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By Sharon Presley, Ph.D.
Source: Presley, S. (in press). Chapter One “The Seduction of the Situation” Chapter One in Standing Up to Experts and Authorities: How to Avoid Being Intimidated, Manipulated and Abused. Rego Park, NY: Solomon Press
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Why We Defer To Experts And Authorities
Motivational Factors
Situational Pressure
So Easy To Be Seduced By The Situation
Our Choice
How To Recognize When You Are Being Seduced By The Situation
Be Smart: Don’t Be Hoodwinked By Credentials
Separate The Message From The Messenger
Ask Yourself
Ask Yourself II
Be Alert: Don’t Be Fooled, Fleeced, Or Flummoxed
Resources
Imagine that you’ve volunteered to be in a psychology experiment at a famous university. You’re told to flip a toggle switch on a shock generator every time the other subject makes a mistake in recalling a series of word pairs. Each time you flip the switch, the poor guy gets a jolt of an additional 15 volts of electric shock. At the end of the shock generator board, the label reads: “Danger: Severe Shock. 450 volts.” After the shocks reach 150 volts, the guy starts screaming, “Let me out of here. I’ve got a heart condition. My heart is bothering me.” Meanwhile the experimenter in a white lab coat, ignoring this man’s plaintive cries, tells you: “The experiment must continue.” What would you do?
Most of you are probably thinking some equivalent of this: “Are you kidding? I’d quit. No way would I continue to shock a guy who’s complaining about a heart condition!” You probably imagine that most people would react as you have. And you would be dead wrong.
If you’ve ever taken an Introductory Psychology class, you recognize the famous Milgram experiment on obedience to authority. No experiment in social science has had more impact. How many subjects broke off when the subject complained about a heart condition? How many continued to obey the experimenter until the very end – till 450 volts? The results, totally unexpected and in fact… shocking…made Dr. Stanley Milgram the most famous social psychologist in the world. Fully 65% of the subjects continued to obey the experimenter until the very end, until the 450-volt switch.
Why? If not desire to hurt… then what? Something few people ever consider. Unrecognized pressure from the situation around them, plus unquestioned and unconscious social conditioning, lulled them into an unwittingly immoral choice. They had been seduced by the situation and they didn’t even know it.1
None of us want to be taken in or pressured by experts or intimidated by authorities. Most of us have sometimes had doubts about an expert’s advice or disagreed with an authority’s directive. Few of us relish the idea of obeying unjust or cruel authority. Yet nearly all of us, at one time or another, have had trouble voicing our concerns. Sometimes we didn’t even recognize that we were bamboozled or pressured. Sometimes we’ve gone along without questioning because we didn’t even realize we should or could disagree. Why are we so easily seduced? Why do we have so much trouble confronting authority? Why do we have so much trouble even realizing that we have been bamboozled and seduced by the situation? It’s a question that intrigues social scientists and lay people alike.
Why We Defer To Experts And Authorities
The reasons that people are so easily intimidated by experts, so deferent to authority, so unwilling to stand up and question, are complex and multi-layered. There are no simple, quick answers. To answer the questions thoroughly would take a whole book in itself. We might, for example, first look at the background role of culture, of upbringing, of personal and emotional factors that influence individuals, the role of institutions such as school, state, and, of course, the media.
We might start with what we learn as children. From parents who tell us to obey – “Why? Because we said so” – to schools that encourage children to be “good little boys and girls,” not to question but to be docile, not to think for themselves but to memorize. Being critical of authority is not a lesson that the average student learns. Cultural institutions encourage obedience and deference, not resistance and questioning. TV teaches us to value social approval and care more about things and appearance than self-worth and independence. Our peers don’t want us to be different from them; conformity to peer pressure is a virtue. But these general factors, as influential as they are, merely provide a background milieu in which deference to authority can occur. They are not enough by themselves to explain our reluctance to stand up to authorities and experts.
Motivational Factors
One way to approach the question of why our relationship with authority is so difficult is to look through the lens of motivation. In examining behavior, psychologists often ask, “What purpose does it serve for the individual? What motivates the individual to act in certain ways?” In their discussion of the motivations behind social influence, psychologists Kenrick, Neuberg, and Cialdini suggest that people are motivated by three goals in their social interactions – to choose correctly, to gain social approval, and to enhance self-image.2 Research suggests that people have a fundamental motivation to be competent, to master their environment and to gain rewards and resources. “To do well,” point out Kenrick et al., “we must choose well.”3 Since we can’t be competent in every area, following the advice of experts helps us choose rapidly and correctly most of the time. Because we also tend to assume that authorities are experts, we often use authority as a shortcut to correct choice. It’s all a matter of trust. In many cases this is a sensible way to proceed. The catch – experts and authorities are not always correct or reasonable.
