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8
Conformity:
Influencing Behavior
CONTENTS
Learning Objectives
Chapter Outline
Key Terms
Critical Thinking and Discussion Questions
Autograded Writing Activities in MyPsychLab and REVEL
In-Class Exercises and Quick Assessments
Integrating “Try It” Active Learning Exercises
Student Projects and Research Assignments
Websites to Explore
Film and Video Listings
Online Videos to Explore
I. Chapter Prologue
• Describes the case of David R. Stewart who is accused of calling fast food restaurants,
posing as a police officer, and instructing the manager on duty to conduct a strip search of
an employee.
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• Conformity: (pg. 230) A change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of
other people
• Informational Social Influence: (pg. 231) The influence of other people that leads us to
conform because we see them as a source of information to guide our behavior; we conform
because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than
ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action
• Private Acceptance: (pg. 232) Conforming to other people’s behavior out of a genuine belief
that what they are doing or saying is right
• Public Compliance: (pg. 232) Conforming to other people’s behavior publicly without
necessarily believing in what we are doing or saying
• Social Norms: (pg. 237) The implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable
behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members
• Normative Social Influence: (pg. 238) Going along with what other people do in order to be
liked and accepted by them; we publicly conform with the group’s beliefs and behaviors but
do not always privately accept them
• Social Impact Theory: (pg. 244) The idea that conforming to social influence depends on the
strength of the group’s importance, its immediacy, and the number of people in the group
• Idiosyncrasy Credits: (pg. 245) The tolerance a person earns, over time, by conforming to
group norms; if enough idiosyncrasy credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, behave
deviantly without retribution from the group
• Minority Influence: (pg. 248) The case where a minority of group members influences the
behavior or beliefs of the majority
• Injunctive Norms: (pg. 250) People’s perceptions of what behaviors are approved or
disapproved of by others
• Descriptive Norms: (pg. 250) People’s perceptions of how people actually behave in given
situations, regardless of whether the behavior is approved or disapproved of by others
• Foot-in-the-Door Technique: (pg. 254) Social influence strategy in which getting people to
agree first to a small request makes them more likely to agree later to a second, larger request
• Door-in-the-Face Technique: (pg. 254) Social influence strategy in which first asking people
for a large request that they will probably refuse makes them more likely to agree later to a
second, smaller request
• Propaganda: (pg. 254) A deliberate, systematic attempt to advance a cause by manipulating
mass attitudes and behaviors, often through misleading or emotionally charged information
• Describe an incident in which you conformed to group norms due to normative influence and
one in which you conformed to group norms due to informational influence. Are there any
generalizations that can be made about the kinds of examples provided by the class? For
example, is informational influence more likely to occur with respect to facts and normative
with respect to issues of preferences? Relate students’ examples to the text’s summaries on
when people conform to informational vs. normative influence.
• What kinds of norms for appearance (e.g., dress and hairstyle) dominated in your high school?
What was the reaction toward people who violated these norms?
• Provide some examples of situations in which conformity could prove to be either beneficial
or harmful.
• Lead a discussion on sexual pressures on college students. Also incorporate pressures to use
drugs and alcohol. Use the materials at the end of the chapter to explain the best strategies to
“Just Say No.” Explain the tremendous power of social pressure. As an example, ask the
students to think of the most trouble they have ever gotten into. Then ask how many were
alone at the time. Most will have been in a group. Use this discussion as a lead-in for a lecture
on resisting compliance. What factors influence whether you will use someone else’s behavior
as your own guide in an ambiguous situation? For example, you are at a chicken dinner and
need to figure out whether it is OK to eat with your hands. You walk into a parking lot and
find your car’s windshield plastered with flyers; no trash can is available, and you are trying to
decide whether to toss the flyers on the ground or not. An alarm rings and you are trying to
decide whether or not it signals a real emergency. Can you design an experiment to test
whether or not your hypothesized factor is indeed influential?
• Provide a personal example of an event in which you were influenced by a minority opinion or
action.
• Compare and contrast the processes by which majorities and minorities influence others to do
their bidding.
• Provide a personal example of a situation where you have been able to act deviantly from the
group without consequence because of “idiosyncrasy credits” you’d earned.
• What do you think you would have done if you had been a subject (a “teacher”) in Milgram’s
original shock/obedience study?
• What do you think about the ethics of the Milgram obedience study: was the knowledge
gained worth the stress on participants or was the stress more than should be induced in a
laboratory for the understanding of social processes? You might use the following quotes to
• Ask your students to consider how they have conformed since arriving to the campus on the
first day. Have them consider music tastes/favorite artists, dress, hairstyle, verbal expressions,
cafeteria behavior, etc.
Conformity
Planned Scoring
Trait 1 Trait 2 Trait 3 Trait 4 Trait 5
Trait Holistic Focus &
Name Ideas Organization Conventions Voice Coherence
Score Weighted
Points Average 40% 10% 10% 20% 20%
Exercise 8–1
Personal Examples of Conforming
Ask students at the beginning of class to take out a piece of paper and, without putting their name
on the paper, describe a time that they changed their behavior because of the real or imagined
pressure from others. Collect these and read several to the class. Many students write about when
they were adolescents and began drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes because of peer pressure.
