Practice question · Match the pairs
Each person below yields to social pressure. Decide which kind of influence is actually operating in each case.
- Normative influence
- Informational influence
- Obedience
- Lost in an unfamiliar airport, you follow the stream of travellers heading to gate B, assuming they read a screen you missed.
- A new nurse is sure the dose written on the chart is too high, but the consultant tells her to administer it, and she does.
- At a tasting you think the wine is ordinary, but everyone praises it, so you call it excellent while privately unconvinced.
Hints
- First ask whether anyone issued an ORDER. If not, it is conformity, however senior the people around are.
- Then split the conformity cases: does the person privately still disagree (normative), or has she actually accepted that the group knows better (informational)?
Show the answer
- Normative influence → At a tasting you think the wine is ordinary, but everyone praises it, so you call it excellent while privately unconvinced.
- Informational influence → Lost in an unfamiliar airport, you follow the stream of travellers heading to gate B, assuming they read a screen you missed.
- Obedience → A new nurse is sure the dose written on the chart is too high, but the consultant tells her to administer it, and she does.
Why
Only r1 involves a direct command from an authority, so only r1 is obedience. In r2 and r4 the person goes along publicly while privately unconvinced, in order to be accepted - normative influence. In r3 and r5 she genuinely believes the group has information she lacks - informational influence. Note r4: the workplace setting tempts you toward 'obedience', but nobody ordered anything.
Practise Conformity and Obedience: The Power of Social Influence
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