Another shortcut used to make good decisions, according to Kenrick et al., is following the actions of peers.4 We frequently decide what to do by looking at what others, particularly similar others, are doing and then follow their lead. Psychologists call this social validation. Following the lead of others not only gives us cognitive shortcuts, it also elicits approval from them. This is what drives teenagers to demand the latest overpriced sneakers. This is why your neighbor just bought a gas-guzzling SUV like the one on the next block.
Seeking social approval is an important human motivation. We are all social animals, after all. Because it can be emotionally painful to be an outcast, most of us seek some degree of social acceptance and avoid social rejection. We learn the norms and expectations of our culture, our family, and our peers, and are motivated to go along with the norms in order to gain social approval. If we don’t go along with the opinions of our family or peers, we fear they may reject us. If we reject the advice of experts, we may look foolish. If we disobey authority, we may be reprimanded or worse. These are all painful outcomes that can hurt our self-esteem and our self-image.
Individuals are also motivated to have a good image of themselves. People can enhance and validate their self-image by making good choices. Because we want to look competent, we like to maximize our strategies for making what appear to be good choices. Unfortunately this does not always result in using rational strategies or making choices that are, in fact, good.
It’s generally accepted by psychologists that there are individual differences in motivation that lead some people to seek social validation and even social approval more than others. Personal factors, such as childhood experiences that undermined one’s self-esteem, feelings of helplessness and powerlessness, and other fears, make some people more vulnerable to seeking the approval of others. For similar reasons, some people learn to fear or be deferent to authority more than others.
Situational Pressure
We live in a culture that encourages deference to authority and discourages critical and independent thinking. We are motivated to be seen as competent and we seek social approval. All this sets the stage for understanding how vulnerable we are to outside pressures and influences. But it’s not just overt pressures from the experts and authorities or our peers that make us succumb. What happens is subtler than that. It’s not necessarily even the person who seduces us into acquiescence, deference, or obedience, it may merely be the situation.
So Easy To Be Seduced By The Situation
Many people don’t realize just how easy it is to be bamboozled and seduced. They may not understand how much our behavior is unconsciously influenced by situational factors – subtle aspects of the situation or characteristics of other people that have an effect on how we act. In Western cultures, people often tend to assume that they freely choose their behavior with little outside influence. We may have free will, but we don’t act in a vacuum. We are influenced by many factors, both internal (e.g., our values, moods, internalized rules we’ve learned from our parents, schools and churches) and external (e.g., actions of other people, presence of authority figures). Social science research shows over and over again the powerful impact of situational factors. Subtle things – what the authority is wearing, how the furniture is arranged, what titles the authority has, the use of body language – are examples of factors that can have an effect on how willing we are to go along with authorities or experts without even realizing it.5 I call the influence of these factors the “seduction of the situation.” Most of the time, we don’t succumb to them consciously or intentionally. Nor is it the case that the experts necessarily manipulate the situation intentionally, although that can certainly happen. Much of the time, the process is more covert. That’s why we need to become aware of how it works if we are to avoid its influence.
Our Choice
As seductive as these influences can be, we do have a choice. Once we recognize that these factors have the potential to affect us, we have the power to resist their lure. But we need guidelines. What do we look for? What are the hidden factors? What does social science research tell us that can help us stand up to experts and authority? Here are some suggestions that can help you spot the unseen factors that influence you to go along, even when it is unreasonable and against your best interest to do so.
How To Recognize When You Are Being Seduced By The Situation
Many factors, from titles to credentials, from physical appearance to clothing, from reputation to symbols, can work their subtle influence on us, soothing us, beguiling us. Knowledge and awareness are the best weapons against the insidious seductive powers of the situation around us.
Be Smart: Don’t Be Hoodwinked By Credentials
Authorities have a way of defining the situation for us, presenting themselves as experts through the use of titles (e.g., Dr. or Professor), credentials (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D.), or positions (e.g., CEO or Director). Most of the time, this is useful and relevant information. We want to know that the experts have a background in the topic they are talking about and appropriate credentials or experience to support their expertise. Checking for a relevant background is important. If experts offer no relevant experience or background, be cautious about their advice. But here’s the catch – the fact that someone has a degree or title doesn’t necessarily mean that they know what they are talking about. We need to look more closely.
