Chapter 5 Exercises: The Social Psychology of Belief and Group Conformity

Instructions

These exercises are designed to develop your analytical skills in applying social psychological theory to real-world misinformation dynamics. Exercises range from conceptual analysis to data interpretation and creative design tasks. Where sources are cited in exercises, you may use the recommended readings in this chapter's further-reading file.

Part A: Conceptual and Analytical Exercises

Exercise 5.1 — Normative vs. Informational Influence Identification

For each of the following scenarios, determine whether the primary mechanism of social influence is normative, informational, or both. Justify your answer with reference to the mechanisms described in Section 5.1.

a) A new employee sees that their colleagues always submit reports using a specific template and does the same, assuming the template is required by company policy.

b) A person attending a political rally hears the crowd cheer at certain statements and, despite initial uncertainty, begins to applaud along to avoid appearing hostile.

c) A college student sees that all of their roommates have signed up for a plant-based diet program and joins, partly because they respect their roommates' health knowledge and partly because they don't want to be the odd one out.

d) A social media user sees a health warning shared by 500 friends with the comment "sharing because this is important" and concludes the claim must be credible because so many people have independently evaluated it.

e) A community member sees that every neighbor has put a yard sign for a local ballot measure and concludes the measure must have merit, updating their prior skepticism.

For each scenario, identify one intervention that could help the person engage more independently with the relevant decision.

Exercise 5.2 — Replicating Asch's Logic Digitally

Asch found that unanimity was the critical variable in conformity effects, and that a single dissenter dramatically reduced conformity. Design a thought experiment or hypothetical social media study testing these effects in a digital environment.

Your design should specify: - The "judgment task" analog (what belief or evaluation will participants be asked to make?) - The "confederate" analog (what represents the unanimous consensus?) - The "dissenter" manipulation (what represents the single dissenting voice?) - Predicted results based on Asch's findings - Two potential confounds in your design and how you would address them - One ethical consideration specific to conducting this study online

Exercise 5.3 — Social Identity Theory Application

Apply Tajfel and Turner's Social Identity Theory to analyze the following scenario:

A moderate conservative voter has recently joined an online forum dedicated to skepticism of COVID-19 vaccine safety. Initially, she holds the view that the vaccines are probably safe but that mandates are wrong. Over several months, her expressed views have shifted significantly: she now believes the vaccines are actively harmful and that their dangers are being deliberately concealed by pharmaceutical companies and health authorities.

Using SIT concepts (in-group/out-group dynamics, positive distinctiveness, identity threat, self-categorization), explain:

a) What psychological needs might have initially drawn her to this community?

b) How might identity dynamics within the community have driven the radicalization of her expressed beliefs?

c) What are the barriers to correcting her beliefs that SIT predicts?

d) What does SIT suggest about effective intervention strategies?

Your response should be at least 400 words and should cite specific SIT concepts by name.

Exercise 5.4 — Groupthink Symptom Analysis

Select a documented historical case of a major institutional decision that turned out to be badly mistaken. The case may be from politics, business, science, or any other domain. Identify at least five of Janis's eight groupthink symptoms in your chosen case, providing specific evidence for each symptom.

Cases you might consider (but are not limited to): - The Ford Pinto decision not to redesign the fuel tank - NASA's decision to proceed with the Challenger launch - The 2008 financial crisis and major banks' risk models - The 2003 U.S. decision to invade Iraq - A corporate fraud case (Enron, Theranos, etc.)

After identifying the symptoms, assess: are alternative explanations possible? Could the bad outcome have been produced without groupthink dynamics? What evidence would distinguish groupthink from other explanations?

Exercise 5.5 — ELM Applied to Message Design

You are a public health communicator designing messages to encourage vaccination among vaccine-hesitant parents. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, design:

a) A message optimized for central-route processing: what evidence would it present, how would it structure its argument, and what would it assume about the audience's motivation and ability to process?

b) A message optimized for peripheral-route processing: what heuristic cues would it use, and which of Cialdini's principles would it deploy?

c) An analysis of the tradeoffs: under what audience conditions is each message approach more appropriate? Are there ethical concerns about using peripheral-route strategies in public health communication?