Others write about conformity pressures in the clothes they wear or the music they buy. Some of
the vignettes have been quite amusing, such as when one student wrote: “I had no real desire to
write a paragraph; but because a lot of people seemed to be writing, I felt the need to write
something too. This is my example of conformity.” Some are frightening, such as students who
describe drug abuse and sexual behavior that, they claim, was due to peer pressure. These
vignettes are always an excellent springboard for a discussion of the difference between the
informational and normative function of conformity. Most of the examples students describe are
examples of normative conformity in which they publicly complied but did not privately accept
what they were doing. Sometimes people describe behaviors that started out as conformity for
normative reasons, but which, after repeated action, became internalized. For example, one
student wrote, “When I first came to college, I didn’t like beer at all and I never drank it. I went to
a party the first night I was here, and, of course, everybody was drinking. I didn’t really want to
drink, but I did because everybody was. Now, I love beer, so I guess conformity can be a good
thing!” Invariably, this activity generates an interesting discussion of conformity pressures in the
lives of students. (Suggested by Tim Wilson.)
Exercise 8–2
Group Cohesiveness and Conformity
Ahead of Time: A class or two in advance, distribute Handout 8.2: Group Questionnaire and ask
students to complete it (10 minutes). If possible, use optical scanning sheets for students to record
their answers. This process greatly facilitates data entry. Collect the questionnaires and perform
the data analyses. The first six items comprise a cohesiveness measure derived from Cartwright
(1968); they should be summed or averaged to yield a cohesiveness score. Items 7 and 8 assess
informational and normative influence. Items 9 and 10 assess conformity from both compliance
and acceptance perspectives. Compute correlations between group cohesiveness and items 7
through 10.
In Class: Present the results of the data analysis to the class (10 minutes).
Lead a class discussion on the positive and negative implications of group cohesiveness and
conformity (10–15 minutes).
FREQUENCIES:
3. How much influence does this group have upon your behavior?
4. How much influence does this group have upon the way you think?
Without giving any hint as to your intentions, ask for four volunteers from the class. (If people
ask, you can tell them that the volunteers will not be hurt or offended in any way, but that’s all
you can say.) If nobody volunteers, you can select them or, if class participation is a factor in your
grading, remind them of that fact. Ask the four people to leave the room for a minute and make
sure they are out of earshot. Tell everybody that you are testing the way people react when they
enter different situations and that you will need their cooperation. Will they conform to these
situations or deviate from them?
Ask everyone to remain seated and tell the first person to enter the room and go to his or her
seat. He or she will probably sit down because everybody else is sitting down. Tell students to
make a note of this person’s reactions and actions. Then ask everybody to stand up, and tell the
second person to enter the room and go to his or her seat. (He or she may sit down but will
probably remain standing.) Again, tell students to make a note of this person’s response. Next, ask
students to sit on the floor in front of their seats (or on the table, depending on the classroom set-
up). Ask the third person to enter the room and go to his or her seat. (This person may or may not
conform to the rest of the group’s behavior.) Again, tell students to make note of the person’s
response. Finally ask students to lie down on the floor (or to sit on the floor under the table). Tell
the fourth person to enter the room and go to his or her seat. Chances are, this person will NOT
get down on the floor with everyone else. The class, once again, should note this behavior.
One by one, ask the student volunteers to tell the class why they behaved the way they did
when they entered the room. (Make sure the second, third, and fourth volunteers understand what
happened before they entered.) Most likely those who conformed did so because they viewed the
behavior as relatively “normal” and didn’t want to stand out. Those who deviated probably did so
because they felt uncomfortable following the “deviant” conduct of the class.
Briefly discuss the reasons why people may choose to deviate from or conform to norms. If
conversation seems forced, ask them what they would do if they visited a foreign country and
attended a feast where people ate rats. The idea of eating rats disgusts them, but would they insult
their hosts by turning down this delicacy? (25 minutes)
This exercise was developed by Joan Spade (Sociology/Anthropology Department, Lehigh
University).
Another alternative, suggested by Paul van Cleef, is to get to class early when only a few
students are present and ask if they would like to participate in a little experiment. Tell them to
take their seats and turn them around so they would be facing the direction opposite that of all the
remaining chairs. Tell them that as their classmates come in, they are to say nothing, except when
asked, “What’s going on?” to reply that they were told to do this by their psychology professor.
Students generally will turn their chairs around to conform with the rest of their classmates
until the entire class will be filled with students facing the back wall waiting for class to begin.
Ahead of Time: You will need to prepare some ambiguous stimuli. This demonstration works
better if you use different stimuli for each condition of the experiment. One ambiguous stimulus is
a time interval, so you will need a watch with a second hand. Another ambiguous stimulus could
be a jar filled with beans, candies, or coins, or a slide with lots of dots on it.
In Class: Tell students you are going to have them make some estimations. For the first task, have
students write down their estimates on a piece of paper. Tell them you are going to have them
estimate how long a time interval is. Tell them to estimate the amount of time from when you say
“go” to when you say “stop.” Use an interval of between 40 seconds and a minute or so. Then for
the second task, ask students to estimate the number of beans or dots, but this time, making their
estimates aloud. Record their answers—you can write them or plot them on the board or an
overhead. Then go back and ask them to read aloud their estimates for the first task and record
these. There is likely to be considerably more variability in estimates for the first estimates than
the second, thus providing a conceptual replication of the Sherif study. (You may use time
estimations for both the first and second tasks. Ask students to record their estimates for the first
task on paper and submit them to you. Have them report the second estimate aloud. See also the
section on Classroom Response System Rationale for another technique for this demonstration.)
