SOCIAL INFLUENCE

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• SOCIAL INFLUENCE

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DEFINITION

• Interpersonal processes that lead to changes in
  the beliefs, feelings, or behaviours of another
  person. (Forsyth, 1995)
• Key words Influence source, influence target,
  power, compliance, conformity, obedience

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A theory to explain social influence

• SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY (Latane, 1981)
• The social influence exerted by a source on a
  target person depends on three factors
• Strength the status, ability, or power of the
  source, or the relationship of source to the
  target
• Immediacy a sources proximity in time and space
  to the target.
• Number the number of sources relative to the
  number of target.
• Other theories Theory of Reciprocity, Cognitive
  Dissonance Theory, Behaviourism

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Types of power

• The force that motivates the change
• Reward power sources ability to provide target
  with reward.
• Coercive power sources ability to punish target
  for noncompliance.
• Expert power source has superior knowledge in
  domain in which influence in being attempted.
• Referent power targets desire to be similar to
  or identify with source
• Legitimate power source, by virtue of his/ her
  role or position has the right to tell the target
  what to do.
• Informational power sources ability to provide
  target with information that convinces target.

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TYPES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE

• CONFORMITY
• COMPLIANCE
• OBEDIENCE

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CONFORMITY

• Refers to a deep- seated, private and enduring
• change in ones behaviour or thinking to coincide
• with the standard behaviour of a group or
• society.
• Conformity is further determined by two types of
  social influences
• Informational social influence and,
• Normative social influence

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Informational social influence (ISI)

• Asserts that we rely on others for information.
• We compare our ideas, feelings, and actions to
  others when we are unsure of what is appropriate
  (social comparison).
• We accept the arguments and data of people whom
  we assume to be knowledgeable (systematic
  informational influence).
• We rely on heuristics (or short cuts) when we do
  not have time to think things through (heuristic
  informational influence).
• Types of power exerted reward, coercive,
  referent, legitimate

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Normative social influence

• we allow norms to guide our behaviour both
  during informal and formal settings. People
  conform to group norms in order to fit in.
• Value- expressive social influence conformity
  due to a desire to be like others.
• Utilitarian social influence conformity to group
  norms in order to avoid punishments or obtain
  rewards.
• Types of power exerted expert, informational

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Influences on Conformity

• Group size conformity increases with group size
  up to four persons in the group, and then levels
  off.
• Awareness of group norms Conformity increases
  when the norm is activated or brought to the
  persons attention.
• An ally in dissent the presence of a single
  confederate who disagrees with the majority
  reduces conformity.

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Some Classical conformity studies

• Solomon Asch (1951) The classic social
  influence study. (please see handout)
• Muzafer Sherif(1936) Autokinetic Effect (read up
  on your own)
• Venkatesan (1966) A marketing replication (read
  up on your own)

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COMPLIANCE

• This occurs when individuals change their
  behaviour in response to more direct requests
  from others.
• It involves the use of direct strategies and
  skills by other people to get us to help them,
  give them money, buy certain products and so on.

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TECHNIQUES TO INFLUENCE COMPLIANCE

• THE FOOT IN THE DOOR- where someone first makes a
  small request and when the person complies, they
  make another request but this time its a larger
  request.
• THE DOOR IN THE FACE- when an unreasonably large
  request is made to begin with that most people
  will reject and then this is immediately followed
  by a more modest sounding request.
• THE LOW- BALL TECHNIQUE/ LOW- BALLING- when a
  reasonable request is made initially and then the
  requester reveals information that increases the
  cost involved
• THATS- NOT- ALL TECHNIQUE- when a somewhat
  inflated request is made, immediately decreasing
  the apparent size of the request by offering a
  discount or adding a bonus
• BAIT- AND- SWITCH- gaining someone's agreement on
  one thing, then switching to something else at
  the last minute.

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Studies done to check how the strategies work

• Foot-in-the-door Freedman Fraser (1966) Pilner
  et. al. (1974)
• Door-in-the-face Cialdini Schroder (1976)
  Cialdini colleagues (1975)
• Low- Balling Cialdini (1978)

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OBEDIENCE

• This occurs when individuals change their
  behaviour because of orders or commands given by
  figures with greater designated or earned
  authority. It is often understood that the
  decision not to obey can lead to punishment,
  imprisonment or even death.

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Classical studies on obedience

• Zimbardos Prison Experiment (1973)
• Milgrams Experiment on Obedience (1963)
• (please see handouts)

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Theories of Attitude
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Outline

• Definition of attitudes
• Functions of attitudes
• Three primary approaches
• How attitudes are formed
• The link between attitude and behaviour

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Attitudes

• Attitudes are evaluative responses to stimuli
• Attitude is the affect for or against a
  psychological object (Thurstone, 1932)
• Attitude is a learned predisposition to respond
  in a consistent favorable manner with respect to
  a given object (Fishbein Ajzen, 1975)
• Attitude is a psychological tendency that is
  expressed by evaluating a particular entity with
  some degree of favor or disfavor (Eagly
  Chaiken, 1993)

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Attitudes

• An attitude is a mental and neural state of
  readiness, organized through experience, exerting
  a directive or dynamic influence upon the
  individuals response to all objects and
  situations with which it is related (Allport,
  1935)

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Tricomponent Model- ABC Tripartite model

• Attitudes are based on ABC information
• affective component
• the persons emotions and affect towards the
  object
• behavioral component
• how person tends to act towards the object
• cognitive component
• consists of thoughts and beliefs the person has
  about the object
• These are not always highly related to each
  other.
• Example- prejudice is affective, Stereotyping is
  cognitive and discrimination is behavioural

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Attitudes

• Often cognitively complex but evaluatively
  simple.
• Make it possible to access related information
  and to make decisions quickly.
• Attitudes are one determinant of behavior but not
  the only one conversely behavior also determines
  attitudes.