Exercise 5.6 — Cialdini Principle Mapping

Collect five real examples of content from social media, email, or other online sources that you believe contain misinformation or manipulative persuasion. For each example:

a) Identify which of Cialdini's six principles are present, with specific textual evidence.

b) Assess which principle is most central to the message's persuasive strategy.

c) Explain why that principle is particularly effective for this message's target audience.

d) Propose a specific "counter-message" for each that neutralizes the persuasion technique.

If you cannot find real examples, construct plausible hypothetical examples representing six different misinformation domains (health, politics, finance, science, religion, history).

Exercise 5.7 — Echo Chamber Network Analysis

Consider two hypothetical individuals:

• Person A: follows 200 social media accounts; 90% share their political orientation; sees 400 posts per day; primarily engages (likes, comments, shares) with content from politically similar accounts
• Person B: follows 150 social media accounts; 60% share their political orientation; sees 300 posts per day; engages relatively evenly across ideologically diverse accounts

a) Calculate (approximately) the expected ideological composition of the content each person actually engages with in a week.

b) Using the echo chamber mechanisms described in Section 5.6 (repetition, social reward, counter-argument inoculation, identity fusion), predict how each person's beliefs are likely to evolve over 6 months.

c) Person A moves cities and joins a new in-person community that is ideologically diverse. What does the research predict about the effect on their beliefs, and why might this effect be limited?

d) Design a platform feature that would reduce the echo chamber effect for Person A without violating their autonomy to choose their social connections.

Exercise 5.8 — Moral Foundations Theory: Message Analysis

Obtain three news stories or social media posts on the same topic (e.g., immigration, climate policy, gun control, drug legalization) from clearly different ideological sources. For each:

a) Identify which moral foundations (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, Liberty) are invoked.

b) Analyze how the moral framing shapes the factual claims being made — i.e., which facts are presented as relevant, which are omitted, and how ambiguous facts are resolved in ways consistent with the moral framing.

c) Using Feinberg and Willer's moral reframing research, rewrite one message so that it makes the same factual case but deploys foundations more likely to resonate with the opposing audience.

d) Reflect on the ethical implications of moral reframing: is it manipulation or effective communication?

Exercise 5.9 — Collective Intelligence Conditions Assessment

Evaluate three of the following group knowledge-production mechanisms against Surowiecki's four conditions (diversity, independence, decentralization, aggregation). For each mechanism, rate each condition on a scale of 1-5 (1 = condition severely violated, 5 = condition fully satisfied) and predict whether the mechanism is likely to produce accurate or distorted collective judgments.

Mechanisms: a) Twitter trending topics as an indicator of important news events b) Reddit r/worldnews upvote rankings as an indicator of international news quality c) Academic peer review as an indicator of research validity d) Wikipedia consensus on a politically contested historical event e) Prediction markets (e.g., Metaculus) on geopolitical events f) Facebook community polling on local policy questions g) Expert panel consensus in regulatory science (e.g., IPCC climate assessment)

Exercise 5.10 — Community Redesign for Epistemic Resilience

You have been asked by a community organization to assess and improve the epistemic health of an online forum focused on local politics (city council meetings, zoning decisions, school policy). The forum has 5,000 members and is moderated by a volunteer team. Currently:

• Membership is ideologically skewed toward one partisan position
• Controversial claims routinely get upvoted without fact-checking
• Members who challenge the dominant view are frequently attacked
• A small number of highly active members dominate discussion
• Misinformation about local government actions spreads regularly

Design a comprehensive reform plan that addresses each of these problems. For each intervention, specify: - The social psychological mechanism it addresses (with reference to the chapter's theoretical content) - The specific implementation - Potential unintended consequences