It’s easy to be swayed by fancy titles or impressive-sounding credentials. But credentials are not enough. Look to see if the credentials are relevant to the area in which the authority is claiming expertise. A Ph.D. in one area doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is an expert in another area. A well-known talk show host – let’s call her “Dr. L” – has been giving psychologically-oriented advice for many years. Many people in her audience, however, are unaware that her Ph.D. is in physiology, not psychology.6 We can accept or reject her advice on other grounds, but we should not accept her advice simply because she calls herself “Dr.”
A trickier version of the credential problem – because it’s hard for us to spot it – is the meaningless credential. If a person is going to present himself as an expert because of a degree, make sure it’s from a reputable university. There are ways to get Ph.D.s without attending a recognized school with an accredited curriculum. John Gray, author of the mega-best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and the ensuing series on “Martian” men and “Venusian” women, for example, does have a Ph.D. in psychology. Few people know, however, that it’s from a “diploma mill” closed down several years ago by the State of California for giving out dubious credentials not backed up by accreditation from legitimate sources.7 Since Gray’s degree lacks credibility, his claims need to be examined on other merits.
On the other hand, don’t dismiss an expert’s advice simply because he or she doesn’t have a fancy degree. There’s lots of ways to gain expertise, including years of experience in the relevant field. If someone has been working in an area many years and has a widespread reputation for competence and a track record of success, that goes a long way toward establishing her “credentials.” The late Ann Landers, the advice columnist, for example, didn’t have a Ph.D. but her many years of experience and her common sense made her advice sensible more times than not. And, unlike certain other media advice-givers, few people have challenged the overall appropriateness of Landers’s advice.
Look up credentials on the Internet or in reference books at the library. Look for criticisms of the person. If the expert has questionable advice, someone will almost certainly have noted it on the Internet. Librarians can help you if you’re not sure how to search.
Separate The Message From The Messenger
When looking for advice, it’s important to evaluate the content of the message regardless of who is saying it. Even experts can be wrong. Even people whose opinions we respect can sometimes be wrong. Sometimes people we dislike may be right. It’s foolish to either accept or reject a piece of advice or opinion merely because of who says it. Look for the evidence. Look for the logic. Think about how the advice or opinion squares with your own knowledge. Don’t be taken in and seduced by irrelevant characteristics of the person.
Ask Yourself
Am I dazzled by the expert’s appearance?
What makes us fall for the superficial lure of beauty? What makes us unconsciously react so positively toward attractive people? No one does it intentionally. No one consciously assumes that beautiful people are wiser or know more. Most of us would laugh at the suggestion. But beauty can seduce us nonetheless. In the USA, we live in a society obsessed with beauty, thinness and youth; we’re constantly bombarded with images in magazines, ads, TV and movies of glamorous, computer-enhanced and retouched faces and bodies of beautiful, impossible people. It’s hard not to be affected.
Gender and area of expertise can interact to affect our evaluations. If a topic is stereotypically viewed as “masculine,” (e.g., politics), many people tend to assume a man is more competent than a woman. If the topic is stereotypically “feminine,” (e.g., psychology of women) a woman will tend to be viewed as more competent.12 If we look at it objectively, it’s clear that these assumptions are sheer prejudice, not good sense. The particular person’s expertise and credentials are what is important, not his or her gender. Don’t be seduced by unquestioned gender stereotypes.
Uniforms can dazzle us, regardless of gender. In another study replicating Bickman’s field experiment, Bushman tested willingness to obey a woman wearing a uniform, a business suit, or scruffy clothes.15 Though the business suit did not make a difference in the rate of compliance, wearing a uniform did. People were significantly more likely to comply when the woman was wearing a uniform. Uniforms do indeed have the power to unconsciously seduce us.
Many anecdotes also support what research confirms. A friend of mine tells a humorous but instructive story about the time his brother went on to an army base wearing navy blue mechanic’s coveralls. When Joe started dismantling an old disarmed missile that was on display outside, the MP’s came by and asked him what he was doing. “Dismantling the missile,” he nonchalantly said. “Oh, OK,” they said, satisfied, and went on their way. Apparently his uniform plus the air of confidence he displayed added up to the “right script.” In today’s climate, the military might be less likely to be so careless but ordinary people can still be fooled. Scam artists know that many people, especially the elderly, will not question a uniformed man at the door, claiming, for example, to be from the local utility company.
