Module 1
Monday, January 6, 2025 8:33 AM
2b: Mechanisms of Social Influence: Channeling Actions and Framing
Interpretations
-Channel factors and framing factors
Question feedback about organ donors: The following figure shows organ
donation rates across several European nations. The green bars (Denmark,
Netherlands, UK, and Germany) are the nations that utilize an opt-in (explicit
consent) approach and the blue bars are nations that utilize an opt-out
(presumed consent) approach. As you can see organ donation rates are
significantly higher in countries that have an opt-out (presumed consent)
policy than in nations that have an opt-in (explicit consent) policy. This result
shows that channel factors can have grave consequences. Making the
process of being an organ donor easier by making it the default greatly
increases the proportion of eligible citizens who become donors, which
provides a larger supply of organs to save the lives of people in need.
-implementation intention
(fulfilling personal goal by plannning when, where and how)
Question 2: they discovered that, on average, bronze medalists appear to be
significantly happier than silver medalists.
- Why silver might be more upset than bronze: The silver medalist is
likely to compare their actual outcome to the better-case
counterfactual that they could have been the gold medalist if their
performance had been stronger. By contrast, the bronze medalist is
more likely to consider the worse-case counterfactual that they could
have been a non-medalist
-Subjective interpretation of the situation
-Framing
-Necker cube
The American Life video
1C: IN-DEPTH EXAMPLE:
RESEARCH ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OBEDIENCE
The milgram experiment
1. Did any aspects of the participant’s behaviour surprise you?
2. Was the behaviour of the participant upsetting? If so, what
specifically did you find upsetting?
3. Does the dilemma that the Milgram participants faced remind you of
any situations that you experienced where an authority figure
pressured you to do something that went against your principles or
that was dangerous? If so, in what ways was that situation similar to
the Milgram experiment and in what ways was it different?
4. Do you think that viewing the participant’s responses will change
how you interact with authority figures in the future?
5. Did watching the video help you to understand what the experience
of the situation was like for Milgram’s participants? Did it help you to
better understand why so many participants obeyed the authority to
the end of the experiment? If so, how?
1D: Insights from variations of the milgram experiment
1e: GETTING INTO THE PARTICIPANTS’ HEADS:
PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
-framing factors and channel factors
-agentic shift
-slippery slope
-behavioral scripts
-scriptlessness
Question 1: Suppose that Milgram conducted a variation of his experiment in which
the Teacher was instructed to use the 150-volt shock level for the Learner’s first error
and move incrementally up the instrument panel from this starting point.
Furthermore, imagine that after the Learner/victim received this 150-volt shock after
his first error he began protesting and said that he refused to continue and wanted
the experiment to stop. Suppose that in this revised version of the experiment
Milgram found that nearly all of the participants defied the Experimenter/Authority’s
commands to continue to shock the Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment
after this first error. Such a large reduction in the proportion of participants who
complied with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands would support Milgram’s
interpretation that which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high
levels of obedience that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-Slippery slope process
Q2: Suppose that Milgram conducted a variation of his experiment in which the
participants signed at the beginning of the experiment the Teacher, the Learner, and
the Experimenter all signed a contract in which each party acknowledged that he or
she was exclusively responsible for his or her own actions and not for the actions of
any other party in the experiment. Other than this contract the methodology was
identical to the original version of the Milgram experiment. Suppose that in this
revised version of the experiment Milgram found that nearly all of the participants
defied the Experimenter/Authority’s commands to continue to shock the
Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment shortly after the experiment
reached the 150-volt level when the Learner/Victim began to protest and refused to
continue the experiment. Such a large reduction in the proportion of participants
who complied with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands would support Milgram’s
interpretation that which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high
levels of obedience that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-The agentic shift
Q3:Milgram ran a version of his obedience experiment in which two other
confederates who were assigned part of the Teacher duties refused to comply with
the Experimenter’s commands to continue to shock the Learner/Victim after he
protested that he refused to continue to be shocked. Milgram found that nearly all of
the participants defied the Experimenter/Authority’s commands to continue to shock
the Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment before it reached the highest
level of shock. This large reduction in the proportion of participants who complied
with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands supports Milgram’s interpretation that
which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high levels of obedience
that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-Scriptlessness
1F:VIEWING THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
AS A CASE STUDY IN RESEARCH ETHICS
(Ethical criticisms of milgrams obedience experiments)
-Debriefing
-voluntary consent
-necessary to achieve the scientific objective
-minimal risk
1G: DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
(DO THE RESULTS OF MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
REPLICATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY?)