Part B: Research and Data Exercises

Exercise 5.11 — Replication Research Review

Several major social psychology studies discussed in this chapter have been subjected to replication attempts with mixed results. Research the replication status of two of the following:

a) Asch conformity experiments b) Tajfel's minimal group paradigm c) Janis's groupthink theory (as applied to the original case studies) d) The illusory truth effect (repetition increases perceived truth) e) Moral foundations' role in predicting political attitudes

For each study, describe: - The original finding - What replication attempts have found - How replication concerns (if any) affect the conclusions we can draw - Whether the basic phenomenon is still theoretically viable despite specific replication challenges

Exercise 5.12 — Survey Design

Design a survey instrument (10-15 questions) to measure an individual's susceptibility to at least three of the social influence mechanisms discussed in this chapter. The survey should include:

• Questions measuring susceptibility to normative social influence (NASS scale or similar)
• Questions measuring in-group identification and identity-protective cognition
• Questions measuring preference for peripheral vs. central route processing
• Appropriate Likert-scale response options
• A validity consideration for each subscale

Exercise 5.13 — Content Analysis

Select a single major news story from the past year and collect 20-30 social media posts discussing it. Code each post for:

a) Presence of Cialdini persuasion principles (one code per principle) b) Presence of moral-emotional language (use Brady et al.'s coding scheme or a simplified version) c) Factual accuracy (accurate, inaccurate, unverifiable)

Analyze the relationship between your codes: Are posts using more moral-emotional language less accurate? Are specific Cialdini principles associated with inaccuracy?

Exercise 5.14 — Network Mapping

Map the social media following structure of five accounts involved in a specific misinformation ecosystem (e.g., anti-vaccine accounts, climate denial accounts, or a conspiracy theory community). Using publicly available information:

a) Draw a simplified network diagram showing connections between the accounts b) Identify hub accounts that bridge multiple communities c) Describe the information flow: how does a claim originating in one account typically propagate through the network? d) Identify structural vulnerabilities: where would intervention have the most leverage?

Exercise 5.15 — Historical Parallel Analysis

Identify a pre-digital historical case of mass belief error (some suggestions: tulip mania, the Satanic Panic, McCarthyism, the Dreyfus Affair). Analyze the case using the social psychological concepts from this chapter:

• Which social influence mechanisms drove the spread?
• What identity dynamics were involved?
• Did groupthink play a role in institutional responses?
• What eventually corrected the collective error?
• What does comparing this historical case to digital-era misinformation reveal about which mechanisms are universal and which are technology-specific?

Part C: Application and Reflection Exercises

Exercise 5.16 — Personal Audit

Conduct a personal audit of your own social media environment:

a) Estimate the ideological diversity of the accounts you follow b) Estimate the ideological composition of content you actively engage with (likes, shares, comments) in a typical week c) Identify three beliefs you hold on contested public issues and assess: how much of your confidence in these beliefs is based on direct evidence evaluation vs. social proof from your networks? d) Identify one belief you hold where you are aware of a strong counter-argument you have not seriously engaged with. What barriers prevent engagement with that counter-argument?

Exercise 5.17 — Productive Disagreement Practice

Find a person in your social network who holds a different view from yours on a contested political or social issue. Conduct a structured conversation using the following protocol:

Phase 1: Each person articulates the other's position in terms the other person finds fair (Rapoport's Rules) Phase 2: Each person identifies the strongest evidence or argument for the other's position Phase 3: Each person identifies their own position's greatest weakness or uncertainty Phase 4: Reflection — how did this conversation differ from typical online discussion of the same topic?

Write a 500-word reflection on the conversation, analyzing which social psychological mechanisms made it easier or harder to engage productively.