A dramatic example of the power of a “uniform” in a non-military setting is provided by the famous Milgram experiment on obedience to authority cited at the beginning of this chapter.16 The researcher, in his white lab coat, keeps insisting that the experiment must continue. Ignoring the other participant’s screams – who, unknown to the actual subject, was an actor faking his responses – 65% of the subjects continued obeying the white-coated man until the end of the experiment, when the shock generator registered “Danger, Severe Shock, 450 volts.” Though there were many other factors contributing to this willingness to obey authority, the scientific aura created by the lab coat was one important ingredient. In another experimental variation in the Milgram series, an ordinary man not wearing a white lab coat gave the same instructions to a new set of participants. The rate of obedience dropped to 20%. Ad agencies understand this principle very well. If the product being advertised is a pharmaceutical drug or a science-related product, it’s common for the actor in the commercial to be wearing a white lab coat to establish a “scientific” aura.
Am I beguiled (or turned off) by the person’s reputation or ideology?
Look past reputation to the content. Look at whether it makes sense or raises unanswered questions. Director Michael Cimino scored a big hit with the film, “The Deer Hunter.” On the strength of this, Hollywood bankrollers gave him mega-bucks to do “Heaven’s Gates.” If they had looked at the early rushes, they would have withdrawn their money in a flash. The movie was so unwatchable that it became one of the biggest financial debacles of the decade.17 They should have looked at the content of the movie, not just at Cimino’s reputation.
You can compare what the expert is saying with your previous experience to see if it makes sense. Let’s say, for example, that you really like talk show host Dr. Laura Schlesinger’s stance on taking individual responsibility for one’s actions. “Society made me do it” just doesn’t cut it with you. That’s certainly a reasonable position. But when she makes a flat claim that mothers who work outside the home harm their children, you might ask yourself – “Is it really that simple?”18 What if your mother worked outside the home – were you scarred for life? Chances are, many of your friends’ mothers worked outside the home too. Did they turn out so bad? Anecdotes, even when they’re your own, don’t prove or disprove anything by themselves, instead we have to look to scientific research for evidence. But our own experiences and observations can stimulate us to think about issues and help us raise questions. In this example, it pays to be skeptical because most social science research suggests that what Schlesinger is saying is not, in fact, true. What most research actually shows is that the quality of the mother’s relationship with the child may be more important than whether she does or does not work outside the home, an answer that seems intuitively obvious once you stop and think about it.19 That’s the key – stop and give some thought to what the expert is saying before you accept or reject it.
Let’s say, hypothetically, for example, that Joe Tootshishorn, a local political columnist you despise, has written a column proclaiming that the DARE (“Dare to keep kids off drugs”) program doesn’t work. The local state assemblywoman you voted for is beating the drums for DARE. You could just ignore that jerk Tootshishorn. Or you could read his column to see if there is any substance to his claims. What if he cites several studies done by reputable social scientists at accredited universities that show the DARE program doesn’t have any significant effect in reducing drug use in teenagers?20 What then? Do you say “Stick it in your ear, Joe, I don’t care” or do you say, “H-m-m, I need to look into this more. Maybe, there are more effective ways to deal with the teen drug problem.” It seems to me that the latter response is more reasonable. So what if Tootshishorn is a fathead? If the information he is touting is correct, the content of the message is more important than the messenger.
Am I unconsciously responding to the body language of authority?
Nancy Henley and other social scientists have extensively studied the subtle characteristics of nonverbal communication. Henley, who calls it the “politics of touch,” has closely examined how body language communicates power.21 More powerful individuals, for example, are more likely to touch the less powerful than vice versa. Thus the boss touches the secretary, the physician the patient, the teacher the student, and so on. Other examples of cues used by those in power include using direct eye contact with you when they speak but not when you speak, interrupting others, and sitting in a relaxed position while the less powerful sit up straight. All of these cues unconsciously communicate the seductive aura of power, a message whispering that you should listen carefully to this powerful person. Don’t be taken in. Listen to the message, not the messenger.
