Quiz: Social Influence and Obedience — 20 questions

1. Which description best defines social influence?

A. A process that modifies perceptions, judgments, attitudes, or behaviors in relation to others

B. A group procedure that produces agreement through discussion among members

C. A private decision-making process based on personal preferences and experiences

D. A formal system that enforces behavior through penalties imposed by authorities

Answer: (A)

Explanation

Social influence involves changes in perceptions, judgments, attitudes, or behaviors when a person encounters those of others. Coercion is merely one possible means of producing influence, not its definition.

2. Which set contains the six mutually reinforcing vectors of social influence?

A. Family background, intelligence, motivation, language, geography, and historical experience

B. Leadership styles, communication skills, personal goals, conflict, learning, and institutional trust

C. Biological instincts, legal rules, economic markets, memory, emotion, and technological change

D. Personality factors, social perception, rewards, interaction, group phenomena, and organizational power

Answer: (D)

Explanation

The six vectors are personality factors, social perception, promises of need satisfaction and rewards, interpersonal interaction, group phenomena, and organizational power. The other sets combine related social or psychological concepts but omit the specified framework.

3. What distinguishes voluntary agreement to a request from obedience to an order?

A. Voluntary agreement changes attitudes, whereas obedience produces behavior through rewards

B. Voluntary agreement involves accepting a request, whereas obedience involves coercion or submission to legitimate authority

C. Voluntary agreement occurs in groups, whereas obedience occurs between isolated individuals

D. Voluntary agreement is deliberate, whereas obedience is perceived as natural and positive

Answer: (B)

Explanation

Agreement to a request is voluntary, while obedience is obtained through coercion or submission to a legitimate authority. The other distinctions confuse this difference with context, outcome, or perceived character.

4. Which statement best distinguishes coercion from the other ways of obtaining behavior?

A. Coercion creates sustainable engagement by encouraging people to decide together

B. Coercion establishes behavior through personal identification with a legitimate authority

C. Coercion persuades people by aligning their private beliefs with shared social values

D. Coercion can change behavior without producing a corresponding change in mindset or attitude

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Coercion usually produces behavioral change without a corresponding change in mindset or attitude. Sustainable engagement is more closely associated with participation, persuasion, or internal acceptance than with coercive pressure.

5. In Lewin’s 1944 experiment, what result showed the effect of group decision-making on behavior change?

A. Engagement reached 3% after group decision-making, compared with 32% in the control condition

B. Engagement reached 100% after group decision-making, compared with 32% in the control condition

C. Engagement reached 12% after group decision-making, compared with 2% in the control condition

D. Engagement reached 32% after group decision-making, compared with 3% in the control condition

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Lewin found that 32% of participants engaged in the group-decision condition, compared with 3% in the control condition. The reversed percentages misread the comparison, while the other figures belong to a different experiment or are unsupported.

6. How does identification naturalize a behavior?

A. It attributes the behavior to circumstances and reduces the person’s connection with social values

B. It cuts the link between the behavior and personality while creating a contract to prevent recurrence

C. It reinforces the link between the behavior and the person’s personality while raising identification toward higher social values

D. It separates behavior from personal identity by treating the action as unrelated to the self

Answer: (C)

Explanation

Identification naturalizes behavior by connecting it more strongly to personality and orienting identification toward higher social values. Cutting the behavior-personality link and establishing a preventive contract describes de-identification instead.

7. What is the central function of de-identification after a bad behavior?

A. It explains the behavior through personality and shifts responsibility away from circumstances

B. It interrupts the link between the behavior and personality and establishes a contract to prevent recurrence

C. It strengthens the link between the behavior and personality and associates it with higher social values

D. It reinforces the behavior by presenting it as a stable expression of the person’s character

Answer: (B)

Explanation

De-identification prevents repetition by breaking the naturalization link between behavior and personality and establishing a contract about preventing recurrence. Strengthening that link and connecting behavior with higher values characterizes identification.

8. What psychological state arises when a person experiences conflict among attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors and feels motivated to restore consistency?

A. Cognitive dissonance

B. Behavioral reinforcement

C. Cognitive consistency

D. Attitude polarization

Answer: (A)

Explanation

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort produced by mutually conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, which motivates restoration of consistency. Cognitive consistency instead refers to harmony among attitudes and behaviors, not conflict.

9. Which situation best illustrates engagement rather than merely holding an attitude?

A. A person publicly promises to volunteer and begins organizing the event

B. A person feels sympathy when hearing about community volunteers

C. A person agrees that community service is socially valuable

D. A person privately believes volunteering benefits the community

Answer: (A)

Explanation

Engagement links an individual to their own action through a promise to act or by having already begun acting, activating responsibility and persistence. A belief, agreement, or feeling about an issue does not by itself constitute engagement.