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Functions of attitudes

• Katz (1960)

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Utilitarian, Adaptive Function

• Attitudes reflect liking for things that lead to
  achieving goals and disliking for things that
  block our goals

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Knowledge, Economic Function

• Attitudes allow us to categorize information
  about attitude objects and more easily manage our
  world

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Value Expressive Function

• Attitudes allow us to express our beliefs about
  what we consider to be right or wrong

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Ego Defensive Function

• Attitudes protect us from our fears and rejections

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How are attitudes formed?
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Learn

• Attitudes are acquired in the same way as other
  habits
• association
• reinforcement and punishment
• imitation.

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Information about an object

• Direct experience with an object
• Indirect experience with an object
• Observe others interacting with the object
• Mass media
• Factual information

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Affective reactions

• How does an object make us feel?
• Nervous? Sad? Happy?
• Transfer of affect involves transferring emotions
  from one object (e.g., a sexy model) to another
  (e.g., the car the model is standing by).

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Genetics?

• Some scholars have argued that some of our
  attitudes are influenced by our make up (at least
  indirectly)
• Inherited sensory structures might influence our
  attitudes towards spicy foods or loud music
• Inherited body chemistry might influence our
  attitudes towards stimulants such as caffeine,
  alcohol or nicotine
• Genetic differences in activity level might
  influence our attitudes towards various leasure
  activities

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Link between attitude and behaviour
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Relevance of attitude to behaviour

• Before we cab find a link we must be certain that
  attitude being assessed is one that is relevant
  to the specific attitude objective

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Strength, importance and stability of attitudes

• The stronger and more important the attitude, the
  more likely it will influence behaviour.
• Attitudes that are relatively stable and enduring
  are most likely to affect behaviour than those
  that are recent in origin

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Attitudes, behaviour and the situation

• Attribute of a situation may conspire to prevent
  people from demonstrating behaviour consistent
  with the attitude they hold. It might be too
  costly to exhibit behaviour consistent with
  attitude

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Persuasion

• The more favorably people evaluate the
  communicator, the more favorably they are apt to
  evaluate the communication.
• This idea reflects transfer of affect.

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Persuasion

• Several aspects of a communicator affect whether
  he or she is evaluated favorably.
• Credibility
• Expertise
• Trustworthiness
• Liking

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Persuasion

• We are persuaded by the opinions of our reference
  groups, those we like or identify with.
• This occurs both because of the motivational
  factors of liking and perceived similarity, and
  because messages from in-groups are more likely
  to be processed using the central route.

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Persuasion

• Source derogation involves deciding the source is
  unreliable or negative in some way. It can make
  all future as well as current arguments from that
  source less powerful.

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Persuasion

• The message content clearly influences whether or
  not people will accept it.

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Persuasion

• The greater the discrepancy between the
  listeners position and the message presented,
  the greater the potential for change.

Attitude Change
Discrepancy
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Persuasion

• Sources who are more credible can advocate more
  discrepant opinions successfully.
• For example, Bochner and Insko (1966) presented
  participants with a message on the number of
  nightly hours of sleep required
• The message ostensibly came either from a Nobel
  Prize winner or a YMCA instructor.
• The YMCA instructor produced the most change when
  advocating three hours sleep the Nobel Prize
  winner, when advocating only one.

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Persuasion

• When message discrepancy is low, it is
  assimilated into the audiences opinion
  (perceived as closer than it really is)
• When message discrepancy is high, it is seen as
  even further away (message contrast).
• Discrepancy may be reduced by distorting or
  misperceiving the message, or even rejecting it
  altogether.

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Persuasion

• People are most affected by the strength of
  arguments when they are motivated to pay
  attention and able to think carefully about them
  (central route processing).

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Persuasion

• When people are not motivated or able to think
  about message content, peripheral cues become
  important in determining attitude change.
• source characteristics
• message length
• number of arguments

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Persuasion

• Attitudes that are high in ego involvement are
  resistant to change.
• Kinds of ego involvement include
• Commitment
• Issue Involvement
• Response Involvement

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Persuasion

• People high in authoritarianism or dogmatism
  (closed-mindedness)
• tend to respond to the expertise of the source
  first and to exert themselves when the source is
  non-expert.
• People who are high in the need for closure
• typically more resistant to persuasion.

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Can attitudes always predict behaviour

• If we know a persons attitude, can we predict
  behaviourgt
• Here are 8 reasons why this might not always be
  possible

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• Situational constraints may make it difficult for
  people to behave in ways that reflect their
  attitudes
• Behaviours themselves are multidetermined, and
  therefore not caused by attitudes only
• You may not have a proper measure of
  understanding of a persons attitude, so you
  cannot predict their true behaviour from false
  attitudes
• If attitudes and behaviours are not measured
  closely in time, changes in the attitude may
  occur leading to a seeming discrepancy between
  the attitude and the behaviour

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• If you ask a question about general attitudes
  such as whether you like sports or not, this may
  have little to do with specific behaviours and
  therefore you cannot use one to predict the
  other. Whether you like sports or not may have
  little to do with whether you attended
  yesterdays basketball match.
• Attitudes that are more accessible to memory
  influence behaviours more than those that are.
  Hence the things that you remember more at the
  time determine your behaviour.
• People who are more privately self aware tend to
  behave in ways that reflect their personal
  standards and attitudes. People who are more
  publicly self aware tend to behave in ways that
  are socially acceptable even if they contradict
  their personal attitudes and standards