People reacting differently if they know others will find out

[PokerPlayer]

New to this forum, sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place.

As my username suggests, I'm a professional poker player, and I've been thinking a lot more recently about some of the psychological aspects as it pertains to poker players.  I'm hoping this forum will give me some insight that I might not have considered or just any extra information really.

Let me give an example outside of poker first, as I think it will help me a good deal.

Ralph goes to a baseball game with some friends.  A walking peanut vendor comes down the stairs nearest to him, and is loudly selling his product.  Like most typical walking vendors, the prices are not readily available to be viewed.  Ralph does not like to spend a lot of money but loves his peanuts.  Since Ralph is not immediately on the aisle, he knows he must raise his voice in order to get the vendors attention.

It seems to me that if Ralph gets the attention of the vendor and asks how much the peanuts are, he will always purchase them regardless of price, as his friends (and many others) could and will be listening in to this conversation.  Also I think that if he didn't ask the price and just ordered the peanuts, he again will purchase the peanuts every time even though the price might be much higher than he expected it to be, for the same reasons.

I think that if Ralph was able to talk to the vendor in a private setting, he would sometimes not purchase the peanuts because he thought they were too expensive...also I think Ralph would be more likely to ask how much the peanuts cost first and then decide.

My question is, is there a name for this type of behaviour?  When people react differently than they would in private environments compared to how they would react in social environments.  Many other similar examples Im sure could be found, but this one has been in my head while thinking in this direction.

I'll just leave it as this for now and Ill expand more if its needed or interesting.

[SWM]

social compliance or conformity

[gone]

There is another side to this you are missing. What about if Ralf was quiet, if he didn't like to raise his voice. Not only is Ralf quiet he's also on a budget and so doesn't want to risk the possibility of inflated prices. Not only that, he is of different values, and believes prices for products should always be clearly displayed. There is a person who for one reason or three will not buy the peanuts no matter how much he loves them.
So for every 'inflated' sale the vendor may get, he may also lose a sale. So not having the price displayed isn't always beneficial, it probably evens itself out if statistics were taken.
What this does is demonstrates the difference in people, the one who has money to throw away and is confident to raise his voice gets his peanuts and the one who is quiet and ethical does not.

However your question asks if there is a name for acting differently in social settings as opposed to private (and I'm happy swm mentions/now knows social compliance is :-) ..    however that is behaving as society expects you to. The reason a person wouldn't ask the price in front of a group is because it's simply embarrassing, it's like the price of something takes priority over the group and becomes the focus of that group (and does a group really want to talk about or focus on the price of something?) it's like "Wait a minute group, I'm more interested in the price of these peanuts than I am of what you're talking about'... Where as when one is in a one to one with the peanut seller, the only focus or common ground for communication is peanuts, so asking the price, even if you don't care what the price is, is a way to interact with the vendor.. I wonder if you understand..

[Enigma]

social compliance or conformity

I'd say it's social desirability bias

[voodoo scientist]

I also disagree that this is a case of conformity.

First off, the claim that Ralph would always purchase the peanuts is unfounded and counterintuitive to begin with. The best way to conceptualize that is if the peanuts were, for inexplicable reasons, outrageously expensive - let's say four or five times the price Ralph expected. Ralph would never buy the peanuts then - not only would he be out a considerable sum of money for a bag of peanuts, but he might have to explain his decision to his friends or leave the impression of financially unsound behavior.

In principle, while it's true that until a high enough price is reached social factors would increase the likelihood that he would buy the peanuts, eventually the curve would change around, as the factors that at lower selling prices would have driven him to buy to avoid social discomforts or gain social comforts now drives him in the opposite direction.

Seen in this light, Ralph is probably best explained by fairly conventional operant conditioning theories. However, the matter of why Ralph assumes that his potential actions would or would not produce punishment from his friends (which seems like the main determinant in his decision to buy or not to buy in the case) is much more involved and is extremely unlikely to be primarily explained by any one factor or existing theory. What does the decision to buy or not to buy consist of in Ralph's mind, and what does it consist of in his friends' minds, and how do their perceptions of each others' stance on the decision affect everything else? The matter of why is almost impossibly complex with a hypothetical person in a hypothetical case.

I would appreciate a concrete case with more available information. This is one of the more interesting topics lately.