Week 7

Psychology 2100: Introduction to Social Psychology

Warren Thorngate, Professor
Psychology Department,Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6
Canada
e-mail = warren_thorngate@carleton.ca

Lecture 6: Conformity and Obedience, Altruism and Aggression

Conformity

Generally defined as an act or decision that mimics the norms of a group
Post WW-2 concern with rise of totalitarian governments, as well as decline of "rugged individualism" and rise of "gray flannel suits" led social psychologists to study conformity in the laboratory. Chief among them were Solomon Asch and Richard Crutchfield.

Asch's conformity studies (mid-1950s)

In a typical study, 100+ male participants from Swarthmore College were brought into a room with 1-10 others posing as fellow students but secretly working for Asch and required to lie about their perceptions. Each real participants was seated among the other "participants" facing a table and the experimenter across the room.

On the table were posters of one "Standard" line and three different comparison lines, labeled A, B and C.

Beginning on Trial 3, and continuing for 12 of the remaining 15 Trials, Asch's paid participants gave the same obviously incorrect response. Asch's question: On how many of these trials would each "real participant" give (1) the correct response and (2) the incorrect but unanimous, conforming response?

About 25% of the real participants never gave the incorrect, conforming response. About 75% gave at least one incorrect response. With 5+ others giving incorrect responses, real participants on average gave the same conforming response 33% of the time.
When one of Asch's paid participants gave the correct responses for awhile, then defected to the majority (incorrect, conforming) responses, real participants began by almost always giving the correct responses, then defecting on about 33% of the subsequent trials. When "buddy" simply left the room, non-conforming, correct responses remained almost as frequent as when "buddy" was in the room.

Some implications of Asch's results

Should we be impressed that 25% never conformed, or worried that 75% did at least once?
What do results demonstrate about the extent to which we are willing to go against our own opinions because of pressures toward conformity?
How many of you are eager to conform to the expectations of current society, especially regarding what you study, how you write your resume, what you wear, what you like and dislike, etc.? Are you happy to be sheep? Is the price you pay for not conforming now too great?

Obedience

Perhaps the degree of conformity in Asch's studies was the result of the task. Asch had asked his participants to judge lengths of lines. Perhaps participants felt little motivation to always "do the right thing" and judge the lines correctly. After all, they probably had no great personal or emotional investment in doing so. If so, then participants might be more likely to rebel when the social pressure of others would lead them to do something that was obviously morally wrong. This was the reasoning of Stan Milgram (1933-1984) who first set out to "disprove Asch."

Stan Milgram's obedience experiments (over 25 done) from 1960s

Brought students, middle-aged and working class males, etc. into laboratory, introduced each to a second "participant" (actually, an employee of Milgram), told both he was studying the effects of punishment on learning, and asked each real participant to be the teacher, monitoring the "learner" (Milgram's employee) and administering shocks under Milgram's supervision. Many variables considered, including distance between real participant and learner
Typical layout of room

Shock Apparatus

Labels under switches:
75 volts = "Moderate shock"
150 volts = "Strong"
225 volts = "Very strong"
300 volts = "Intense"
375 volts = "Danger, severe"
450 volts = "XXX"

Typical results (learner in other room, voice feedback)

Altruism: Bystander intervention

Is there safety in numbers?

Examples from Edmonton Journal:

Tuesday, 11 April 1972: "Motorists Ignore Plea for Dying Mother"

Omaha, Nebraska (AP) -- John Renfrow, 13, stood along Interstate 80 in western Iowa, waving frantically in an effort to stop passing cars. A few feet away, his father worked in vain to save his mother's life.

The father said Monday: "I had the car's four-way flashers on. John was crying and waving his arms. I was giving my wife artificial respiration on the shoulder of the road. Anyone could see it wasn't a setup for a robbery."

The family was returning Sunday from a visit to Perry, Iowa, when Mrs. Renfrow "Quivered and slumped forward" in her seat, her husband said. She had undergone four operations in the last two years.

After several minutes, Renfrow reported, a car stopped. "The man drove in to get a rescue squad but it was too late," Renfrow said. His wife was pronounced dead when a physician and a fire department rescue squad arrived.

Renfrow said he didn't know why the passing motorists ignored them. Both lanes were crowded -- "it seemed like bumper to bumper. People passed us like we were weeds."

Thursday, 27 September 1973: "Crowd Boos as Police Save Girl"

Dania, Florida (AP) -- A jeering crowd of some 300 persons urged a 27-year-old woman to jump from a 110-foot tower, then pelted police with rocks when they tried to rescue her. Police used dogs to disperse the crowd. Five officers suffered minor injuries before the woman was led to safety and taken to hospital Wednesday night.