-Tipping point
The Heist video
1H: EXTENSIONS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
(Destructive obedience beyond the research lab)
-Forcasting condition
-Non-duchenne
Q1: Which of the following BEST summarizes the results of the study in which experimenters asked one
group of students (the forecasters) to predict what they would do if they were subjected to sexual
harassment during a job interview and then they measured the actual responses of another group of
students (the experiencers) when they were actually subjected to sexual harassment during a job
interview?
-B and C (forecastors predicted they would reuse to anser but they did answer and non of the experiencers
took confrontational actions)
Q2: You may have noticed that in Woodzicka and LaFrance’s experiment the interviewer initially asked
standard interview questions before asking any sexually harassing questions. You may also have noticed
that the first sexually harassing question was not as extreme as the third sexually harassing question. To
the extent that this gradual, incremental unfolding of the sexual harassment made it difficult for the job
candidate to refuse to answer the sexually harassing question or confront the interviewer, then this would
, -necessary to achieve the scientific objective
-minimal risk
1G: DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
(DO THE RESULTS OF MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
REPLICATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY?)
-Tipping point
The Heist video
1H: EXTENSIONS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
(Destructive obedience beyond the research lab)
-Forcasting condition
-Non-duchenne
Q1: Which of the following BEST summarizes the results of the study in which experimenters asked one
group of students (the forecasters) to predict what they would do if they were subjected to sexual
harassment during a job interview and then they measured the actual responses of another group of
students (the experiencers) when they were actually subjected to sexual harassment during a job
interview?
-B and C (forecastors predicted they would reuse to anser but they did answer and non of the experiencers
took confrontational actions)
Q2: You may have noticed that in Woodzicka and LaFrance’s experiment the interviewer initially asked
standard interview questions before asking any sexually harassing questions. You may also have noticed
that the first sexually harassing question was not as extreme as the third sexually harassing question. To
the extent that this gradual, incremental unfolding of the sexual harassment made it difficult for the job
candidate to refuse to answer the sexually harassing question or confront the interviewer, then this would
represent which of the following kinds of situational influences?
-Channel factor
1i: STUDYING HOW GROUPS ORGANIZE
TO PROTEST UNJUST AUTHORITY (RESEARCH EXAMPLE: STUDYING COLLECTIVE ACTION
AGAINST INJUSTICE)
-injustice frame
1j: False Confession (COMPLYING WITH PRESSURES TO VICTIMIZE ONESELF)
-innocence project
-innocence canada
False confessions: causes consequences and implication for reform article
"Framed: The Central Park Five" video
Q1: Kassin reviewed the situational pressures that police exert on suspects during interrogations that
may lead these suspects to say and do things that confirm their interrogators suspicions. For instance,
Kassin mentioned that one tactic that police use to extract confessions from suspects involves confronting
the suspect with false evidence that the suspect is guilty. To examine the effects of this tactic Kassin
conducted an experimental analogue study in which an experimenter accused the research participant of
causing a computer to crash and manipulated whether or not a confederate falsely claimed to have
witnessed the participant causing the computer crash. Which of the following statements represents a
finding from this study?
Participants were nearly twice as likely to sign a confession in the condition where the confederate claimed to have
witnessed them causing the crash than in the condition where there was no false witness evidence against them.
Participants were more likely to falsely recall that they had caused the computer to crash in the condition where
the confederate claimed to have witnessed them causing the crash than in the condition where there was no false
witness evidence against them.
Q2: Kassin noted that adolescents are more likely to falsely confess to crimes than adults. There are likely
to be a number of factors that explain why adolescents are at greater risk of falsely confessing than
adults. Which of the following characteristics of adolescents did Kassin emphasize as a potential
explanation for their greater susceptibility to false confession?
