Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Social proof
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== Early research === The most famous study of social proof is [[Muzafer Sherif|Muzafer Sherif's]] 1935 experiment.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Sherif | first1 = M | year = 1935 | title = A study of some social factors in perception | journal = Archives of Psychology | volume = 27 | page = 187 }}</ref> In this experiment subjects were placed in a dark room and asked to look at a dot of light about 15 feet away. They were then asked how much, in inches, the dot of light was moving. In reality it was not moving at all, but due to the [[autokinetic effect]] it appeared to move. How much the light appears to move varies from person to person but is generally consistent over time for each individual. A few days later a second part of the experiment was conducted. Each subject was paired with two other subjects and asked to give out loud their estimate of how much the light was moving. Even though the subjects had previously given different estimates, the groups would come to a common estimate. To rule out the possibility that the subjects were simply giving the group answer to avoid looking foolish while still believing their original estimate was correct, Sherif had the subjects judge the lights again by themselves after doing so in the group. They maintained the group's judgment. Because the movement of the light is ambiguous the participants were relying on each other to define reality. Another study looked at informational social influence in [[eyewitness identification]]. Subjects were shown a slide of the "perpetrator". They were then shown a slide of a line-up of four men, one of whom was the perpetrator they had seen, and were asked to pick him out. The task was made difficult to the point of ambiguity by presenting the slides very quickly. The task was done in a group that consisted of one actual subject and three confederates (a person acting as a subject but actually working for the experimenter). The confederates answered first and all three gave the same wrong answer. In a high-importance condition of the experiment, subjects were told that they were participating in a real test of eyewitness identification ability that would be used by police departments and courts, and that their scores would establish the norm for performance. In a low-importance condition, subjects were told that the slide task was still being developed and that the experimenters had no idea what the norm for performance wasโthey were just looking for useful hints to improve the task. It was found that when subjects thought the task was of high importance, they were more likely to conform, giving the confederate's wrong answer 51% of the time, as opposed to 35% of the time in the low-importance condition.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Baron|first=Robert S.|author2=Vandello, Joseph A. |author3=Brunsman, Bethany |title=The forgotten variable in conformity research: Impact of task importance on social influence.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|date=1 January 1996|volume=71|issue=5|pages=915โ927|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.71.5.915}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)