On the other hand, nonverbal language can sometimes be your friend. Eyes that shift around a lot, too much fidgeting, a strained voice, a mouth that smiles when the eyes don’t, are all signs that the person may be lying, according to psychologist Paul Ekman.22 Unless you are an expert yourself in reading body language, you might misinterpret the signs, but nonverbal signs such as these examples should at least put you on your guard.
Separate the Situation from the Message
It’s easy to be dazzled and bewitched by the surroundings and trappings of the environment around us – plush settings, intimidating surroundings, emotionally charged symbols. Unless we make a conscious effort to think about how they are affecting us, we may be lured in. Ask yourself the following questions:
Am I unconsciously responding to the subtle environment of authority?
It may surprise you that even the arrangement of furniture can make a difference in our response to authority. Research shows, for example, that having a desk between the expert and the client creates more of a feeling of status than if the desk is against the wall.23 When the desk is against the wall, the expert and the client face each other directly. This arrangement suggests a peer relationship; in contrast, the desk in between the two people distances the expert and allows him to control the use of space more, thus giving him more of an air of authority. Don’t be intimidated by furniture!
Am I letting myself be swayed by the symbols of power and authority?
The Nazis brought the use of symbols of power to new heights (or perhaps “depths” is a better word!). From symbols of German unity (the German imperial eagle) to unique symbols creating a special identity (the Nazi swastika); from crisply tailored uniforms and big hats (nearly every totalitarian regime uses big hats, as watching the History Channel will show you) to emotionally charged propaganda, the Nazis swept up ordinary Germans into going along with ideas that went against the norms of every civilized society and religion. If you think people are immune to all that now or that Americans wouldn’t fall for such obvious tactics, you couldn’t be more wrong. Not too many years ago, Ron Jones, a high school teacher in an affluent Northern California city, decided to try an impromptu experiment in his history class.24 He started explaining Nazi Germany to his students. He talked to them about the concept of “strength through discipline.” But somehow things got sidetracked. The discipline, consisting of actions such as sitting up straight in their chairs and having a special identifying “wave,” took on a life of its own.
Jones told them that the wave was a symbol of a nationwide group interested in political change. Within a few days, students from other classes wanted to join in. Students who were not part of the group were treated as outsiders. Students within the group became compulsive about the discipline. Very creepy – but not as creepy as the ending of this naturalistic observational study. Jones told the students to attend a rally in the auditorium in which the national leader of the organization would appear via film to talk to them about the organization. Expectantly they waited – but then what came on the screen was not a national leader; it was a film of the infamous Nazi Nuremberg Rally and other hideous actions of the Third Reich! These students received a starkly dramatic lesson about how ordinary people can be taken in by the emotional symbols of authority.
Flag-waving and patriotic symbols are often misused around the world, as well as in the USA, to appeal to people’s emotions rather than their reason. For many people, emotions are more powerful motivators than appeals to reason. Emotions have the power to short-circuit our thinking processes and lead us astray when they are manipulated by authorities with hidden agendas. If you feel a wave of emotion washing over you as a result of what the authority is saying, stop and think. Are you being a critical thinker or are you being caught up in the moment? Are there other ways to think about the issue? Don’t be lured by cheap emotional gimmicks.
Think Things Through: Don’t Just Passively React
Because we find cognitive shortcuts so useful, it’s easy to just passively accept the norms of authority or the advice of experts without questioning them. Actively examining our attitudes and assumptions can help us be less passive reactors, less likely to be seduced by old habits and lured by the easy path of least resistance.
Ask Yourself II
Am I just responding the way I was taught to react to authority by my parents or school?
When in the presence of experts who claim special knowledge or authorities who exude power and well – “authority,” it’s easy to just passively go along. In spite of the much-vaunted individualism of American culture, most Americans, and for that matter most people around the world, have been trained to obey authority since they were children. It starts in the family – “Do what I say. Why? Because I said so.” It continues in school, where teaching children to be “good little boys and girls” who obey the rules and will grow up to be “good citizens” is often more important than reading, writing, and arithmetic. The natural rebellion of the teen years, though often merely consisting of conforming to peers instead of parents, usually withers completely on the vine of “responsible” adulthood. By then, we have been thoroughly trained to “do what we’re told” but now, instead of parents and teachers, it’s experts and authorities who tell us what to do.
Do I find myself saying yes to an authority that I have doubts about but I keep on going anyway?
