Chapter 5 examines the interplay of biology, culture, and gender: natural selection, evolutionary psychology, the sex-gender distinction, epigenetics, and how gender roles shift across time and culture. Chapter 6 covers conformity and obedience through three landmark studies (Sherif, Asch, Milgram), the distinction between informational and normative influence, and the factors that predict when people conform or obey. Chapter 7 rounds out the midterm with persuasion: central versus peripheral routes, what makes a communicator credible or attractive, the role of emotion, and how attitude inoculation builds resistance to persuasion.
Difficulty: Intermediate. Prerequisites: Chapters 1–4 notes (research methods, attitudes, self-concept, attribution theory).
These three chapters cover the external forces that shape behaviour. Chapter 5 asks how much of what we do is rooted in biology and how much in culture, with gender roles as the centrepiece case study. Chapter 6 is the heart of classic social psychology: the studies by Sherif, Asch, and Milgram demonstrate that ordinary people conform and obey far more than most expect, and the chapter unpacks why. Chapter 7 applies this to the real world of advertising, politics, and everyday influence, explaining the mechanisms of persuasion and how to resist them. Together, these chapters form the bulk of the applied material on Midterm 1.
Natural selection
The evolutionary process by which heritable traits that promote survival and reproduction are passed on to subsequent generations.
Evolutionary psychology
The study of cognition and behaviour through the lens of natural selection.
Sex
The biological category humans are divided into based on reproductive functions.
Gender
The meaning people ascribe to male, female, and non-binary categories. Gender is socially constructed; sex is biological.
Epigenetics
The study of how environmental influences affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence itself.
Norm
Standards for accepted and expected behaviour within a group or culture.
Gender role
A set of behavioural expectations society attaches to being male or female. Gender roles have changed dramatically over the past half-century and differ across cultures, which shows that evolution and biology do not make them fixed.
Sex refers to biological categories based on reproductive function. Gender refers to the social meanings attached to those categories. Epigenetics shows that the environment can influence how genes are expressed, blurring any neat line between "nature" and "nurture."
Gender roles are the behavioural expectations a society places on males and females. Two key points:
Change over time: attitudes toward gender have shifted substantially over the past 50 years, with trends toward greater equality. Role models are a crucial catalyst.
Variation across cultures: gender roles differ from one culture to another, and many cultures are independently trending toward more equality.
The fact that gender roles change across both time and culture demonstrates that evolution and biology do not make them fixed or inevitable.
Conformity
A change in behaviour or belief resulting from real or imagined group pressure. Western cultures tend to view conformity negatively (submission); non-Western cultures often view it positively (harmony).
Acceptance
Conforming by genuinely adopting the group's belief. Both behaviour and private opinion change.
Compliance
Publicly acting in line with social pressure while privately disagreeing.
Obedience
A form of compliance in which a person acts in accord with a direct order or command from an authority figure.
Informational influence
Conforming because we look to others as a source of information about an ambiguous reality. Leads to private acceptance.
Normative influence
Conforming because we fear rejection or want social approval. Leads to public compliance.
Autokinetic effect
An optical illusion in which a stationary point of light in a dark room appears to move because there is no reference point. Used in Sherif's norm-formation experiment.
Attitude inoculation
Exposing people to small, mild attacks on their beliefs so they build resistance to stronger persuasion later. (Covered in Chapter 7 but connects to conformity resistance.)
Type of influence: Informational (acceptance).
Procedure:
Phase 1: Participants sat alone in a dark room and estimated how far a stationary light appeared to move. Estimates varied widely.
Phase 2: Participants were placed in groups of three and asked to state their estimates aloud. Individual estimates converged toward a group norm.
Phase 3: Participants returned to individual testing. Their answers still reflected the group norm formed earlier.
Key finding: In ambiguous situations, people look to others for guidance, and the resulting group norm persists even after the group is dissolved.
Type of influence: Normative (compliance).
Procedure:
Participants were shown a standard line and three comparison lines (A, B, C) and asked to say which matched the standard.
All other group members were confederates who intentionally gave the wrong answer on certain trials.
The real participant had to decide whether to conform or resist.
Results:
37% of participants conformed to the incorrect majority on at least one trial.
75% conformed at least once across the full experiment.
When participants wrote their answers privately, conformity dropped sharply.
Key finding: Even when the correct answer is obvious, normative pressure (fear of standing out) can produce public compliance.
Procedure:
The participant played the role of "teacher," a confederate played the "learner," and the experimenter served as the authority figure.
The teacher was instructed to administer increasing electric shocks (15V to 450V) to the learner for every wrong answer.
The learner (confederate) pretended to be in pain. The experimenter used prompts such as "The experiment requires that you continue."
Results:
65% of participants obeyed all the way to the maximum 450 volts.
Participants showed visible distress but continued.
When other participants (confederates) disobeyed, the real participant was more likely to resist as well.
The judgement is difficult or the person feels incompetent.
Greater insecurity about one's own judgement.
Larger group size, higher status of the majority, and unanimity.
Collectivist cultural background.
Emotional distance of the victim: the more remote the learner, the easier it is to obey.
Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: proximity to and prestige of the experimenter increase obedience.
Institutional authority: the experiment's association with a reputable institution (Yale) boosted compliance.
Liberating effects of group influence: seeing others defy the authority makes it easier to resist.
Persuasion
The process by which communicators try to convince others to change their attitudes or behaviours in an atmosphere of free choice.
Central route to persuasion
Persuasion that occurs when an interested audience focuses on the strength of the arguments. Produces more enduring attitude change.
Peripheral route to persuasion
Persuasion that occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as the speaker's attractiveness or perceived expertise rather than the argument itself.
