Psychology Conformity: Getting People to do Bad Deeds
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Based on a site I learned about from Johnathan Mueller and his excellent TSP newsletter. http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/crow/
I thought it looked interesting and decided to design an activity so my students could test conformity in our student population. While it is based on a website it is NOT an online activity.
Based on this website…
http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2013/12/its-easier-than-you-think-to-get-other.html
"Vanessa Bohns and her colleagues first asked 52 student participants (31 women) to estimate how many people they'd have to approach on campus in order to get three people to tell a white lie. The lie was to sign a form saying the participant had given them a verbal introduction to a new university course, when really he/she had done no such thing. After making the estimate, the participants went out on campus to test their persuasiveness. On average, the participants thought they'd have to ask 8.47 people before 3 agreed; in reality they needed on average to ask just 4.39. In all, 91 per cent of the participants overestimated how many people they'd need to approach."
In this lab the students try to get their friends and colleagues to lie for them. I ask them to have their friends claim that the student told them about balloting for Psychology class, without them actually telling anyone. Not surprisingly the sign off sheets come in full. It is amazing how little integrity you will find on your campus. Last year the name of a local minister's grand-daughter featured prominently in our data set....she lied a lot!
3/14/22 Omg,...so I had to add this update. My son is now at my high school,...HIS name showed up in our data set,...twice... My daughter also went to my high school, she never "featured" in the data.
We see all kinds of cool things with this lab. The "liars" are asked to rate the presenters...we had a student get a low rating, student asks their friend why, friend says, "you didn't do the presentation" even though they were willing to lie and say they did. They could lie about the presentation but could not give their friend the max score....fascinating.
Second set of copies simply has my name removed so you can substitute your own. I replaced my name with the word “instructor.”
This lab got criticized because it was the "tamest "bad deed" ever",...I guess you could have the kids kill each other,....lol...
3/14/22 Good thing I did not do this, since my son's name showed up in our data set this year,....
You have managed to find the source of the best Psychology and AP Psychology labs on TPT, go check out my store for other awesome resources, I currently have 334 (3/14/22) different items! These are real labs, you can get your students DOING Psychology!
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Causes of aggression for social psychology…
An attractiveness analysis…
An assignment related to segregation…
Stereotypes in action..
How about an Implicit Association Test…
My social psychology PowerPoints
My Social Psychology PowerPoint…
My Social Influence PowerPoint…
My Social Relations PowerPoint…
How about an IQ test for your intelligence unit…
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Psychology-Lab-Vocabulary-IQ-test-Intelligence-2214179
Or a selective attention lab for your consciousness unit…
Here is a great dream content survey…
Key words: Conformity, Obedience, Social Psychology, Psychology, AP Psychology, Lying, Milgram, Zimbardo, Social Influence, Asch, Bohns, Psychology Lab, Psychology Activity, Psychology Exploration, Psychology Assignment, Influence, Social Influence, Social Relations,
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