-adolescents myopically focus on present gratification
Monday, January 6, 2025 8:33 AM
2b: Mechanisms of Social Influence: Channeling Actions and Framing
Interpretations
-Channel factors and framing factors
Question feedback about organ donors: The following figure shows organ
donation rates across several European nations. The green bars (Denmark,
Netherlands, UK, and Germany) are the nations that utilize an opt-in (explicit
consent) approach and the blue bars are nations that utilize an opt-out
(presumed consent) approach. As you can see organ donation rates are
significantly higher in countries that have an opt-out (presumed consent)
policy than in nations that have an opt-in (explicit consent) policy. This result
shows that channel factors can have grave consequences. Making the
process of being an organ donor easier by making it the default greatly
increases the proportion of eligible citizens who become donors, which
provides a larger supply of organs to save the lives of people in need.
-implementation intention
(fulfilling personal goal by plannning when, where and how)
Question 2: they discovered that, on average, bronze medalists appear to be
significantly happier than silver medalists.
- Why silver might be more upset than bronze: The silver medalist is
likely to compare their actual outcome to the better-case
counterfactual that they could have been the gold medalist if their
performance had been stronger. By contrast, the bronze medalist is
more likely to consider the worse-case counterfactual that they could
have been a non-medalist
-Subjective interpretation of the situation
-Framing
-Necker cube
The American Life video
1C: IN-DEPTH EXAMPLE:
RESEARCH ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OBEDIENCE
The milgram experiment
1. Did any aspects of the participant’s behaviour surprise you?
2. Was the behaviour of the participant upsetting? If so, what
specifically did you find upsetting?
3. Does the dilemma that the Milgram participants faced remind you of
any situations that you experienced where an authority figure
pressured you to do something that went against your principles or
that was dangerous? If so, in what ways was that situation similar to
the Milgram experiment and in what ways was it different?
4. Do you think that viewing the participant’s responses will change
how you interact with authority figures in the future?
5. Did watching the video help you to understand what the experience
of the situation was like for Milgram’s participants? Did it help you to
better understand why so many participants obeyed the authority to
the end of the experiment? If so, how?
1D: Insights from variations of the milgram experiment
1e: GETTING INTO THE PARTICIPANTS’ HEADS:
PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
-framing factors and channel factors
-agentic shift
-slippery slope
-behavioral scripts
-scriptlessness
Question 1: Suppose that Milgram conducted a variation of his experiment in which
the Teacher was instructed to use the 150-volt shock level for the Learner’s first error
and move incrementally up the instrument panel from this starting point.
Furthermore, imagine that after the Learner/victim received this 150-volt shock after
his first error he began protesting and said that he refused to continue and wanted
the experiment to stop. Suppose that in this revised version of the experiment
Milgram found that nearly all of the participants defied the Experimenter/Authority’s
commands to continue to shock the Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment
after this first error. Such a large reduction in the proportion of participants who
complied with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands would support Milgram’s
interpretation that which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high
levels of obedience that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-Slippery slope process
Q2: Suppose that Milgram conducted a variation of his experiment in which the
participants signed at the beginning of the experiment the Teacher, the Learner, and
the Experimenter all signed a contract in which each party acknowledged that he or
she was exclusively responsible for his or her own actions and not for the actions of
any other party in the experiment. Other than this contract the methodology was
identical to the original version of the Milgram experiment. Suppose that in this
revised version of the experiment Milgram found that nearly all of the participants
defied the Experimenter/Authority’s commands to continue to shock the
Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment shortly after the experiment
reached the 150-volt level when the Learner/Victim began to protest and refused to
continue the experiment. Such a large reduction in the proportion of participants
who complied with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands would support Milgram’s
interpretation that which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high
levels of obedience that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-The agentic shift
Q3:Milgram ran a version of his obedience experiment in which two other
confederates who were assigned part of the Teacher duties refused to comply with
the Experimenter’s commands to continue to shock the Learner/Victim after he
protested that he refused to continue to be shocked. Milgram found that nearly all of
the participants defied the Experimenter/Authority’s commands to continue to shock
the Learner/victim and they stopped the experiment before it reached the highest
level of shock. This large reduction in the proportion of participants who complied
with the Experimenter/Authority’s commands supports Milgram’s interpretation that
which of the following mechanisms was a key factor in the high levels of obedience
that he found in the original version of the experiment?