Discussion: You can use this demonstration as a lead-in to a lecture on the Sherif study and
informational influence. Be sure to emphasize that it is important in normative influence that the
stimulus is ambiguous. Of course, normative influence may play a role here as well. If any
students made estimates that were outliers, particularly during the public task, you can ask them
what was going on in their minds when they made the estimate…did they feel uncomfortable?
Were they intentionally trying not to conform?
Source: Suggested by the work of Montgomery and Enzie (1971, “Social influence and the
estimation of time,” Psychonomic Science, 22, 77–78).
3. Describe the results of our in-class demonstration. Are they an example of informational or
normative social influence? Explain your answer in full.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
This is an activity to do before students have had a chance to read about the Milgram experiment.
Either show students a clip from the Obedience film or describe the experiment, making sure that
the overall results are not presented. Distribute copies of the handout to the class and ask them to
make estimates of how they would behave and how they think the real subjects behaved. You can
either collect the handouts and make a tally or let students report their answers by show of hands
to display on the transparency master. You will find that virtually everyone will underestimate the
percentage of subjects who complied, and your students will display the self-serving bias by
estimating that they would be less likely than the average college student to obey. Since the
Milgram experiment is featured in most introductory psychology texts, you might find it useful to
ask students to indicate whether they have heard about the experiment before, since those who
have heard about the experiment previously will make higher estimates.
VOLTAGE INTENSITY
15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 195 210 225 240 255 270 285 300 315 330 345 360 375 390 405 420 435 450
Slight Moderate Strong Very Strong Intense Extreme Danger: XXX
Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock Intensity Shock Severe Shock
The above depicts all of the levels of shocks that were presented to “Teachers” on a panel in the
Milgram experiment, which your instructor has described or shown to you.
(2) At what shock level would the average participant disobey? __________________
(3) What percentage of subjects in the Milgram experiment (who were businessmen in the 1960s
and early 1970s) do you think continued all the way to the 450-volt level? ________________
(4) Have you seen or heard about the Milgram experiment previously? Yes No
# who rated self just as likely as average to go all the way ____________
# who rated self less likely than average to go all the way ____________
Ahead of Time: Accompanying this exercise are two pages filled with semi-random letters. Make
enough copies for each student. Also make about five copies of the “Debriefing” handout.
In Class: Distribute the “letters” pages. With a stern and professorial manner, you should tell the
class, “I want you to circle every consonant on the first page. Be as accurate as possible. Begin as
soon as you are ready. Put your pen or pencil down quietly when you have finished.” Be sure to
give NO reason why they should obey. You may want to glance at your watch from time to time
as they complete the page (3–5 minutes).
Now tell students to crumple the page they just finished into a ball. Tell them to throw the
crumpled paper onto the floor (an antisocial act!) (1 minute).
For the second page, tell students to circle every vowel. Follow exactly the same procedure,
having them crumple and throw the paper on the floor (5 minutes).
At some point, a student will ask why he or she should obey or why the class is performing
these meaningless acts. Ask this student to step outside the room and into the hall with you. Give
him/her a copy of the “Debriefing Handout.” Return to the classroom alone. Continue the exercise
until about five students have questioned authority or until all the pages are completed (5–10
minutes).
Ask any dissenting students to return from the hall. Debrief the class about the purpose of the
exercise and ask the dissenter(s) to report how they felt about obeying, questioning authority, and
being removed from the classroom.
Lead a short discussion about the powerful effects of authority. You may want to ask students
what they were thinking about during the exercise. The exercise provides an excellent introduction
into a lecture about Milgram’s work on obedience (10 minutes).
To complete the exercise, ask for one more act of obedience: picking up and disposing of the
papers on the floor!
Discussion: This exercise is a modification of a procedure used by Orne (1962) to illustrate the
almost incredible degree to which subjects were willing to obey an experimenter. He gave his
subjects almost 2000 pages of random numbers and instructed them to add each two adjacent
numbers. Almost no one was willing to stop this task even after five hours (the experimenter gave
up!). Even when subjects were told to tear their completed pages into “a minimum of 32 pieces,”
throw them into a waste basket and begin again, few were willing to discontinue. Although Orne’s
study is not usually discussed as an example of obedience, it clearly illustrates the tremendous
degree of behavior control an authority figure can exert.
Of course, the most famous studies of obedience were those of Milgram. Many students are
already familiar with the basic description of Milgram’s work, but it still makes compelling
lecture and/or discussion material. You may also want to discuss how this exercise illustrates
legitimate power which is derived from a role or position. Those who have legitimate power do
not have to justify their actions. French and Raven (1959) saw legitimate power as being very
complex. They perceived it as being granted to the influencer by the person being influenced (P).
That is, legitimate power is P’s perception that the influencer has the right to tell him or her what
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This exercise deals with the powerful ability of an authority (in this case, your professor) to affect
your behavior.
The professor told you and the rest of the class to perform meaningless actions and gave no
reason why you should do so. You were one of the first to question authority.
Please remain where you are until the professor asks you to return to the classroom. The
professor may ask you to give a short report to the class about how you felt about obeying,
questioning authority, and being removed from the classroom.
Exercise 8–8
Creating Conformity
On the day prior to your first discussion of obedience, ask students to bring an empty soda can to
class. If you plan ahead, you can even include such instructions on your syllabus. After presenting
the Milgram study, ask students who brought a can to class to place the can in their left hand.
