Chapter 9 Quiz: Bandwagon, Social Proof, and Manufactured Consensus
Multiple Choice
1. In Asch's conformity experiments (1951), approximately what percentage of participants conformed to the clearly wrong group answer at least once?
- A) 25%
- B) 50%
- C) 75%
- D) 95%
2. The term "astroturfing" in political and media analysis refers to:
- A) Spreading messages through door-to-door canvassing campaigns
- B) The creation of fake grassroots organizations that disguise their corporate or political origins
- C) The use of paid actors to attend political rallies to inflate crowd size
- D) Placing political advertisements on sports broadcasts to reach broad audiences
3. The phrase "astroturf lobbying" was coined in 1985 by:
- A) Robert Cialdini
- B) Edward Bernays
- C) Senator Lloyd Bentsen
- D) Philip Morris communications director
4. The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) was created by which company, according to internal documents made public through litigation?
- A) ExxonMobil
- B) Chevron
- C) Philip Morris
- D) R.J. Reynolds
5. According to Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's Spiral of Silence theory, when people believe their opinion is in the minority, they are:
- A) More likely to argue for it publicly to correct the misperception
- B) Less likely to express it publicly, which further reduces its apparent prevalence
- C) Equally likely to express it publicly regardless of perceived minority status
- D) More likely to change their actual private belief to match the apparent majority
6. In Asch's conformity experiments, which of the following interventions most dramatically reduced conformity?
- A) Increasing the group size from three to eight confederates
- B) Making the task more difficult (using lines closer in length)
- C) The presence of a single ally who gave the correct answer
- D) Providing participants with written rather than verbal instructions
7. "Coordinated inauthentic behavior" as a concept focuses on:
- A) The content of disinformation, specifically whether it contains false statements
- B) The political ideology motivating the behavior
- C) The combination of coordination across accounts and concealment of true identity or origin
- D) The commercial motivation behind engagement manipulation
8. The Internet Research Agency (IRA) was based in which city and operated with funding from which government?
- A) Beijing; Chinese government
- B) St. Petersburg; Russian government
- C) Tehran; Iranian government
- D) Minsk; Belarusian government
9. According to Guess, Nagler, and Tucker's 2019 study on fake news sharing on Facebook during the 2016 election:
- A) Fake news sharing was roughly evenly distributed across age groups
- B) Fake news sharing was concentrated among users under 30
- C) Fake news sharing was concentrated among users over 65, who were seven times more likely to share than younger users
- D) The majority of users had shared at least one fake news article
10. Which of the following is a documented operational technique of the Internet Research Agency's Facebook operations?
- A) Creating pages that impersonated U.S. government official accounts
- B) Creating pages that mimicked authentic American community organizations with concealed Russian origins
- C) Hacking into American users' accounts to post content directly
- D) Purchasing television advertising disguised as local news segments
11. A "push poll" is best described as:
- A) A poll designed to identify which messages would most effectively "push" voters to the polls on election day
- B) A research instrument for measuring how hard it is to change voter opinions through persuasion
- C) A persuasion instrument disguised as a poll, using leading questions to plant negative information
- D) A poll conducted exclusively through online platforms to reach younger demographics
12. In the context of social proof, an "engagement pod" refers to:
- A) A software tool that automates social media engagement
- B) A group of legitimate users who coordinate to mutually like and share each other's content to boost platform visibility
- C) A hardware device used by social media companies to track user behavior
- D) A term for the cluster of highly engaged followers around an influencer account
13. The "Volksgemeinschaft" in Nazi Germany was, among other things, a social proof claim because it:
- A) Argued that most Germans were economically better off under the Nazi regime
- B) Constructed a social reality in which all authentic Germans formed a unified community, making dissent appear aberrant and isolated
- C) Provided statistical evidence of popular support for specific Nazi policies
- D) Organized public polling to document German support for the war effort
14. According to Bond and Smith's 1996 meta-analysis of 133 Asch-paradigm studies, which cultural variable significantly affected conformity rates?
- A) Language of instruction (native vs. foreign language)
- B) Gender of the participant
- C) Collectivist vs. individualist cultural context
- D) Urban vs. rural origin of participants
15. The "Blacktivist" Facebook page, operated by the IRA, had approximately how many followers by late 2016?
- A) 36,000
- B) 360,000
- C) 3.6 million
- D) 36 million
Short Answer
16. Explain in two to three sentences why manufacturing the appearance of social consensus can influence behavior just as effectively as genuine consensus, drawing on either Cialdini's social proof principle or Asch's experimental findings.
17. What is the "ally effect" in Asch's conformity research, and what is its practical implication for counter-propaganda efforts?
18. Describe two specific methods researchers use to detect astroturfing operations, and explain what evidence each method looks for.
19. The chapter discusses a distinction between the IRA's goal in targeting Black American communities and the content it amplified. What was that distinction, and why is it important for understanding this form of manufactured social proof?
20. Sophia notices 47,000 shares on a political post before reading it and "catches herself." What specifically should she be catching herself doing, and what steps from the Action Checklist would help her evaluate the signal more carefully?
True or False — With Explanation
For each statement, indicate whether it is true or false, and write one sentence explaining your answer.
21. Social proof is always an irrational heuristic, and the epistemically correct response is to ignore all social proof signals.
22. The Tobacco Institute presented itself as an independent scientific research organization while being funded and directed by tobacco companies.
23. Asch's experiments showed that conformity effects are only present when participants make their responses publicly, and disappear entirely when responses are made privately.
24. The Guess, Nagler, and Tucker (2019) study found that sharing of fake news was concentrated in a small minority of users rather than widely distributed across the population.
25. Manufactured polling results — such as those from push polls — cannot function as social proof because audiences typically know such polls are biased.
Answer key available in Appendix B: Answers to Selected Exercises.