Social Psychology - Social Influence & Bystander Effect

Question: What are three kinds of responses to social influence? What are the major features of these responses? What is the bystander effect?

There are 3 Kinds to social influence.

1. Compliance: is rooted in power, and is motivated by a desire to gain reward/punishment. For example, If I tell my child if they don't put down their DS now and brush their teeth, there will be no DS tomorrow. They haven't really absorbed the importance of brushing, they just know they want screen time in the morning.


2. Identification: is when the individual desires to be like the influencer, they adopt behaviour that is similar to the person/group they want to be like. For ecample, uncle charlie who you think is amazing, you will do/be/say things to model him/her. Also, if a person you dis-trust or dis-likes has a position, there will be a tendency to reject that position or adopt the opposite position.
i.e. recently we were challenging a point of view using logic and fact, however many of the people's view was not changed, I think it had alot to do with the fact they began to mistrust the influencer and hence deemed his view untrustworthy too.

3. Internalization: this is the most permanent response to a social influence. If the person is someone we trust and believe we accept what the influencer advocates. Credibility is key. A value system has been influenced.
i.e. as in the case of eating on the MTR. I don't want to smell, watch, or step on other's food so I too embrace the no eating policy. It is a value that I have embraced as my own.

Compliance is the most short-lived responses, because the motivation of compliance is the desire to gain reward or avoid punishment, not because we believe in the opinion or value we adopt. Once these extrinsic elements – reward or punishment cease to exist, the adopted opinion, value or behavior will cease to happen too. Power is the critical component of compliance. Identification is another response to social influence. Motivated by the desire to be like the influencer, this response does not induce behavior that is intrinsically satisfying, but rather it puts us in a satisfying relationship to the influencer, because we find the influencer attractive or appealing in some way, we adopt similar values and attitudes in order to be like the influencer. This adoption of value, attitude or behavior is more durable than through compliance. Unlike compliance, the influencer needs not be present for the continual adoption of the belief, value or behavior. However, another more important identification may supersede a previous identification. Attractiveness is the most critical component of identification. Internalization induces the most permanent change because we are convinced by the influencer who is trustworthy and have good judgment, and thus we internalized the belief that the influencer promotes. The motivation to internalize is due to the desire to be right and thus most deeply rooted response to social influence. Credibility is the most critical component of internalization. Example: Yoga etiquettes are very important, I didn’t know much when I first practice yoga. In the first class, I observed that there’s absolute silence in the room, I did not dare to say a word or make any sound in fear of being punished by the group (compliance). As I practice longer, instructor teaches us the essence of yoga practice - calm and tranquility. I came to understand the importance of keeping silence during yoga practice. I internalized the belief, and adopted the behavior from my credible and trustworthy instructor. One day, there were two new comers, who obviously did not know any yoga etiquettes, were chitchatting loudly in the studio before the instructor showed up. I walked up to them and ask them nicely to keep silence (internalization).


Furthermore, Compliance describes the behavior of a person who is motivated by a desire to gain reward or avoid punishment. Also, rewards and punishments are important means of inducing people to learn and perform specific activities but they are very limited techniques of social influence because they must be ever present to be effective. Therefore, the key phrase to construct compliance is power. In this sense, compliance refers to a response towards a request by authorized parties. It determined by external factors rather than inner needs. For example, there is a fixed penalty for a pedestrian crossing the road when red lights on. It will never be a natural impulse that a person to stop in front of a red light. You will not comply the regulation in a rural area where no authority party is presented. Therefore, to stop you from crossing the road with red lights on is not necessary the susceptibility of dangerous but the intention to avoid punishment.
Aronson describes identification as a response to social influence brought about by an individual’s desire to be like the influencer. It involves the action of imitation. However, this kind of influence can be modified if a more important identification is presented.

Example: I thought my dad was perfect when I was small. When I grown up, I adored many pop icons, from Madonna, Leslie Cheung to Anita Mui. I imitated their images. Learn and adopt their beliefs. And I even thought of being a singer! However, such identification is not concrete, not long-lasting and will be changed over time. And now, it’s less likely for me to pursue other people’s physical attraction.
The internalization of a value or belief is the most permanent, most deeply rooted response to social influence. Credibility of the person who advocates the belief is crucial. The motivation to internalize such belief is the desire to be right. We do it to gain an internal reward and to answer our belief that has been integrated into our system of values. Therefore, it will become extremely resistant to change.
As a Chinese, I comply with the etiquette that never stick your chopsticks straight up in your bowl of rice. In our culture, it is not only rude, but also meant for funerals. I will never do it not because of punishment, but because I internalized it as a cultural value and believe that it is right to be polite.

To summarize,
Three kinds of responses to social influence are compliance, identification and internalization.

1) Compliance : For the sake of getting rewards only.
Eg: Writing a blog for the first time (probably a few minutes before the deadline) with aims of getting credit.

2) Identification : Simply just believing in propositions at face value.
Eg: Writing in this forum way before the deadline because the teachers,classmates and subject of study have posed interest to the person.
3) Internalization: A strongly rooted passion in something and is most likely permanent.
Eg: If an assignment is ungraded, yet we still engage in the discussion... to proof to others that we really know our stuff and can draw inferences to the concepts.


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What is the bystander effect?
The presence of other bystanders dramatically effect, actually inhibit, a persons ability to be involved in a situation or not. We are taking our cues from others. i.e. the Genovese murder.

We will help if:
1. we have a common fate
2. face to face situation with the victim from which there was no immediate escape. i.e. camping site situation
3. if the situation was viewed as an emergency
4. it doesn't cost them i.e. blood; late for an appointment
5. when the bystander knew they could help alleviate the pain

Bystander effect describes a social phenomenon in which people are less likely to offer needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone. The larger the group they are in, the lower the likelihood that any one in the group will help.
A few factors that can help enhance the tendency to offer help include:
- if the group share a common fate, who are interdependent
- if there’s no escape from face-to-face situation
- if there’s an emergency occurs, the less ambiguous the emergency, the greater the likelihood of helping
- if the cost of helping is low
- if the benefit of the assistance provided is high
- if the person in the group is someone close, by relationship, or exhibit similar attitudes or values



To summarize Bystander Effect, it refers to cases where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present.

Just a thought:
In Hong Kong, when you are on the mTR (Train), it is generally acknowledged that we should give up our seats to the people in need, such as pregnant women, disabled people, old people etc. For the third group of people, i sometimes find it rather hard to define how "old" is old. What if we give up our seat and the person might feel insulted thinking , "Hey are saying I am OLD???" Hence, I find some people not taking the seats even though they are offered.