Then ask students to raise their right hand if they are absolutely certain that under the same
conditions as the Milgram study, they would not shock the learner at the highest 450-volt level.
Then ask students to hold up their left hand. After a pause, ask students who have cans in their
hands why they are holding empty soda cans. When one student says something like, “You told us
to bring them,” pause again to let students make the connection between the Milgram study and
their own behavior. Students may protest that there is no similarity between bringing a can and
shocking another person, but you can use this as a way to launch discussion.
Source: Snyder, C. R. (2003). “‘Me conform? No way’: Classroom demonstrations for sensitizing
students to their conformity,” Teaching of Psychology, 30, 59–61.
Exercise 8–9
Unveiling Normative Social Influence by Breaking the Rules
Students are asked on page 244 to break a social norm about personal space by either standing too
close or too far away from someone while they are having a conversation. You could either have
students complete this exercise outside of class and systematically observe the reactions of the
person that they talk to. Or you could have students pair off in class and have a brief discussion,
giving half of the students secret instructions to get really close to their partner. Then you could
observe the students’ reactions and have everyone discuss how they felt and how this
demonstrates the subtletly of social norms as well as their importance in making us feel
comfortable during social interactions. An additional activity involving breaking norms is listed in
Exercise 8–11.
Exercise 8–11
Norm Violation
One way to study the power of social norms in governing our behavior is to violate a norm. Have
students do this project in pairs or possibly trios. Each group should decide on a norm to break;
examples might be: singing in a restaurant, applauding a professor’s lecture or at a movie, wearing
pajamas to class, walking around with a grocery sack mask over one’s head, playing an iPod
loudly next to people who are studying. Each group should have its members (singly or in pairs,
for some kinds of violations) take turns violating the norm; the other person in this case should be
an observer. Each group should perform six norm violations and should record information about
the demographics of the participants and their verbal and nonverbal reactions. If appropriate (for
example, when playing the iPod in the library), apologies should be issued to people who are
disturbed. Students should report this information, as well as recording their own subjective
responses to violating the norms, in an oral report or short paper. More complex versions of the
project could add control conditions and manipulate variables such as the apparent status of the
norm violator.
An alternative project that some groups may try instead is based on a paradigm devised by
Knowles, E. S. (1973, “Boundaries around group interaction: The effect of group size and member
status on boundary permeability,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 327–331)
and suggested as appropriate for student field research projects by McKenna, R. J. (1995, The
undergraduate researchers handbook: Creative experimentation in social psychology, Boston:
Allyn & Bacon). The paradigm involves a pair of students standing in a corridor or building entry,
or on an outside path that is about 10 feet wide. The pair stands about 6 feet away and talks to
each other. Approaching people must decide whether to go around one of the duo or whether to
break the norm of violating personal space by walking between them. Students should observe
people’s reactions to having to decide whether or not to violate the norm and should record how
many students do. (A third member of the group may be appointed to watch from a distance and
do the recording.) Factors such as gender, apparent status, race, height, or apparent handicaps
could be manipulated if you want students to do a complex version of the project. For even a
minimal version, at least 20 and preferably 40 participants should be subjected to the procedure.
Louis Snellgrove (1981, “Public opinion polls and cooperation with authority.” In L. Benjamin, &
K. D. Lowman (Eds.), Activities for the Teaching of Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 151–152) suggests
having students conduct their own project where they observe the effects of authority. Students
are to devise a short (five-question) survey on any topic, beginning all questions with the phrase
“Do you agree or disagree,” and they are to type the survey up so that it looks official. Making
sure to approach subjects in a safe area, and selecting them randomly, students will survey several
people, varying the instructions they use to preface the survey. In one condition, students present
themselves as conducting a survey for their psychology class, in another as writing an article for
the local paper, and in a third, as helping a professor (use a fictitious name) collect data for an
article to be published in a scientific journal. Students should make sure to thank all people
approached for their time, whether or not they answer the questions. Students are to keep track of
the number of people approached and the number of people who answer, and are to calculate the
percentage of people who answer the questions in each of the three conditions. As authority
increases, does compliance? What other factors (e.g., sex of the researcher or of the respondent)
make a difference?
Exercise 8–13
Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face
This is a fairly involved activity but students enjoy it and it helps them remember the persuasion
techniques.
Assign students to work in small groups. As a class, agree on a request that students could make
of other students on campus that will be moderately difficult to get them to agree to. Or, you can
decide on the request ahead of time (e.g., “Will you walk me to building XXX?”). In their groups,
students will come up with three scripts, one that uses foot-in-the-door, one that uses door-in-the-
face, and one that involves just asking. You should review the scripts to make sure they are
correct and ethical. After their scripts are approved, students should go and try out their
persuasion attempts on strangers on campus, keeping track of whether people say yes or no to
their requests in the different conditions. Each group member should try each of the three
techniques at least once. After the person says yes or no, the student may explain what they were
doing and why. In their groups, students can make graphs (in Excel) that summarize their results.
You may wish to have students present their results to the class.
1. What is the request you will be making? Write it word for word in the space below.
2. What will you say to people in the foot-in-the-door condition? Write it word for word in the
space below.
3. What will you say to people in the door-in-the-face condition? Write it word for word in the
space below.
4. In the table below, keep track of the success of your requests. Be sure to ask one person using
each technique.