Exercise 5.18 — Inoculation Message Design

Design a brief (300-word maximum) inoculation message targeting one of the following misinformation techniques:

a) False expert authority (citing credentials that are real but irrelevant) b) Manufactured social proof (citing share counts, fake polls, "everyone knows") c) The suppression narrative ("they don't want you to know this") d) Emotional testimonial substituting for statistical evidence

Your inoculation message should: - Name the manipulation technique explicitly - Provide an example of how it is used - Explain why it is misleading - Provide a rule of thumb for detecting it in the future

Evaluate your message against the research criteria for effective inoculation (see van der Linden and Roozenbeek's work).

Exercise 5.19 — Debate: Should Platforms Intervene?

Prepare arguments for both sides of the following debate:

Resolved: Social media platforms have an obligation to actively intervene in echo chamber formation, even at the cost of reducing user autonomy over their information environment.

Pro arguments should draw on: the research on echo chamber effects on democratic belief formation, the moral responsibility of platforms that profit from the engagement amplification that drives echo chambers, and public health analogies.

Con arguments should draw on: epistemic autonomy as a value, concerns about platform power over political speech, empirical uncertainty about echo chamber effects, and the risk of paternalism.

After preparing both sets of arguments, write a 200-word personal assessment of your own position and its strengths and limitations.

Exercise 5.20 — Case Application: Current Event

Identify a current misinformation event (within the past 6 months) and write a 600-900 word analysis applying at least five concepts from this chapter. Your analysis should:

• Describe the misinformation and its spread
• Identify the social psychological mechanisms driving its propagation
• Analyze the identity dynamics that make it resistant to correction
• Assess the role of moral framing in its spread
• Propose three specific interventions, grounded in the chapter's theoretical content, that might reduce its impact

Part D: Computational Exercises (Optional/Advanced)

Exercise 5.21 — Network Simulation

Run the Python code in code/example-01-social-influence-network.py. Experiment with the following parameter variations and document your results:

a) Compare a random network (Erdos-Renyi), a small-world network (Watts-Strogatz), and a scale-free network (Barabasi-Albert) under the same social influence dynamics. Which topology produces fastest convergence? Which produces most persistent minority opinions?

b) Vary the "stubbornness" parameter (the weight agents place on their own initial opinion) from 0.1 to 0.9. At what value does the network fail to converge?

c) Add a small number of "zealot" agents whose beliefs never change. How does their network position (hub vs. peripheral) affect their influence?

Write a 400-word interpretation of your results in terms of real-world misinformation dynamics.

Exercise 5.22 — Echo Chamber Simulation

Run code/example-02-echo-chamber-simulation.py. Document:

a) How quickly do opinion clusters form under the default parameters? b) What is the effect of reducing homophily strength by 50%? By 90%? c) Introduce "bridge" agents who connect otherwise separate clusters. At what density of bridge agents does polarization significantly reduce?

Interpret your findings in terms of Surowiecki's conditions for collective intelligence.

Exercise 5.23 — Persuasion Technique Classifier

Extend the code in code/example-03-persuasion-analysis.py to:

a) Add at least three additional keyword/pattern signatures for each Cialdini principle b) Collect 20 real social media posts on a topic of your choice and run them through the classifier c) Manually code the same posts and compare your manual codes to the classifier's output. Calculate precision and recall for each principle.

Discuss the limitations of keyword-based persuasion classification and propose one approach that might improve performance.

Exercise 5.24 — Inoculation Game Analysis

Play the "Bad News" inoculation game (available at getbadnews.com) for at least 30 minutes. Document:

a) Which misinformation techniques the game teaches you to recognize b) How the game structures the learning process (what makes it work as inoculation) c) Which of Cialdini's principles correspond to the game's "badges" d) What misinformation techniques the game does not cover that you think should be included

Exercise 5.25 — Moral Foundations Measurement

Complete the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (available at moralfoundations.org) and:

a) Document your own profile across the six foundations b) Compare your profile to the averages for your demographic group reported in Haidt's research c) Select a misinformation campaign and analyze which moral foundations it exploits, comparing the exploitation to your own profile to assess your personal susceptibility to that campaign d) Identify one moral foundation that you weight highly that is frequently exploited by misinformation targeting your demographic or political group