Students write homework together faster than one person. Because individuals will feel the pressure of social comparison, thus improving work efficiency.

2 Audience effect

For example, the cheers and shouts of the audience will inspire the morale of the players.

Psychologist Robert suggested that arousal can promote dominance response, which is an action that has been learned and mastered quite skillfully and can be made without thinking. Like riding a bike and winding a fishing line. ...

Because the existence of others triggers the wake-up state, the efficiency of simple tasks can be improved. On the contrary, if an unskilled, learning or brain-damaged individual needs to concentrate on completing tasks and needs a series of complex reasoning and judgments, then the existence of others will interfere with the individual and reduce the efficiency of his activities. For example, when the invigilator stands next to you during the exam, your efficiency will be reduced.

Is the strength of numbers really great?

? Is it really great to have many people? We all know the story of three monks: one monk carries water to eat, two monks carry water to eat, and three monks have no water to eat. Why is the efficiency reduced when there are more people?

French engineer Lingemann investigated the efficiency of the carriage in 19 13. She found that two horses pulling a carriage together were not twice as efficient as one horse. This result surprised him, so he expanded the scope of investigation to human beings. He asked many people to pull a rope together and measure the force released by each person. He found that if two people pull a rope together, each person will put in an average of 93% strength. He called this phenomenon of individuals not working hard in the group "social slack", which is what we often call "muddling along and hitchhiking".

Social slack is not only manifested in physical efficiency, but also in spirit. For example, in a meeting, the bigger the team, the lower our personal participation. Our attention will not be so focused, and we may be distracted occasionally. What shall we do at home tonight? What shall I wear to the party tonight? …

Many people will make each other dependent and slack off. When there are many people, we will think that if we try our best, we will not attract everyone's attention. Why do you want to be the best?

So when does the group make us more active and when does the group make us slack off?

Psychologists have found that social promotion and social slack are like two sides of the same coin, and the core reason is whether there is evaluation. If there is evaluation, we will be easily promoted; Without evaluation, it is easy for us to slack off.

For example, if you take part in a solo performance and you take part in a chorus performance, will you make the same effort?

? When you solo, you become the focus of attention, and the audience is watching you. At this time, your personal efforts can be evaluated separately, you will consciously monitor your own behavior, your evaluation scruples will be enhanced, and social promotion will occur. When you are in the chorus, you disappear into the crowd, and your personal efforts cannot be evaluated separately, so your evaluation scruples will be weakened. Social slack occurs.

? Secondly, the emergence of social slack is also related to the weakening of sense of responsibility. Once individuals are in the group, they will be more or less personalized, our identity will be hidden in the group, and our sense of responsibility will also decline, thus reducing our enthusiasm and efficiency.

Third, knowing the reasons for social slack, how to reduce social slack?

Let me give you an example first: when I first joined the work, the management of the unit was a big pot of rice, and the income was evenly distributed. I do more or less the same, good or bad. All by yourself, some people disappear when they are busy. It will make people who really work hard work harder. After a long time, everyone's psychology will be unbalanced, and they will not take the initiative to do it, which will also affect the unity among colleagues. The department wants to launch some new projects, but it can't. Everyone thinks that launching new projects requires more work, and the income will not increase, so there is no enthusiasm. Later, the unit was reformed, and each post was clearly defined and quantified. The workload is linked to income, with more work and more, and less work and less. After the reform, everyone's enthusiasm was mobilized, and those who used to be migrant workers became the most active one.

Another example: In the past, children were always muddling along with their homework, especially on weekends, and they couldn't finish it in one day. So I often urge him, reason and argue to no avail. Later, I asked him to budget the time of each assignment according to the workload, and then calculated the total time of the assignment, stipulating that he should finish the assignment within the budgeted time, finish the assignment as early as possible, and let him control the rest of the time. In this way, the efficiency of homework is greatly improved.

? As can be seen from the above examples, to reduce social slack, it is necessary to show individual efficiency as much as possible, so that individual work results can be identified, quantified and evaluated, so that everyone can realize that more efforts will yield more, and individuals will be more willing to work hard and their enthusiasm will be improved.

When the task is challenging, the sense of slackness of group members will also weaken. For example, in the relay race, everyone will think that their part of the effort is essential, and we can't drag down the team because we lost the chain. Everyone will do their best. Individuals in small groups also consider themselves indispensable, so controlling the size of the team is also a way.

? For example, 50 people in our social psychological service teacher class form a WeChat group, and each assignment is required to be sent to the group. At first, I was quite positive, and I finished my homework on time every time after class. Slowly, I don't hand out my homework on time. I feel that many people can't tell the difference when they send their homework one or two days late, so they start to be lazy and often delay. If it is divided into 10 group and 5 people are in a group, it will be clear at a glance who has not handed out homework, and I think the phenomenon of procrastination will be reduced.

Thirdly, imitation, suggestion and social infection.

Imitation: it is a phenomenon that individuals imitate others under the influence of others without external pressure, and it is a phenomenon that they are the same or similar to others. Imitate clumsily

For example, the dress of stars is often imitated. In recent years, some moral models issued by the state have the power of example and hope to be followed by the public.

The meaning of imitation:

1, imitation is the basis of learning.

Children especially like to imitate, imitate the speech, tone and intonation of adults, and imitate the characters in TV and advertisements. This is a way for them to learn and develop themselves. When my children were young, they liked to watch the cartoon "Bears Come and Go". For a long time, he imitated Xiong Er's tone. It's all about me, and the way I use chopsticks is exactly the same as mine. It is said that whose children look alike.