Many people have been taught not to be “quitters.” They go along with requests of authorities because they think they should follow through on the commitments they’ve made previously. Psychologists call this “entrapment.”25 Many of the people in the Milgram experiment, for example, thought they had to continue because they had agreed to participate. They lost sight of the fact that the experimenter told them at the beginning of the study that they could stop at any point if they wanted to. Instead of pausing to think about what was going on in the experiment and whether they really wanted or needed to continue, they passively fell into the old familiar habitual attitude of “not being a quitter.” If they had been less passive, they could have asked themselves, “Am I obligated to continue this experiment even if the guy in the other room is being harmed? This is nuts. I didn’t agree to something like that!”
Or maybe people don’t want to lose the “investment” of time or resources they’ve made in a situation. Perhaps, for example, someone is in a job she doesn’t care for, with a boss who is asking her to carry out tasks she resents, but she says to herself, “I’ve already invested three years in this job. I don’t want to throw that down the drain.” Does the old adage “throwing good money after bad” come to mind? It should. In every situation, there are pros and cons to consider, of course. If you’re two years away from retirement, the “investment” is real and worth a great deal. But if you could eventually be in a better and more satisfying job if you have the courage to try, then the current investment may not be such a sound one. Sometimes it is best to cut your losses.
Am I just going along with the authority because it would be rude to break off?
Many people have been trained to be polite and nonconfrontational at any cost. They unconsciously react as if being polite is the most important value in the situation, without considering whether there might be more important values. Milgram called this reaction “situational etiquette.”26 People in his experiment, wanting to be “good subjects,” had trouble breaking off and saying no to the experimenter even when the participant supposedly being shocked in the other room was yelling that he had a heart condition. But what is more important – being polite or being humane? Sometimes we lose sight of the big picture because we are too concerned with obeying well-engrained norms such as being polite. But who says we have to be polite to someone asking us to do something harmful or stupid? Look at the big picture rather than automatically responding based on old habits. Don’t be seduced by unquestioned norms.
Am I letting myself get sucked into a commitment I didn’t really intend?
Be sensitive to initially small, trivial steps that can escalate into big commitments. Psychologists call this the “foot-in-door” technique.”27 For example, a person makes a small request that seems innocuous, perhaps merely signing a political petition, then a few weeks later asks you to put a sign in your window advocating a stand on that issue. Research shows that more people say yes to the window sign if it has been preceded by the smaller request. Religious and self-help cults know this technique very well. First they ask you to just come by their meeting. Then they ask you to come to several more meetings, then they ask you for money, then they ask you for involvement…and soon you’re sucked in. You may scoff but many people have fallen for this ruse. For most of us, it takes on a more subtle form, perhaps, for example, a request from the boss to do a minor task that is outside our job description. But watch out if he then demands more and more irrelevant tasks; he may be using the foot-in-the door technique. Or perhaps a director for a charity we like asks us to just give two hours to a fund-raising committee. That doesn’t sound like too much, we think, so we say yes, even though our schedule is busy. Then pretty soon we are being asked for more and more hours…and then, it’s a lot harder to say no.
Be Alert: Don’t Be Fooled, Fleeced, Or Flummoxed
The warnings or caveats above are far from an exhaustive list of how we can be seduced by the situation. Throughout this book, I’ll describe other red flags. But these examples do show us that if we want to stand up for ourselves and avoid being fooled or misled by experts and authorities, our first lines of defense are alertness, knowledge, critical thinking, and careful evaluation.
Resources
Books
These books explore the social science research on persuasion, social influence, and obedience to authority.
Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm edited by Thomas Blass, Ph.D. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000. Not for the casual reader but it is an excellent collection of academic articles discussing and updating the Milgram research.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. New York: Collins Business, 2006 [available in many editions].Con games, advertising, and deference to authority are some of the areas covered in this highly informative, entertaining exploration of influence techniques and how they can induce automatic, mindless compliance. It’s solidly based on participant observation and other psychological research, with a humorous and engaging style that makes it popular with students (and everyone else!).
Emotions Revealed, Second Edition: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life by Paul Ekman, Ph.D. New York: Holt, 2007.A leading expert on the psychology of reading faces discusses his research. The new TV show “Don’t Lie to Me” is based on Paul Ekman’s research. His (slightly) more technical book is titled Telling Lies.
Body Politics: Power, Sex and Nonverbal communication by Nancy Henley, Ph.D. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.A classic study of how nonverbal body language communicates power and how this affects gender relationships.