Technique Response
Foot-in-the-door Yes No
Door-in-the-face Yes No
The Age of Innocence (1993). Two star-crossed lovers caught up in the constricting and
unforgiving social norms of upper-class New York in the 1870s. Based on Edith Wharton’s
novel.
Behavior Control (60 minutes, 1980, USU). A PBS special examining the persuasive power of
cults, advertising, and the media.
Captive Minds: Hypnosis and Beyond (56 minutes, 1983, PSU, 16 mm.). Explores hypnosis,
psychotherapy, cult indoctrination, induction into a monastery, and Marine Corps training as
examples of social influence.
Candid Camera Classics (1993, MCG). Humorous depictions of conformity from the classic
television show in a tape produced for social psychology classes.
Communication: Negotiation and Persuasion (30 minutes, 1989, PSU). Examines techniques of
changing people’s attitudes and behavior.
Conformity (30 min, 1989, PSU, IU). Examines the pros and cons of conformity, the reasons that
people conform, and variables that influence conformity.
Conformity and Independence (23 minutes, 1975, PSU). Presents social psychology’s main
findings and principles in the areas of conformity and independence, using both field and
laboratory settings. Included are experiments on norm formation, Asch’s work on group
pressure and Crutchfield’s variation, Milgram’s experiment on action conformity, Kelman’s
three processes of compliance, and Moscovici’s recent theoretical views.
The Crucible (124 minutes, 1996, retail outlets). Film adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play on the
Salem witch trials. Illustrates the power of conformity.
Cults, Charisma, and Mind Control (35 minutes, 1980, HRM). A presentation of the attraction of
cults, conversion, and the coercion which is sometimes associated with cult membership.
Cults: Choice or Coercion (14 minutes, 1979, IU, ISU). Produced by CBS News, this program
explores the legal, moral, and emotional issues associated with contemporary religious cults.
Dead Poet’s Society (1989). Fairly early in the film, the teacher (Robin Williams) instructs a
student to read a passage and then has all of the students tear the pages from the book. You
can use this to introduce obedience to authority.
Dealing with Peer Pressure: I Made My Choice (30 minutes, FHS). The friendships formed
during adolescence provide teenagers with some of their fondest memories. Those same
friends, however, can also influence individuals to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. This
program uses student testimonials to examine the topic of adolescent peer pressure.
The Effective Uses of Power and Authority (30 minutes, 1979, CRM). An exploration of types of
social power.
The Heaven’s Gate Cult: The Thin Line Between Faith and Reason (1998, 20 minutes, FHS). A
segment from ABC’s Nightline program uses the 1997 mass suicide of the members of the
Heaven’s Gate cult as starting point for a discussion among prominent scholars and cult
watchers.
Joseph Shultz (1973, PSU). Reenactment of a true story of wartime disobedience.
The Lottery (18 minutes, 1968, UWA). Based on Shirley Jackson’s short story. A modern (1950s)
American community annually selects a sacrificial victim who is stoned. A vivid fictional
depiction of conformity.
Obedience (45 minutes, 1969, PSU). Documents Stanley Milgram’s classic research on obedience
to authority, based on candid footage shot at Yale University.
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
351
Obeying Orders: GI Resistance to the Vietnam War (29 minutes, 1990, FIL). This documentary
focuses on the GI and veteran antiwar movement. Oral history interviews with Vietnam
veterans are interwoven with archival photos, film footage, and popular music of the 1960s.
Several of the GIs took very courageous stands. The experience of these veterans highlights
the politics of the war, the intersection of the civil rights and antiwar movements, and the
ethical question of whether to follow orders that one feels are immoral.
The People of People’s Temple (24 minutes, 1979, PSU). Documents an extreme case of group
cohesiveness—the religious cult that developed around Jim Jones and ended in the mass
suicide of almost one thousand people.
Power of the Situation (27 minutes, 1991 WGBH/Boston and PBS, Discovering Psychology
Series). Includes segments on the Asch conformity, Milgram obedience, and Zimbardo prison
experiments.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, retail outlets). Three male transvestite entertainers take their
show on the road in the Australian outback. Needless to say, the townspeople have never seen
such nonconformity. Remade in the United States as To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything.
The Psychology of Mass Persuasion (45 minutes, 1981, Insight Media). This still-image video
explores persuasion tactics used by the media, showing how the media engenders attitudes and
manipulates psychological needs. It differentiates among core, peripheral, and highly variable
attitudes, and examines which types can be changed by persuasive techniques. It also
investigates propaganda and shows how Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones used power.
Remember My Lai (1989, PBS). Documentary about the incident during the Vietnam War in
which American soldiers followed orders to destroy a village and murder its residents of all
ages.
Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Study (55 minutes, 1991, UWA). Zimbardo’s classic Stanford
Prison study released on video that shows more footage than any previously available
depiction. Study demonstrates the power of situations to control behavior.
Schindler’s List (1994, retail outlets). True story of how one man protected and saved a thousand
Polish Jews from certain death in Hitler’s concentration camps. Won Academy Award for
Best Picture.
Social Animal (30 minutes, 1963, PSU). Schachter on the effect of group pressure to conform.
Twelve Angry Men (1957, PSU, retail outlets). Hollywood film, starring Henry Fonda, focusing on
jury deliberations/conformity and nonconformity to group influence.