-Scriptlessness
1F:VIEWING THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
AS A CASE STUDY IN RESEARCH ETHICS
(Ethical criticisms of milgrams obedience experiments)
-Debriefing
-voluntary consent
-necessary to achieve the scientific objective
-minimal risk
1G: DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
(DO THE RESULTS OF MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
REPLICATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY?)
-Tipping point
The Heist video
1H: EXTENSIONS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
(Destructive obedience beyond the research lab)
-Forcasting condition
-Non-duchenne
Q1: Which of the following BEST summarizes the results of the study in which experimenters asked one
group of students (the forecasters) to predict what they would do if they were subjected to sexual
harassment during a job interview and then they measured the actual responses of another group of
students (the experiencers) when they were actually subjected to sexual harassment during a job
interview?
-B and C (forecastors predicted they would reuse to anser but they did answer and non of the experiencers
took confrontational actions)
Q2: You may have noticed that in Woodzicka and LaFrance’s experiment the interviewer initially asked
standard interview questions before asking any sexually harassing questions. You may also have noticed
that the first sexually harassing question was not as extreme as the third sexually harassing question. To
the extent that this gradual, incremental unfolding of the sexual harassment made it difficult for the job
candidate to refuse to answer the sexually harassing question or confront the interviewer, then this would
, -necessary to achieve the scientific objective
-minimal risk
1G: DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
(DO THE RESULTS OF MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT
REPLICATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY?)
-Tipping point
The Heist video
1H: EXTENSIONS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
(Destructive obedience beyond the research lab)
-Forcasting condition
-Non-duchenne
Q1: Which of the following BEST summarizes the results of the study in which experimenters asked one
group of students (the forecasters) to predict what they would do if they were subjected to sexual
harassment during a job interview and then they measured the actual responses of another group of
students (the experiencers) when they were actually subjected to sexual harassment during a job
interview?
-B and C (forecastors predicted they would reuse to anser but they did answer and non of the experiencers
took confrontational actions)
Q2: You may have noticed that in Woodzicka and LaFrance’s experiment the interviewer initially asked
standard interview questions before asking any sexually harassing questions. You may also have noticed
that the first sexually harassing question was not as extreme as the third sexually harassing question. To
the extent that this gradual, incremental unfolding of the sexual harassment made it difficult for the job
candidate to refuse to answer the sexually harassing question or confront the interviewer, then this would
represent which of the following kinds of situational influences?
-Channel factor
1i: STUDYING HOW GROUPS ORGANIZE
TO PROTEST UNJUST AUTHORITY (RESEARCH EXAMPLE: STUDYING COLLECTIVE ACTION
AGAINST INJUSTICE)
-injustice frame
1j: False Confession (COMPLYING WITH PRESSURES TO VICTIMIZE ONESELF)
-innocence project
-innocence canada
False confessions: causes consequences and implication for reform article
"Framed: The Central Park Five" video
Q1: Kassin reviewed the situational pressures that police exert on suspects during interrogations that
may lead these suspects to say and do things that confirm their interrogators suspicions. For instance,
Kassin mentioned that one tactic that police use to extract confessions from suspects involves confronting
the suspect with false evidence that the suspect is guilty. To examine the effects of this tactic Kassin
conducted an experimental analogue study in which an experimenter accused the research participant of
causing a computer to crash and manipulated whether or not a confederate falsely claimed to have
witnessed the participant causing the computer crash. Which of the following statements represents a
finding from this study?
Participants were nearly twice as likely to sign a confession in the condition where the confederate claimed to have
witnessed them causing the crash than in the condition where there was no false witness evidence against them.
Participants were more likely to falsely recall that they had caused the computer to crash in the condition where
the confederate claimed to have witnessed them causing the crash than in the condition where there was no false
witness evidence against them.
Q2: Kassin noted that adolescents are more likely to falsely confess to crimes than adults. There are likely
to be a number of factors that explain why adolescents are at greater risk of falsely confessing than
adults. Which of the following characteristics of adolescents did Kassin emphasize as a potential
explanation for their greater susceptibility to false confession?
-adolescents myopically focus on present gratification
