Developing individual in society Lecture 10: 15/03/2021 Peer Influence Lecturer: Dr. Ava Horowitz Peer Influence Guadagno et al. (2013) - Social influence over the internet The online context: - Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) - Email, text, blogs, social media, etc. - Four unique features of online social interaction: o Time and place, more control. o Anonymity, choose level of truth to online identity. o Physical appearance, not as influential online. o Physical distance, globally. Authority: - Offline authority is important. - However, online authority tends to be ignored. Dubrovsky et al (1991) Liking: - Mixed findings. - Name similarity has shown more compliance. - Personality & Perception similarity o Email + non-similar views VS face to face + non-similar. o Men were more persuaded. o Women were less persuaded. Social Validation: - See what others think to help you decide. - Anonymity increases social validation effects. - Clear findings are posted online. - Group norms are followed more when anonymity is preserved. Guadagno et al (1991) - Online study - Participants read blog entry. - 'Student' asked for volunteers to help with university-related fundraiser. - PPs psychology students, 6fi men 18fi women.
Likeability: - 3 likeability conditions o Pro-football o Anti-football o Control Social validation: - 3 conditions o Offering help o Declining help, giving excuses o Control, no comments Measures: - Utilised likert scale 1-9 (Manipulation check) - Asking how likeable blogger was, and if other students would volunteer. - Asked how many hours pps would volunteer in hours Findings: - Found that pro-football was significantly more likeable. - Significantly higher rating of other students' willingness to volunteer. o Social validation: Offered to volunteer condition significantly higher hours volunteered than declined to volunteer. o No significant findings for likeability. Others online comments did influence people's intentions such as in offline contexts. Fits with other findings that online who says it matters less than offline. - Do social validation findings generalise to social media? When you like something does it influence others? - Can it help with online counselling? o Non-significant likeability o Significant social validation Entertainment Media ti Peer Influence Shedlosky-Shoemaker et al (2011) - Others' views. - Peer Consensus o Makes things seem valid o Establishes an expected view - Opinion conflict o Can't simply rely on others' views o Attend more to yourself.
Procedure: - PPs read and evaluated a short story - PPs told lab experiment on short stories. - Three groups of readers o 2 fake o 1 is a participant grou - Story : Sunday in the park by Bel Kaufmann, ordinary playground incident between two families. - Group 1 and 2 gave fake initial and meta evaluations. - Group 3 asked to read: o group 1s initial evaluations o group 2s meta-evaluations o then read story and rate expectations and enjoyment of story - Two conditions: 1 negative initial evaluation, 1 positive initial evaluation. - Two types of meta evaluations, 1 confirming initial, 1 disconfirming initial. - Control group never saw any evaluations.