Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Social influence is the way in which one or more people alter the attitudes or the behavior of others the mere presence of others can change our behavior, as illustrated by the results from studies in which research participants perform some task either alone or in the presence of others. Typically, people in groups perform better (social facilitation), but sometimes their performance is worse in a group or with an audience. One attempt to reconcile these divergent findings proposes that the presence of others increases arousal and strengthens highly dominant responses. If the dominant response is the correct one, performance will be facilitated. If the dominant response is incorrect, performance will be hindered.
Another form of social influence is conformity. Studies indicate that we sometimes conform because we believe the group to be right or to have information we don't possess. Members often conform to group opinions even though they privately disagree, perhaps because they want to be liked and accepted. A more extreme case of social influence is blind obedience, in which people act against their own consciences in obeying some authority. This has sometimes been ascribed to factors within the person, as in studies of the authoritarian personality. But situational factors may be even more important, as shown by Milgram's obedience studies. His findings suggest that persons who were obedient to the end generally tried to make the situation comprehensible to themselves:...
This theory proposes that an individual is exposed to many social forces, which vary in their strength, number, and distance. The total social impact on a person, then, is a function of how many others are converging on her and how strong their influences are. Experimental studies of such phenomena as stage fright and social loafing provide some support for the theory.
The term Conformity refers to an individual behavior that follows a real or imagined collective (group, social, cultural) norm or behavior. Conformity surely has its good sides, as in the organization and coordination of groups and societies, but it also has its bad sides, as in the blind obedience to fashions or leaders. Conformity happens to a good extent without deliberation, sometimes without conscious awareness. To minimize our susceptibility to blind obedience, it is a good idea to become aware of our norm-conforming behavior every once in a while and consciously decide to conform (or not to conform), before we return control again to conforming habits, reflexes, and schemas.
General conditions under which conformity is maximized:
Ambiguity (in the situation, task, or stimulus)
Stress (time pressure, demand, fear, etc.)
Others are…
Need for affiliation (acknowledgment, validation)
Social influence as obedience to authority is where a person or a group obeys the direct commands or orders of an authority (person or institution) -- a matter of compliance with the orders of another person or group of people. There is not only a personal need to agree with others but strong pressure exerted by the group on any person with different opinions to comply with the majority. Promises, arguments, and threats are used to get agreement. If someone steadfastly refuses to agree with the group, he/she is frequently rejected and ignored. Usually the more deviant group members (those taking an extreme position) and the entire group move in the direction favored by the majority. This has become known as group polarization (Deaux & Wrightsman, 1984). It can be thought of as a "jump on the band wagon" effect or "go along with the majority" effect. However, we do not yet know under what conditions private opinions are actually changed, if they are, in these more complex situations. Perhaps as we learn more about a certain opinion and argue for it, we come to believe it more. Perhaps we just don't want to make waves. Perhaps we "know which side of our bread is buttered." It's all compliance. There are other specific conditions in which we tend to comply with direct requests. For instance, once we have granted one request, we are more likely to comply with another request. So a salesperson will make a small request first: "May I ask you a few questions?" And "May we sit down?" Finally, "May I order you one?" This is called the "foot in the door" technique. Another approach is the "door in the face" technique: first, someone makes a very large request of you and you say "no" (that's the door in the face). They graciously accept your refusal and then a few days or weeks later the same person approaches you with a much more modest request. You are more likely to comply this time than if you had never been approached.
Stanley Milgram's observations on obedience to authority have exerted a great deal of influence on such diverse disciplines as social psychology, holocaust studies, and political science. According to Milgram, the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.
Social Influence and Persuasion Social influence is believed to occur when an individual's emotions, behaviors, or opinions are influenced by others'. Compliance, identification, internalization are the three broad varieties of social influence that have since been identified. Compliance occurs when people agree with others' opinions while keeping their dissenting opinions private. Identification is normally associated with very popular people like the celebrities. Such people easily influence people who believe in them.
Peer pressure can also have its positive effects on teenagers. Just as teenagers can be influence by their peers to engage in high-risk and unhealthy behaviors, they can also be influenced to make positive choices. Positive choices can include joining a volunteer project, getting good grades because their social group values good grades, trying out for sports, joining academic clubs, artist interests, and overall encouragement to succeed ("Peer pressure:
The study also asked whether people would develop paranormal beliefs more readily if those in a higher life status than themselves would promote such beliefs. Social influence refers to changes in feelings, beliefs, values or behaviors that result from the actions of others. Examples of influenced behaviors may include: following orders at work (obedience to authority), dressing like one's peers (conformity to a group), and convincing a friend to change her
This may explain why the Internet also has been shown an addictive capacity to focus viewer's attention for extended period of time even to the point of ignoring the user's other needs (Block 2008, p.308). Contrary to expectations an 'eye-tracking' research study found online readers read 77% of available content while broadsheet newspaper readers read an average of 62%, and tabloid readers about 57% (Goldsmith 2007). Online readers were less
Social Influence Can Undermine the Wisdom of Crowd Effect" by Lorenz and colleagues (2010) demonstrates how social context can really have a strong influence on the way in which social groups can sway the way in which conflict is perceived. This article demonstrates how even the mildest social influence can undermine the wisdom of a crowd in simple estimation activities (Lorenz et al., 2010). In this experiment, participants were
Behavior Social Influences on Behavior The specific social setting in which an individual finds themselves can have profound effects on their behavior, and might even lead to behavioral changes that warrant therapeutic interventions, in some cases. At the same time, many of the changes in behavior that occur as a result of change sin social setting are entirely normal and even desirous based on certain social mores and customs. The following paragraphs