Halo effect
The tendency to assume that attractive people are also smarter, kinder, and more credible.
Imitation effect
We naturally want to imitate people we find attractive, making us more likely to agree with them.
Attitude inoculation
Exposing people to weak forms of a persuasive argument so they can practise refuting it, building resistance to stronger persuasion later. Analogous to a vaccine.
Four elements determine whether a persuasive attempt succeeds: the communicator, the message, how the message is communicated, and the audience.
Central route: the audience pays attention to the quality of the arguments. This route produces deeper, more lasting attitude change.
Peripheral route: the audience is swayed by surface cues (attractiveness, expertise, confidence) rather than argument quality. Attitude change through this route tends to be shallower and less durable.
Credibility depends on perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and speaking style. A communicator who argues against their own self-interest (an unexpected stance) is seen as especially trustworthy.
Physical attractiveness and perceived similarity both increase a communicator's persuasive power through the peripheral route. The halo effect leads us to attribute additional positive qualities (intelligence, kindness) to attractive people. The imitation effect means we naturally mimic people we find appealing, making agreement more likely.
Attractiveness matters less when stronger argument cues are available.
Positive emotions: contagious and distracting, they lower scrutiny and increase peripheral-route persuasion.
Negative emotions (fear): high motivational value. Fear appeals can be effective when paired with a clear action the audience can take.
The "Wine 'em, Dine 'em" study (Janis): Participants who received food and drink while reading a persuasive message agreed with it significantly more than those who did not. Positive mood facilitated persuasion.
Exposing people to mild attacks on their beliefs, then teaching them to refute those attacks, builds resistance to stronger persuasion later. For example, teens shown weak pro-smoking arguments and taught to counter them were more resistant to peer pressure to smoke.
Students often think conformity and obedience are the same. Conformity is about group pressure (which can be implicit); obedience is about a direct command from an authority figure.
Students assume Milgram's participants were sadistic or unusual. They were ordinary people. The study's power lies in showing that situational pressure, not personality, drove the obedience.
Students confuse informational influence and normative influence. Informational influence changes what you privately believe (acceptance); normative influence changes only what you publicly do (compliance).
Students sometimes think the central and peripheral routes to persuasion are mutually exclusive. In practice, both can operate at the same time; the question is which dominates for a given audience and message.
Know all three classic studies (Sherif, Asch, Milgram) cold: procedure, results, and what type of influence each demonstrates.
Be prepared to match a scenario to the correct type of conformity (acceptance vs compliance vs obedience).
The four determinants of obedience from Milgram's variations are a common exam list.
Central vs peripheral route: expect a question that describes a persuasion scenario and asks which route is operating.
Attitude inoculation is a frequent short-answer topic. Understand the vaccine analogy: a weak exposure builds defences against a strong one.
The halo effect may appear in questions about why attractive communicators are more persuasive.
True or False: In Sherif's study, participants' estimates stayed the same after they returned to individual testing. (False. Their estimates still reflected the group norm.)
Fill in the blank: In Asch's study, ___% of participants conformed to the incorrect majority at least once. (75%)
True or False: In Milgram's study, most participants refused to deliver the maximum shock. (False. 65% obeyed to the maximum 450 volts.)
Fill in the blank: The ___ route to persuasion produces more enduring attitude change. (Central)
True or False: Attitude inoculation involves exposing people to the strongest possible counterarguments right away. (False. It starts with mild, weak attacks so people can build defences gradually.)
Q: Sherif's autokinetic study and Asch's line study both demonstrate conformity, but they involve different types of social influence. Explain the difference.
A: Sherif's study involves informational influence: the situation was genuinely ambiguous (no one knew the "right" answer), so participants looked to others for guidance and privately accepted the group norm. Asch's study involves normative influence: the correct answer was obvious, so participants who conformed did so to avoid standing out, not because they believed the group was right.
Q: In Milgram's study, what happened when the experimenter left the room and gave instructions by telephone?
A: Obedience dropped significantly. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure are key determinants of obedience; reducing proximity reduces compliance.
Q: A company hires a famous athlete to endorse a new energy drink. Which route to persuasion is the company primarily relying on, and why?
A: The peripheral route. The athlete's attractiveness, fame, and perceived expertise in fitness serve as incidental cues. The audience is being influenced by who is delivering the message, not by the strength of the argument about the drink itself.
Q: A health campaign first exposes teenagers to mild pro-smoking arguments, then teaches them how to counter those arguments. What is this technique called, and why does it work?
A: Attitude inoculation. By encountering weak versions of pro-smoking arguments in a safe setting, teenagers develop counterarguments and confidence, making them more resistant when they face stronger peer pressure later.
Q: Explain why gender roles are not fixed by biology, using evidence from the source material.
A: Gender roles have changed dramatically over the past half-century (a timeframe far too short for evolutionary change), and they vary across cultures. Both facts indicate that social norms, not biology alone, determine gender role expectations. Epigenetics further shows that environmental factors can influence gene expression, complicating any strict nature-nurture divide.
Conformity and obedience (Chapter 6) connect back to the fundamental attribution error (Chapter 3). When observers watch someone obey in Milgram's study, they tend to blame the person's character rather than the situation, which is exactly the error the FAE describes.
Persuasion (Chapter 7) connects to attitudes and cognitive dissonance (Chapter 4). The central route works through argument quality, which engages controlled (System 2) processing from Chapter 3. The peripheral route exploits System 1 shortcuts.
The individualism-collectivism distinction from Chapter 2/5 predicts conformity rates in Chapter 6: collectivist cultures show higher conformity, consistent with their emphasis on group harmony.
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