SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND CULTURAL

EMERGENCE

General information

What is the difference between social influence and persuasion?

Conformity vs. compliance vs. obedience Sherif, Asch, and Milgram classic studies

What made for more conformity/obedience in these?

Informational vs. normative influence

Cialdini’s techniques

Influence Six techniques

Reciprocity Social validation (social comparison theory) Consistency (cognitive dissonance theory) Liking Scarcity (reactance theory) Authority

Examples? Examples not in sales?

Evolution and Influence

How could these be evolutionary? What does adding that give us? Goals Relationships

Coalition formation, status, self-protection, mate selection, mate retention, parental care

What techniques would be more or less effective for the above goals? For strangers vs. children vs. partners?

Social norms and influence

Deviance regulation theory (Blanton & Christie, 2003) What does it predict? How does this relate to influence?

Social identity theory (Abrams & Hogg, 1990)

Focus theory of normative conduct (Cialdini, Kallgren, & Reno, 1991) Injunctive vs. descriptive norms Attention

Focus theory

Examples of effective vs. ineffective campaigns?

What should we do to make people more aware of climate change or get them to take action (e.g., drive less), according to this approach?

What does this approach suggest about social norms marketing campaigns/pluralistic ignorance?

Avoid the stork

Cultural emergence

What is culture according to DSIT? According to Norenzayan et al.?

Culture vs. evolution How does evolution relate to culture?

Bottom up vs. top down Other research: memes, elements of

cultures that are most likely to be passed on, what happens as they get passed on?

Dynamic social impact theory (Latane, 1990)

Social impact theory (Latane, 1981) What are the 3 factors? What does it mean to have a multiplicative

function? A marginally decreasing effect? Catastrophe theory of attitudes (Latane &

Nowak, 1994) Involving vs. uninvolving attitudes

DSIT What are the 4 C’s of culture? What do each of

them mean? What types of studies have shown support for DSIT? Other examples?

DSIT continued

How does modernization affect DSIT predictions?

How do individual differences fit in? What new directions are there to be tested

with DSIT? Are all the assumptions of DSIT supported? Are there other explanations for the DSIT

study results? Are there other problems with this approach? Is it consistent with evolutionary

approaches?

Evolution and culture (Norenzayan, Schaller, & Heine, 2006)

“New look” evolutionary psych How do evolved capacities make culture

possible? How can biological evolution and social

communication work together to create culture?

What “moral norms” may have evolved and why? Ingroup/outgroup? Religion? Cultural artifacts? Myths?

What types of things are more likely to be passed on and why?

Cultural evolution

What are universals and what do they tell us? Importance of levels of specificity in universals. Importance of looking at cultural variation TMT, sociometer Racial prejudice Gender differences

4 degrees of universality Non-universal Existential universal Functional universal Accessibility universal Examples?

Why might psychological phenomena be universal or not across cultures?

Does universal mean “innate”?

Infectious diseases and culture

More value placed on physical attractiveness in a mate (Gangestad & Buss, 1993)

Lower mean levels of sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience, but do not differ on other personality variables (e.g., conscientiousness) (Schaller & Murray, 2008)

Fewer political/social rights (Thornhill, Fincher, & Aran, 2009)

More religious (Fincher & Thornhill, 2008) More collectivist. (Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, &

Schaller, 2009)

Other factors

Concern for optimal social exchange Tom’s thesis on disabled persons

What things are more likely to be passed on? Boyd & Richerson, 1985 Sperber, 1996 Chip Heath’s research

Memorability Surprise Emotions (esp. disgust) Ease of communication Push for novelty Establishment of social identity Cultural exchange

Religion

All known societies have Belief in supernatural agents Who demand public expressions of commitment And who manage fears of death, meaningless,

and hopelessness Minimally counterintuitive stories and

concepts are better remembered and spread Ghosts beat zombies

Why would religion evolve? Is it culture or biology?

Atran, Norenzayan

Next week

Groups Paper ideas!