The Wave (46 minutes, 1981, PSU). The mental environment of the Nazi Third Reich is recreated
by a teacher. Students are instilled with ideas of discipline, power, and superiority, and
become willing participants.
Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope (35 minutes, 1972, PSU). A dramatization of the
Salem witch trials of 1692.
Flash Mobs. Examples of conformity. “Finger” gun fight at the Tate Museum and MC Hammer
dance in a clothing store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7aI6zhbVtM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwzN4633mpI
Obeying Signs. Signs on two doors say “Men only” and “Women only”—people obey as they
walk through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a71h6LZKXTc&feature=related
McDonald’s Strip Search Video. A 24-minute look at McDonald’s surveillance video clips where
Louise Ogburn was forced to strip, be spanked, and perform sex acts on coworkers.
http://hitsusa.com/blog/163/mcdonalds-strip-search-video/
Zimbardo TED Talk (23 minutes). Dr. Phil Zimbardo talks about the power of the situation and
how people can choose to engage in good, rather than evil, acts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFEV35tWsg&feature=related
Marine Bloodwings Initiation Ceremony. This is an example of obedience and conformity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMawm8W1ihI
Hikikomori (6 and a half minutes). A BBC World news report on Hikikomori in Japan.
Upselling - Foot In The Door (FITD) Sales Tip (2 minutes, 17 seconds). Foot-in-the-door is
applied to sales.
LINK MISSING
I have found out within the last few days why so few men are to be
seen in my rounds. The settlements here scarcely deserve the name
of villages—they are too straggling for that; it is only now and then
that from one hut one can catch a distant glimpse of another. The
view is also obstructed by the fields of manioc, whose branches,
though very spreading, are not easily seen through on account of the
thickly-growing, succulent green foliage. This and the bazi pea are,
now that the maize and millet have been gathered in, the only crops
left standing in the fields. Thus it may happen that one has to trust
entirely to the trodden paths leading from one hut to another, to be
sure of missing none, or to the guidance of the sounds inseparable
from every human settlement. There is no lack of such noises at
Masasi, and in fact I follow them almost every day. Walking about
the country with Nils Knudsen, I hear what sounds like a jovial
company over their morning drink—voices becoming louder and
louder, and shouting all together regardless of parliamentary rules. A
sudden turn of the path brings us face to face with a drinking-party,
and a very merry one, indeed, to judge by the humour of the guests
and the number and dimensions of the pombe pots which have been
wholly or partially emptied. The silence which follows our
appearance is like that produced by a stone thrown into a pool where
frogs are croaking. Only when we ask, “Pombe nzuri?” (“Is the beer
good?”) a chorus of hoarse throats shouts back the answer—“Nzuri
kabisa, bwana!” (“Very good indeed, sir!”)
As to this pombe—well, we Germans fail to appreciate our
privileges till we have ungratefully turned our backs on our own
country. At Mtua, our second camp out from Lindi, a huge earthen
jar of the East African brew was brought as a respectful offering to us
three Europeans. At that time I failed to appreciate the dirty-looking
drab liquid; not so our men, who finished up the six gallons or so in a
twinkling. In Masasi, again, the wife of the Nyasa chief Masekera
Matola—an extremely nice, middle-aged woman—insisted on
sending Knudsen and me a similar gigantic jar soon after our arrival.
We felt that it was out of the question to refuse or throw away the
gift, and so prepared for the ordeal with grim determination. First I
dipped one of my two tumblers into the turbid mass, and brought it
up filled with a liquid in colour not unlike our Lichtenhain beer, but
of a very different consistency. A compact mass of meal filled the
glass almost to the top, leaving about a finger’s breadth of real, clear
“Lichtenhainer.” “This will never do!” I growled, and shouted to
Kibwana for a clean handkerchief. He produced one, after a
seemingly endless search, but my attempts to use it as a filter were
fruitless—not a drop would run through. “No use, the stuff is too
closely woven. Lete sanda, Kibwana” (“Bring a piece of the shroud!”)
This order sounds startling enough, but does not denote any
exceptional callousness on my part. Sanda is the Swahili name for
the cheap, unbleached and highly-dressed calico (also called bafta)
which, as a matter of fact, is generally used by the natives to wrap a
corpse for burial. The material is consequently much in demand, and
travellers into the interior will do well to carry a bale of it with them.
When the dressing is washed out, it is little better than a network of
threads, and might fairly be expected to serve the purpose of a filter.
I found, however, that I could not strain the pombe through it—a
few scanty drops ran down and that was all. After trying my tea and
coffee-strainers, equally in vain, I gave up in despair, and drank the
stuff as it stood. I found that it had a slight taste of flour, but was
otherwise not by any means bad, and indeed quite reminiscent of my
student days at Jena—in fact, I think I could get used to it in time.
The men of Masasi seem to have got only too well used to it. I am far
from grudging the worthy elders their social glass after the hard work
of the harvest, but it is very hard that my studies should suffer from
this perpetual conviviality. It is impossible to drum up any
considerable number of men to be cross-examined on their tribal
affinities, usages and customs. Moreover, the few who can reconcile
it with their engagements and inclinations to separate themselves for
a time from their itinerant drinking-bouts are not disposed to be very
particular about the truth. Even when, the other day, I sent for a
band of these jolly topers to show me their methods of
basketmaking, the result was very unsatisfactory—they did some
plaiting in my presence, but they were quite incapable of giving in
detail the native names of their materials and implements—the
morning drink had been too copious.
