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Lisa Terry
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S06 Social Psychology
Assignment 04
July 28, 2017
Part A
The following factors and conditions encouraged Emma to conform: the unfamiliar
location, the urgency of the pounding on the door, the man’s uniform and that the man called the
situation an emergency.
Emma was in a hotel, unfamiliar with her surroundings and perhaps unfamiliar with the
city she was staying in, she had no real ability to decide on the accuracy of the uniform, whether
it was a true uniform. The urgency and the force the man used knocking on the door contributed
to her falling victim to this scam. Also, the obedience to authority; “Obedience of authority is the
most powerful form of social influence, and can have tragic consequences, as people will obey
the orders of an authority figure to hurt or even kill other human beings.” She conformed
because she believed the information was correct and accurate.
The fact that Emma perceived that there was a true emergency. She had no one to help
judge informal social influence; she did not have any one to refer to, as if this was a true
emergency or not. The absence of the smell of smoke would have been one factor to
understanding that this could have possibly been a scam or other ruse to get her out of the room.
“When people are in confusing circumstances and unsure what they should do, they use
other people to help define the situation. Informational social influence is especially powerful
when the situation is ambiguous, when it is a crisis and when the other people in the situation
have some expertise.” There are other conditions and reason we obey; we sometimes conform to the wrong
norm, meaning we just sometimes are caught in a web of conflicting norms and it is difficult to
determine which ones to follow. Self-justification is another reason we may conform; excusing
oneself or one’s actions. And finally, the loss of personal responsibility; when the other person is
an authority figure, you become a puppet and they are pulling the strings, they can define what it
is you are supposed to do and they are responsible for the end results. Just like the man, even
though he was a perceived fireman, he used that to his advantage and stole most of Emma’s
belongings. Part B
The three stages involved in persuading ‘rebels’ to conform to group norms are first, the
group would try to bring you ‘back into the fold’, mainly through increased communications,
comments and long discussions would take place as your friends tried to figure out why you
were acting so strangely and your behavior had changed, and try to get you to conform to their
expectations. When this didn’t work, your friends would say negative things about you and start
to withdraw from you. Then you are simple rejected from the group. Not all normative influence
comes from the presences of actual persons: Social norms exist. These are the rules a group has
acceptable behaviors and beliefs.