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1993.A philosophical call to take back the authority that people have unknowingly invested in others, this book examines the techniques used to covertly control others in the guise of imparting knowledge or “doing what’s best for you.” Asserting that the doctrine of self-sacrifice is used as a tool of control, it unmasks authoritarianism in the areas of addiction, intimate relations, cults, and Eastern and Western religions.
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View by Stanley Milgram, Ph.D. New York: HarperCollins, 1974.No study in social psychology is more famous than the Yale “shock experiment” that demonstrated how easily ordinary people obey the demands of authority. In clear terms, Milgram details a series of experiments that explore the situational factors (e.g., proximity of the victim, diffusion of responsibility) that affect obedience to authority. The powerful effect of these factors – something the average person usually underestimates – is one of the most important lessons of this classic study.
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis, Ph.D. and Elliot Aronson, Ph.D. New York: Holt, 2001.A highly readable analysis of the patterns, motives and effects of mass persuasion efforts to influence how we think, how we vote, and what we value. Drawing on the history of propaganda and research in social psychology, it shows us not only what the tactics are but why they work and how we can protect ourselves from manipulation.
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D. New York: Random House, 2007.A thorough and recent examination of the ways people are seduced by the situation by one of psychology’s leading researchers. He discusses in detail the famous Stanford prison simulation experiment that he conducted back in the 70s, another landmark study as important as the Milgram experiment.
The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence by Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D. and Michael Leippe, Ph.D. New York: McGraw Hill, 1991.A highly readable but thorough exploration of the social psychological research on these topics. Zimbardo is one of the leading experts in this area.
Web Sites
Critical Thinking about Social Influence and Conformity
[also see references in Chapter Two for practical applications]
Influence by Robert Cialdini
https://www.influenceatwork.com/
A summary of Cialdini’s ideas and research.
“The Wave” by Ron Jones
www.ronjoneswriter.com/wave.html
A gripping account, based on an actual event, of how ordinary high school students became entrapped in mindless conformity and unthinking obedience to authority through clever manipulation.
“The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram
home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html
Adapted from an article that Milgram wrote for Harper’s magazine.
The Stanley Milgram Web Site
www.stanleymilgram.com
An overview of Milgram and his work by his biographer, Dr. Thomas Blass.
Links on Attitudes, Persuasion and Influence
www.geocities.com/l_zinkiewicz/socialpsych.html
Home page with many links to articles and materials about social influence.
“What is Beautiful is Good: Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring”
www.hofstra.edu/pdf/ORSP_Shahani-Denning_Spring03.pdf
An overview of the research on the effect of physical attractiveness.
“The Sexual Politics of Interpersonal Behavior” by Nancy Henley and Jo Freeman
www.jofreeman.com/womensociety/personal.htm
Article on body politics, nonverbal behavior and gender.
Web Sites for Critical and Independent Thinking
Resources for Independent Thinking
www.rit.org
Articles, reviews and links to resources for independent and critical thinking.
The Skeptic Society
www.skeptic.com
Dr. Michael Shermer, the director, and author of Why People Believe Weird Things, has one of the best organizations in the “skeptic” business – debunking silly ideas that people believe without good evidence. A great resource for critical thinking. Check out Dr. Shermer’s many fine books.
The Critical Thinking Community
www.criticalthinking.org
The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking work to improve instruction in primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities. They offer many resources for critical thinking, including books, tapes, seminars and conferences.
Articles about Critical Thinking
The next best thing to reading a critical thinking textbook is checking out the following articles about faulty reasoning.
“Tricks of Persuasion: Fallacies of Argument: The Top Hits Of Bad Reasoning”
peernet.lbpc.ca/edombrowski/media_criticism/02gfallacies.html
Logical Fallacies
www.logicalfallacies.info
Many of the most common reasoning mistakes are discussed.
Critical Thinking Web
philosophy.hku.hk/think
This educational web site provides over 120 free online tutorials on critical thinking, logic, scientific reasoning, creativity, and other aspects of thinking skills.
“Critical Thinking: What Is It Good for? (In Fact, What Is It?)”
www.csicop.org/si/2006-02/thinking.html
CSICOP is part of the skeptic community and offers many resources for critical and skeptical thinking.
Updates
For updates on books, web sites, web site URLs and links (they sometimes change), articles and other relevant information, check the web site for my book:
www.standuptoauthorities.com