Social influences

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Social psychology: Altruism · Attribution · Attitudes · Conformity · Discrimination · Groups · Interpersonal relations · Obedience · Prejudice · Norms · Perception · Index · Outline

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Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts or actions are affected consciously or unconsciously by other people and groups. Social influence takes many forms and would include:

• Advertising
• Coercion
• Criticism
• Enabling
• Ethics
• Ethnic values
• Interpersonal influences
• Mass media
• Power
• Prejudice
• Propaganda
• Self brand
• Social approval
• Social desirability
• Social norms
• Social values
• Superstitions
• Taboos

The effects of these social influences can be seen in a number of areas studied in social psychology in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing, social change, social control and social facilitation.

Harvard psychologist, Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.

1. Compliance is when people appear to agree with others, but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
2. Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity or a favorite uncle.
3. Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard described two psychological needs that lead humans to conform to the expectations of others. These include our need to be right (informational social influence), and our need to be liked (normative social influence). Informational influence is an influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality. Informational influence comes into play when people are uncertain, either because stimuli are intrinsically ambiguous or because there is social disagreement. Normative influence is an influence to conform to the positive expectations of others. In terms of Kelman's typology, normative influence leads to public compliance, whereas informational influence leads to private acceptance.

Emotions

In 2009, a study concluded that fear increases the chance of agreeing with the group, while romance or lust increases the chance of going against the group.

Social trends

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the way new ideas are transmitted by social influence. New products or fashions are introduced by innovators, who tend to be creative and nonconforming. Then early adopters join in, followed by the early majority. By this time, a substantial number of people are using the idea or product, and normative and informational influence encourages others to conform as well. The early majority is followed by a second group that Gladwell calls the late majority, and then finally by the laggards, who tend to be highly conventional and resistant to change.

See also

• Attitudes
• Authority
• Conformity
• Cults
• Ethics
• Mentor
• Minority influence
• Milgram experiment
• Popularity
• Psychosocial factors
• Reference groups
• Role models
• Social behavior
• Social comparison
• Social influence counter-measures
• Social movements
• Social reinforcement

Further reading

• Cialdini, Robert B. (2001). ‘‘Influence: Science and practice (4th ed.)’’. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0321011473.
• Hogan, Kevin (2004) The Science of Influence: How to Get Anyone to Say "Yes" in 8 Minutes or Less! (ISBN 978-0471670513 ).

External links

• Influence At Work, Robert Cialdini's official web site, and Influence at Work: UK in the United Kingdom
• 5 Ways to be Influential Article is on a Canadian politics website.
• Working Psychology Website A webpage written by a professor at University of Southern California, devoted to social influence.