social influence

introduction to social influence

Social influence is the influence of a group (majority) or individual (minority or obedience) to change thinking, attitude or behaviour to others.

• Conformity: yielding to group pressure and changing our behaviour, values etc.

  • We are not asked to change our behaviour, but do so to be accepted/liked and fit in with our peers

  • Affects teenagers the most —> music, virginity, crime, drugs etc.

• Obedience: behaving as instructed

  • We are asked to change our behaviour by authority figures, in order to avoid punishments or negative consequences

conformity

Types of conformity:

• Compliance: conforming to the majority but not necessarily agreeing with them — public compliance with no attitude change. If group pressure removed, conformity ceases (group acceptance)

• Internalisation: no pressure needed as person genuinely believes in the norms of the group. This leads to acceptance of the group’s norms both publicly and privately

• Identification: conforms to social role and accept that what they are adopting is right (internalisation) but purpose of adopting them is to be accepted (compliance). Can value something as a group and want to be apart of it but don’t privately agree — only values internalised/changed.

Explanations of conformity:

The dual process dependency model