Psychology I / Conformity and Obedience: The Power of Social Influence
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
  1. First ask whether anyone issued an ORDER. If not, it is conformity, however senior the people around are.
  2. 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.

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