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examBoard: AQA
examType: GCSE
lessonTitle: Expertise and Conformity
When someone is seen as an expert, they can have a powerful influence on how others behave and what they believe. This is a key factor in understanding why people conform to social pressure. In this session, we'll explore how expertise affects conformity and the psychological mechanisms behind this influence.
Key Definitions:
We tend to follow experts because we believe they have better knowledge than we do. This is especially true when:
Experts can influence us in different ways:
Expertise creates conformity through several psychological mechanisms. Understanding these helps us recognise when we might be unduly influenced by someone just because they seem knowledgeable.
When we encounter someone we believe is an expert, several psychological processes kick in that make us more likely to conform to their views or requests:
We recognise that the expert knows more than we do about a specific topic, creating a knowledge gap that makes us defer to their judgment.
We assume experts have our best interests at heart and will use their knowledge responsibly, leading us to trust their guidance.
Following expert advice saves us time and mental effort - it's a cognitive shortcut that helps us navigate complex decisions quickly.
Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiments showed the power of perceived expertise. Participants were willing to deliver what they thought were dangerous electric shocks to another person simply because a researcher in a lab coat (a symbol of expertise) told them to continue. When the experimenter was replaced with an ordinary person, obedience rates dropped dramatically - showing how expertise is a powerful factor in social influence.
Key finding: 65% of participants delivered the maximum 450-volt shock when instructed by the "expert" experimenter.
We often judge expertise based on external symbols rather than actual knowledge. These symbols can trigger automatic conformity even when real expertise is lacking.
Research shows we're influenced by visual cues that suggest expertise:
How someone speaks can make them seem more expert-like:
Leonard Bickman conducted a field experiment to test whether the uniform a person wears affects their ability to influence others. He had researchers dress in one of three outfits:
Each researcher asked random pedestrians to perform simple tasks like picking up litter or standing on the other side of a bus stop sign.
Results: People were significantly more likely to comply with requests from the "guard" (89% compliance) compared to the civilian in a suit (65%) or casual clothes (42%).
Conclusion: The uniform created an impression of authority and expertise, leading to greater conformity even though the guard had no actual authority in that situation.
A 2012 study by researchers at Northwestern University found that people performed better on attention tests when wearing a doctor's lab coat compared to ordinary clothes. Interestingly, when told the same white coat belonged to a painter rather than a doctor, the performance boost disappeared. This demonstrates how powerful our associations with symbols of expertise can be - even affecting our own abilities when we believe we're connected to expertise.
Sometimes expert opinion conflicts with majority opinion. How do people respond when faced with this dilemma?
People tend to follow the majority over an expert when:
People tend to follow the expert over the majority when:
Understanding how expertise influences conformity helps explain many real-world phenomena:
The power of expertise to create conformity appears in many contexts:
Companies use actors in white coats to sell health products, or athletes to endorse sports equipment - creating the impression of expert recommendation.
Patients typically follow doctor's orders without question, even when they don't fully understand the treatment, because of the doctor's perceived expertise.
News programmes feature "experts" whose opinions shape public understanding of complex issues, sometimes leading to widespread conformity to particular viewpoints.
When studying the psychological research on expertise and conformity, it's important to consider:
When discussing expertise and conformity in your exam:
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