Social Influence Research Paper
Social Influence: How it affects people Social influence is the mark society leaves on people, however not all changed do to it. Social influence is a big part to life because of the way it affects people. One of the ways that people are affected by social influence is how they are made to think. In the video “Social Influence” Kathleen Yale demonstrates this through the Milgram’s experiment, “ If a participant hesitated . . . the researcher gave orders to make sure he continued,” (Yale). Yale elaborates on this by stating, “About two-thirds of participants ended up delivering the maximum 450 volt shock,” (Yale). Milgram's experiment was an experiment conducted to see if people would be swayed by authority, and participants were made to shock
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an actor, who really wasn’t harmed. The experiment proved how people are influenced by certain ideas, such as listening to authority, even if they really should not. Society is also very influential the way people act.
In the article “Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Connect” Frans de Waal explains this by saying, “the herd instinct produces weird phenomena. At one zoo an entire baboon troop gathered on top of their rock …. They just kept staring at something in the distance that no one could identify,” (125 Waal). Waal further shows this copying behavior in humans when they say, “Finding himself in front of the cameras next to his pal president George W. Bush, former British prime minister Tony Blair---known to walk normally at home---would suddenly metamorphose into a distinctly un English cowboy,” (125 Waal). Given these examples one could conclude how people copy each other to fit in, and may act differently elsewhere. Although social influence has other effects that are negative or have no effect it can be positive, because of how friends reassure people of reality. In Dorothy Rowe’s article “With Friends Like These. . . “ she explains this by saying, “Friends are central to this all-important sense of validation. When a friend confirms the world as we see it, we feel safer, reassured,” (Rowe 142). This shows how the only confirmation of a person’s reality is given through someone else saying so. However, without this kind of influence many would feel lost, but with it they have meaning and a
place.
Social Influence has differing effects and they can be positive, negative, or have no effect.Because it can have many varying effects on people, it changes them.
an actor, who really wasn’t harmed. The experiment proved how people are influenced by certain ideas, such as listening to authority, even if they really should not. Society is also very influential the way people act.
In the article “Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Connect” Frans de Waal explains this by saying, “the herd instinct produces weird phenomena. At one zoo an entire baboon troop gathered on top of their rock …. They just kept staring at something in the distance that no one could identify,” (125 Waal). Waal further shows this copying behavior in humans when they say, “Finding himself in front of the cameras next to his pal president George W. Bush, former British prime minister Tony Blair---known to walk normally at home---would suddenly metamorphose into a distinctly un English cowboy,” (125 Waal). Given these examples one could conclude how people copy each other to fit in, and may act differently elsewhere. Although social influence has other effects that are negative or have no effect it can be positive, because of how friends reassure people of reality. In Dorothy Rowe’s article “With Friends Like These. . . “ she explains this by saying, “Friends are central to this all-important sense of validation. When a friend confirms the world as we see it, we feel safer, reassured,” (Rowe 142). This shows how the only confirmation of a person’s reality is given through someone else saying so. However, without this kind of influence many would feel lost, but with it they have meaning and a
place.
Social Influence has differing effects and they can be positive, negative, or have no effect.Because it can have many varying effects on people, it changes them.