10. Which action would generally produce the strongest engagement?

A. A required action completed briefly under direct pressure from another person

B. A freely chosen, public, costly, and irreversible commitment repeated over time

C. A private, inexpensive intention that can be changed without consequences

D. A spontaneous behavior performed once without stating a personal commitment

Answer: (B)

Explanation

Engagement is strengthened when an action is public, explicit, repeated, irrevocable, costly, consequential, and freely performed. A private or easily reversible intention has fewer of these features and therefore creates a weaker link to the action.

11. Which list correctly identifies Cialdini’s six weapons of influence?

A. Commitment, punishment, conformity, expertise, similarity, and urgency

B. Consistency, competition, social pressure, status, attraction, and generosity

C. Reciprocity, obedience, imitation, credibility, familiarity, and deprivation

D. Consistency, reciprocity, social proof, authority, likeability, and scarcity

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Cialdini identified consistency, reciprocity, social proof, authority, likeability, and scarcity as six weapons of influence. Reciprocity concerns repaying what another person has given, whereas consistency concerns alignment with previous behavior.

12. How does the foot-in-the-door technique typically obtain compliance?

A. It offers a gift and then asks the recipient to repay the favor

B. It begins with a small request and follows with a larger consistent request

C. It begins with a large request and follows with a smaller reasonable request

D. It emphasizes limited availability to make the requested opportunity attractive

Answer: (B)

Explanation

Foot-in-the-door gains compliance by first obtaining agreement to an inexpensive behavior and then requesting a more costly behavior consistent with it. Starting with a very costly request followed by a smaller one describes door-in-the-face.

13. Which influence principle creates an obligation to repay a gift or concession?

A. Scarcity

B. Reciprocity

C. Likeability

D. Social proof

Answer: (B)

Explanation

Reciprocity increases compliance by creating a perceived obligation to return a gift or concession. Likeability works through positive feelings toward a familiar, similar, or attractive person rather than through repayment.

14. What sequence characterizes the door-in-the-face technique?

A. A gift is offered before a request is made for an equivalent repayment

B. A small request is followed by a more costly request consistent with the first

C. A limited opportunity is presented before a request for immediate agreement

D. A very costly request is followed by a less costly request that seems reasonable

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Door-in-the-face first presents a costly request expected to be refused, then follows with a less costly request that appears comparatively reasonable. The small-then-large sequence is characteristic of foot-in-the-door.

15. What does a person experience in an agentic state during obedience to authority?

A. They comply because another person directly threatens punishment for refusing the order

B. They reject institutional instructions because personal freedom takes priority over social roles

C. They view themselves as an instrument of authority and transfer responsibility for their actions

D. They view themselves as independently responsible and evaluate every action by personal standards

Answer: (C)

Explanation

In an agentic state, the individual sees themselves as an instrument of a social, institutional, or ideological entity and displaces responsibility to that authority. An autonomous state involves seeing oneself as responsible, while direct threats describe coercion rather than the agentic shift.

16. What makes a source of influence a legitimate authority?

A. Its influence depends on being familiar, similar, or attractive to the recipient

B. Its requests are accepted because the recipient receives a personal gift

C. Its demands are backed by direct force or threats of punishment

D. Its influence is grounded in socially recognized institutional, intellectual, symbolic, or social status

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Legitimate authority derives influence from socially recognized status, such as institutional, intellectual, symbolic, or social standing. Coercion relies directly on force or threat, whereas gifts and personal attraction reflect different influence mechanisms.

17. In Milgram’s experiment, who received the apparent electric shocks after giving incorrect answers?

A. The experimenter directing the procedure

B. A confederate learner responding to the memory task

C. A psychiatrist observing the participant

D. Another genuine participant assigned as teacher

Answer: (B)

Explanation

The learner was a confederate who acted as though he were receiving shocks, while the teacher was the genuine participant. The experimenter did not receive shocks or serve as the learner.

18. What proportion of participants in Milgram’s study continued to the maximum apparent shock of 450 volts?

A. About 35 percent of participants

B. About 90 percent of participants

C. About 50 percent of participants

D. About 65 percent of participants

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Milgram reported that 65% of participants continued to the maximum apparent shock of 450 volts. The prediction that almost nobody would pass 150 volts came from psychiatrists before the experiment, not from the observed results.

19. Which change would generally increase obedience to the experimenter in Milgram’s procedure?

A. Having the authority figure issue instructions through a recording

B. Placing the authority figure farther away from the participant

C. Reducing the authority figure’s recognized status in the setting

D. Making the authority figure more prestigious and physically closer

Answer: (D)

Explanation

Obedience tends to rise when the authority has greater prestige or is physically closer to the participant. Remote or recorded instructions generally weaken the authority’s influence rather than strengthening it.

20. Which situation would most likely reduce obedience in Milgram’s experiment?

A. The authority figure becomes more prominent within the setting

B. The experimenter is physically closer and has greater prestige

C. The victim is physically closer and other participants openly disobey

D. The experimenter gives instructions directly in the laboratory

Answer: (C)

Explanation

Obedience decreases when the victim’s suffering is more visible or when other participants model disobedience. Greater proximity and prestige of the experimenter generally produce the opposite effect by strengthening authority pressure.