It is well known that it is the custom of most, if not all, African
tribes to make a part of their supply of cereals into beer after an
abundant harvest, and consume it wholesale in this form. This, more
than anything else, has probably given rise to the opinion that the
native always wastes his substance in time of plenty, and is nearly
starved afterwards in consequence. It is true that our black friends
cannot be pronounced free from a certain degree of “divine
carelessness”—a touch, to call it no more, of Micawberism—but it
would not be fair to condemn them on the strength of a single
indication. I have already laid stress on the difficulty which the
native cultivator has of storing his seed-corn through the winter. It
would be still more difficult to preserve the much greater quantities
of foodstuffs gathered in at the harvest in a condition fit for use
through some eight or nine months. That he tries to do so is seen by
the numerous granaries surrounding every homestead of any
importance, but that he does not invariably succeed, and therefore
prefers to dispose of that part of his crops which would otherwise be
wasted in a manner combining the useful and the agreeable, is
proved by the morning and evening beer-drinks already referred to,
which, with all their loud merriment, are harmless enough. They
differ, by the bye, from the drinking in European public-houses, in
that they are held at each man’s house in turn, so that every one is
host on one occasion and guest on another—a highly satisfactory
arrangement on the whole.
My difficulties are due to other causes besides the chronically
bemused state of the men. In the first place, there are the troubles
connected with photography. In Europe the amateur is only too
thankful for bright sunshine, and even should the light be a little
more powerful than necessary, there is plenty of shade to be had
from trees and houses. In Africa we have nothing of the sort—the
trees are neither high nor shady, the bushes are not green, and the
houses are never more than twelve feet high at the ridge-pole. To this
is added the sun’s position in the sky at a height which affects one
with a sense of uncanniness, from nine in the morning till after three
in the afternoon, and an intensity of light which is best appreciated
by trying to match the skins of the natives against the colours in Von
Luschan’s scale. No medium between glittering light and deep black
shadow—how is one, under such circumstances, to produce artistic
plates full of atmosphere and feeling?
For a dark-room I have been trying to use the Masasi boma. This is
the only stone building in the whole district and has been
constructed for storing food so as to prevent the recurrence of famine
among the natives, and, still more, to make the garrison independent
of outside supplies in the event of another rising. It has only one
story, but the walls are solidly built, with mere loopholes for
windows; and the flat roof of beaten clay is very strong. In this
marvel of architecture are already stacked uncounted bags
containing millet from the new crop, and mountains of raw cotton. I
have made use of both these products, stopping all crevices with the
cotton, and taking the bags of grain to sit on, and also as a support
for my table, hitherto the essential part of a cotton-press which
stands forsaken in the compound, mourning over the shipwreck it
has made of its existence. Finally, I have closed the door with a
combination of thick straw mats made by my carriers, and some
blankets from my bed. In this way, I can develop at a pinch even in
the daytime, but, after working a short time in this apartment, the
atmosphere becomes so stifling that I am glad to escape from it to
another form of activity.
On one of my first strolls here, I came upon
a neat structure which was explained to me as
“tego ya ngunda”—a trap for pigeons. This is
a system of sticks and thin strings, one of
which is fastened to a strong branch bent over
into a half-circle. I have been, from my youth
up, interested in all mechanical contrivances,
and am still more so in a case like this, where
we have an opportunity of gaining an insight
into the earlier evolutional stages of the
RAT TRAP human intellect. I therefore, on my return to
camp, called together all my men and as many
local natives as possible, and addressed the assembly to the effect
that the mzungu was exceedingly anxious to possess all kinds of
traps for all kinds of animals. Then followed the promise of good
prices for good and authentic specimens, and the oration wound up
with “Nendeni na tengenezeni sasa!” (“Now go away and make up
your contraptions!”).
How they hurried off that day, and how eagerly all my men have
been at work ever since! I had hitherto believed all my carriers to be
Wanyamwezi—now I find, through the commentaries which each of
them has to supply with his work, that my thirty men represent a
number of different tribes. Most of them, to be sure, are
Wanyamwezi, but along with them there are some Wasukuma and
Manyema, and even a genuine Mngoni from Runsewe, a
representative of that gallant Zulu tribe who, some decades ago,
penetrated from distant South Africa to the present German
territory, and pushed forward one of its groups—these very Runsewe
Wangoni—as far as the south-western corner of the Victoria Nyanza.
As for the askari, though numbering only thirteen, they belong to no
fewer than twelve different tribes, from those of far Darfur in the
Egyptian Sudan to the Yao in Portuguese East Africa. All these
“faithfuls” have been racking their brains to recall and practise once
more in wood and field the arts of their boyhood, and now they come
and set up, in the open, sunny space beside my palatial abode, the
results of their unwonted intellectual exertions.
The typical cultivator is not credited in literature with much skill
as a hunter and trapper; his modicum of intellect is supposed to be
entirely absorbed by the care of his fields, and none but tribes of the
stamp of the Bushmen, the Pygmies and the Australian aborigines
are assumed by our theoretic wisdom to be capable of dexterously
killing game in forest or steppe, or taking it by skilful stratagem in a
cunningly devised trap. And yet how wide of the mark is this opinion
of the schools! Among the tribes of the district I am studying, the
Makua are counted as good hunters, while at the same time they are
like the rest, in the main, typical hoe-cultivators—i.e., people who,
year after year, keep on tilling, with the primitive hoe, the ground
painfully brought under cultivation. In spite of their agricultural
habits their traps are constructed with wonderful ingenuity. The
form and action of these traps is sufficiently evident from the
accompanying sketches; but in case any reader should be entirely
without the faculty of “technical sight,” I may add for his benefit that
all these murderous implements depend on the same principle.
