Social influence

Not to be confused with Social media influencer.

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.[1]

  1. Compliance is when people appear to agree with others but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.[2]
  2. Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
  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).[3] Informational influence (or social proof) is an influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality. Informational influence comes into play when people are uncertain, either from stimuli being intrinsically ambiguous or because of 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.[1]

  1. ^ a b Kelman, H. (1958). "Compliance, identification, and internalization: Three processes of attitude change" (PDF). Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2 (1): 51–60. doi:10.1177/002200275800200106. S2CID 145642577. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  2. ^ Cialdini, Robert B.; Goldstein, Noah J. (2004-02-01). "Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity". Annual Review of Psychology. 55 (1): 591–621. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015. ISSN 0066-4308.
  3. ^ Deutsch, M. & Gerard, H. B. (1955). "A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment" (PDF). Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 51 (3): 629–636. doi:10.1037/h0046408. PMID 13286010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-12. Retrieved 2016-10-16.