Informational influence and normative influence

What Is the Chameleon Effect?

The phenomenon gets its name for the chameleon, an animal which changes the appearance of its skin to blend into any environment it finds itself in. The chameleon effect is a phenomenon that finds us imitating the attitudes, gestures or facial expressions of the people we most frequently interact with. It causes you to subconsciously make behavioral changes to match the behavior of people in your immediate social circles and even strangers. If you live or interact with another person or people long enough, you will have to pick up some of their behavior, mannerisms, facial expressions and gestures. We can especially notice the chameleon effect in couples who have been together for a long time or in best friends. The chameleon effect comes naturally to humans and is not something you have to practice.

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Obedience is a form of social influence that involves performing an action under the orders of an authority figure. It differs from compliance (which involves changing your behavior at the request of another person) and conformity (which involves altering your behavior in order to go along with the rest of the group). Instead, obedience involves altering your behavior because a figure of authority has told you to. For example, if you are a soldier, even if you don`t want to, you have to kill your enemy in the battle.

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How Obedience Differs From Conformity: Obedience differs from conformity in three key ways: 1) Obedience involves an order; conformity involves a request. 2)Obedience is obeying someone with a higher status; conformity is going along with people of equal status. 3)Obedience relies on social power; conformity relies on the need to be socially accepted.

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Milgram’s Obedience Experiment

Milgram wanted to know - would people really hurt someone else if commanded by an authority figure? How strong is the pressure to obey? Milgram's work involved placing participants in one room and directing them to give electric shocks to a “learner" in another room. Without the participant's knowledge, the person receiving the so-called shocks was actually in the experiment and was only responding to imaginary shocks. Surprisingly, Milgram found that 65% of the participants were willing to deliver the maximum amount of shock at the experimenter's orders.