Teaching social influence: Demonstrations and exercises from the discipline of social psychology

Education is enhanced when students are able to be active, rather than passive, learners (McKeachie, 2002). Fortunately, social psychologists have a rich history of creating and publishing classroom demonstrations that allow for such active learning. Unfortunately, these demonstrations have been published in diverse journals, teaching manuals, and edited volumes that are not always readily available. The purpose of this article is to review demonstrations and exercises that have been developed for teaching students about social influence. Using an annotated bibliography format, we review more than five dozen techniques that assist instructors in demonstrating such social influence principles as cognitive dissonance, conformity, obedience, deindividuation, propaganda, framing, persuasion, advertising, social norms, and the selffulfilling prophecy.