Those intended for quadrupeds are so arranged that the animal in
walking or running forward strikes against a fine net with his muzzle,
or a thin cord with his foot. The net or the string is thereby pressed
forward, the upper edge of the former glides downwards, but the end
of the string moves a little to one side. In either case this movement
sets free the end of a lever—a small stick which has hitherto, in a way
sufficiently clear from the sketch—kept the trap set. It slips
instantaneously round its support, and in so doing releases the
tension of the tree or bent stick acting as a spring, which in its
upward recoil draws a skilfully fixed noose tight round the neck of
the animal, which is then strangled to death. Traps of similar
construction, but still more cruel, are set for rats and the like, and,
unfortunately, equal cunning and skill are applied to the pursuit of
birds. Perhaps I shall find another opportunity of discussing this side
of native life; it certainly deserves attention, for there is scarcely any
department where the faculty of invention to be found in even the
primitive mind is so clearly shown as in this aspect of the struggle for
existence.
It is not very easy to locate my present abode on the map. Masasi and
its exact latitude and longitude have been known to me for years, but
of this strangely named place,[17] where I drove in my tent-pegs a few
days ago, I never even heard before I had entered the area of the
inland tribes.
One trait is common to all Oriental towns, their beauty at a
distance and the disillusionment in store for those who set foot
within their walls. Knudsen has done nothing but rave about
Chingulungulu ever since we reached Masasi. He declared that its
baraza was the highest achievement of East African architecture,
that it had a plentiful supply of delicious water, abundance of all
kinds of meat, and unequalled fruit and vegetables. He extolled its
population, exclusively composed, according to him, of high-bred
gentlemen and good-looking women, and its well-built, spacious
houses. Finally, its situation, he said, made it a convenient centre for
excursions in all directions over the plain. I have been here too short
a time to bring all the details of this highly coloured picture to the
test of actual fact, but this much I have already ascertained, that
neither place nor people are quite so paradisaical as the enthusiastic
Nils would have me believe.
YAO HOMESTEAD AT CHINGULUNGULU
His name, Kofia tule, was at first a puzzle to me. I knew that kofia
means a cap, but, curiously enough it never occurred to me to look
up tule (which, moreover, I assumed to be a Nyamwezi word) in the
dictionary. That it was supposed to involve a joke of some sort, I
gathered from the general laughter, whenever I asked its meaning. At
last we arrived at the fact that kofia tule means a small, flat cap—in
itself a ridiculous name for a man, but doubly so applied to this black
super-man with the incredibly vacant face.
Kofia tule, then, comes slowly forward, followed by six more
Wanyamwezi, and some local men whom I have engaged as extra
carriers. With him as their mnyampara they are to take my
collections down to the Coast, and get them stored till my return in
the cellars of the District Commissioner’s office at Lindi. The final
instructions are delivered, and then comes the order, “You here, go
to the left,—we are going to the right. March!” Our company takes
some time to get into proper marching order, but at last everything
goes smoothly. A glance northward over the plain assures us that
Kofia tule and his followers have got up the correct safari speed; and
we plunge into the uninhabited virgin pori.
There is something very monotonous and fatiguing about the
march through these open woods. It is already getting on for noon,
and I am half-asleep on my mule, when I catch sight of two black
figures, gun in hand, peeping cautiously round a clump of bushes in
front. Can they be Wangoni?
For some days past we have heard flying rumours that Shabruma,
the notorious leader of the Wangoni in the late rebellion, and the last
of our opponents remaining unsubdued, is planning an attack on
Nakaam, and therefore threatening this very neighbourhood. Just as
I look round for my gun-bearer, a dozen throats raise the joyful shout
of “Mail-carrier!” This is my first experience of the working of the
German Imperial Post in East Africa; I learnt in due course that,
though by no means remunerative to the department, it is as nearly
perfect as any human institution can be. It sounds like an
exaggeration, but it is absolutely true, to say that all mail matter,
even should it be only a single picture post-card, is delivered to the
addressee without delay, wherever he may be within the postal area.
The native runners, of course, have a very different sort of duty to
perform from the few miles daily required of our home functionaries.
With letters and papers packed in a water-tight envelope of oiled
paper and American cloth, and gun on shoulder, the messenger trots
along, full of the importance of his errand, and covers enormous
distances, sometimes, it is said, double the day’s march of an
ordinary caravan. If the road lies through a district rendered unsafe
by lions, leopards, or human enemies, two men are always sent
together. The black figures rapidly approach us, ground arms with
soldierly precision and report in proper form:—Letters from Lindi
for the Bwana mkubwa and the Bwana mdogo—the great and the
little master. As long as Mr. Ewerbeck was with us, it was not easy for
the natives to establish the correct precedence between us. Since they
ranked me as the new captain, they could not possibly call me
Bwana mdogo. Now, however, there is not the slightest difficulty,—
there are only two Europeans, and I being, not only the elder, but
also the leader of the expedition, there is nothing to complicate the
usual gradation of ranks.