Friends said she tried to kill herself after becoming despondent ver being fired from her job. The woman's physician and two firemen helped talk the woman out of jumping.

Fire Chief John Lassiter said the rock throwing increased as the firemen brought the woman down from the tower and the crowd began to boo when they realized the woman would not jump.

Monday, 24 June 1974: "'Good Samaritan' Was Anything But"

Toronto (CP) -- While a 77-year-old widow lay dying on a street after being struck by a car, an unidentified man picked up her purse to find her address, then went to her apartment to steal money and jewelry. Police said Rachel Covant was struck by a car Saturday night and the thief was among the several persons at the accident scene. As another person bent over the injured woman, the thief took the purse and told the other person, "I'll take care of this while you look after her."

When a crowd gathered, the man with the purse disappeared, police said. They believe he headed immediately for the woman's nearby apartment and ransacked it. The victim's son, Paul Covant, owner of a jewelry store, said the thief got away with several pieces of jewelry and $300 in cash. He called the man who robbed his mother "a ghoul, a monster. He pulled up the carpets, emptied all the drawers, even the mattress was split open. Her clothes were all over the place."

And elsewhere…

From Edmonton Journal, mid 1970s

"Tied up in a class project" -- Judity Nielson, 23, a journalism student at San Francisco State University, spent 16 minutes tied to a telephone pole on a busy residential street as 110 cars passed before one stopped and a man asked if she were all right. A fellow student spent 15 minutes tied to a park bench as 42 people passed him without offering assistance. The experiment was a class project.

Monday, March 30, 1998

Neighbors watch as cabbie is slain

by Martha Bellisle, The Associated Press

DENVER - Taxi driver Mostapha Maarouf dutifully sent his tips back to his poor family and sick father half a world away. The 27-year-old planned to join them in July, at his wedding, and he was collecting gifts to bring back to his tiny hometown of Youssofia, Morocco. That dream died before dawn yesterday when four assailants beat him to the edge of death and then dumped his body in the trunk of his own cab as people watched - and did nothing - from the safety of their high-rise apartments.

"Eyewitnesses saw him being beaten and dragged by his feet and thrown in the trunk, but no one called 911," Detective Virginia Lopez said. "It's disgusting."

The attack may have started with a fight over a parking space. About 40 of Maarouf's friends - fellow taxi drivers and Moroccan immigrants - gathered in an apartment last night to mourn. Wails were heard coming from the bedroom as one friend telephoned Morocco to inform Maarouf's brother of the murder. "People are killed like flies in this country and nobody cares," said Halima Kasson, a close friend.

Police were alerted to Maarouf's death after one of his friends called from a nearby convenience store and said they were being robbed and beaten by four men. Officers then searched for Maarouf around the high-rise apartments, near the University of Denver, while neighbors quietly watched from their windows, Lopez said. "They didn't tell police the body was in the trunk," she said. Only when police went door-to-door did residents start talking - nearly an hour later. By that time, Maarouf had died.

"We've received loud-music complaints from that area. People will call the police to complain about loud music, but not to report a murder," Lopez said.

One man was arrested late yesteday on first-degree murder charges, and police said they were looking for at least three other men. Apartment building manager John Contreras said Maarouf's taxi was parked in the suspect's spot before the attack. Contreras' wife said the building's residents may have been afraid to report the crime, because other tenants are involved with gang members. Maarouf's death was reminiscent of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in the New York City borough of Queens. Her death became a symbol of apathy after 38 neighbors heard her screams and did nothing to help.

Question: Why does this happen? Why do so few people come to the aid of others?

Possible answers:

personality has changed for the worse, or
power of the situation

The case of Kitty Genovese (died 3:20 am, 13 March 1964 in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, from multiple stab wounds, at age 28)

Jules Feiffer's reaction: Doris and Charlie
Bibb Latane and John Darley's reaction: bystander apathy
Bryan and Test's experiments: flat tire study and coins in kettle study

Aggression

Types of aggression: instrumental, hostile, etc.

Theories of aggression

Instinctive: innate releasing mechanisms (Konrad Lorenz and stickleback fish)
Freudian: blocking of instinctive release, catharsis and displacement
Dollard, Doob, Miller, Sears and the Frustration / Aggression Hypothesis
Bandura, Walters, Ross: Social learning, modelling and the bobo-doll experiments