Social influence
Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals adjust their behavior to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. Typically social influence results from a specific action, command, or request, but people also alter their attitudes and behaviors in response to what they perceive others might do or think. In 1958, Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.
- Compliance is when people appear to agree with others but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
- Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
- Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.
Types
Social influence is a broad term that relates to many different phenomena. Listed below are some major types of social influence that are being researched in social psychology. For more information, follow the main article links provided.Kelman's varieties
There are three processes of attitude change as defined by Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman in a 1958 paper published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution. The purpose of defining these processes was to help determine the effects of social influence: for example, to separate public conformity from private acceptance.Compliance
Compliance is the act of responding favorably to an explicit or implicit request offered by others. Technically, compliance is a behavior change but not necessarily in attitude; one can comply due to mere obedience or by otherwise opting to withhold private thoughts due to social pressures. According to Kelman's 1958 paper, the satisfaction derived from compliance is due to the social effect of the accepting influence.Identification
Identification is the changing of attitudes or behaviors due to the influence of someone who is admired. Advertisements relying upon celebrity endorsements to market their products are taking advantage of this phenomenon. According to Kelman, the desired relationship that the identifier relates to the behavior or attitude change.Internalization
Internalization is the process of acceptance of a set of norms established by people or groups that are influential to the individual. The individual accepts the influence because the content of the influence accepted is intrinsically rewarding. It is congruent with the individual's value system, and according to Kelman the "reward" of internalization is "the content of the new behavior".Conformity
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in behavior, belief, or thinking to align with those of others or with normative standards. It is the most common and pervasive form of social influence. Social psychology research in conformity tends to distinguish between two varieties: informational conformity and normative conformity. Christian S Crandall also point out that conformity is rooted in the broader system of social norms,the shared expectations within a group about appropriate behavior. Humans are naturally equipped to learn from and imitate others, so conformity is not just copying what people do, but responding to both descriptive norms and injunctive norms. Experiments by Solomon Asch demonstrated that individuals frequently conform to a clearly incorrect majority, and that the presence of even a single dissenter substantially reduces conformity pressure. Later work found that experiences of social exclusion increase people’s likelihood to conform, suggesting that conformity can function as a strategy to regain social acceptance. Conformity also spreads through norm cascades, in which a small number of people adopting a behavior can trigger rapid group-wide adoption once a critical threshold is reached.Minority influence
Researchers have been studying social influence and minority influence for over thirty years. Early research in social psychology emphasized conformity and behaviors that enforced conformity on others. Which created a conformity bias and overshadowed the role of minorities. The first publication covering these topics was written by social psychologist Serge Moscovici and published in 1976. Minority influence takes place when a majority is influenced to accept the beliefs or behaviors of a minority. Minority influence can be affected by the size of majority and minority groups, the level of consistency of the minority group, and situational factors. Moscovici’s more recent research highlights that active minorities, such as social movements, scientific innovators, or emerging artistic groups, play a crucial role in challenging majority norms and driving social change. Minority groups can gain influence by promoting new ideas, and can shift majority beliefs by presenting consistent, confident, and autonomous positions. Minority influence most often operates through informational social influence because the majority may be indifferent to the liking of the minority.Self-fulfilling prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. A prophecy declared as truth may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy. This term is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton from an article he published in 1948.Social contagion
Social contagion involves the spontaneous spread of behaviors or emotions through a group, population or social network. Social contagion consists of two categories, behavioral contagion and emotional contagion. Unlike conformity, the emotion or behavior being adopted may not represent a social norm.Reactance
Reactance is the adoption of a view contrary to the view that a person is being pressured to accept, perhaps due to a perceived threat to behavioral freedoms. This phenomenon has also been called anticonformity.According to the Encyclopedia of Social Psychology by Roy F. Baumeister, people become upset when their freedom feels restricted and may deliberately do the opposite of what they are told in an attempt to restore that lost sense of freedom. While the results are the opposite of what the influencer intended, the reactive behavior is a result of social pressure. It is notable that anticonformity does not necessarily mean independence. In many studies, reactance manifests itself in a deliberate rejection of an influence, even if the influence is clearly correct.Obedience
Obedience is a form of social influence that derives from an authority figure, based on order or command. The Milgram experiment, Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment, and the Hofling hospital experiment are three particularly well-known experiments on obedience, and they all conclude that humans are surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures.Persuasion
Persuasion is the process of guiding oneself or another toward the adoption of an attitude by rational or symbolic means. US psychologist Robert Cialdini defined six "weapons of influence": reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity to bring about conformity by directed means. Persuasion can occur through appeals to reason or appeals to emotion.Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the behavior or perception of others through abusive, deceptive, or underhanded tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at another's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative, abusive, devious, and deceptive.Social influence is not necessarily negative. For example, doctors can try to persuade patients to change unhealthy habits. Social influence is generally perceived to be harmless when it respects the right of the influenced to accept or reject it, and is not unduly coercive. Depending on the context and motivations, social influence may constitute underhanded manipulation.