Social influence refers to the ways people influence the attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours of others.
Features of social influence
- It is the influence of one on other
- It can be conscious or unconscious
- It is aimed at changing the attitude of others
- Its endurance can be short or long-lived
- It can be positive or negative
- Its degree varies from person to person
Forms/levels of social influence
- As per Herbert Kelemen
- Internalisation: a person internalizes the whole idea, the goodness of a particular object or event. Then we start to have a positive attitude towards it because of the congruence of the value system.
- Compliance – Following some rules/guidelines on an explicit request or under real pressure/ fear of punishment.
- Identification is a change of attitude and behaviour due to the influence of someone that he/she likes. Advertisements that rely on celebrities to market their products are taking advantage of this phenomenon.
Other forms of social influence
- Imitation – following someone without any external pressure.
- Persuasion: It is a process aimed at changing the person’s attitude or behaviour towards some event, idea, object or person. The process involves the use of different methods of verbal or non-verbal communication to convey information, feeling and reasoning to change the attitude of the concerned entity.
- Conformity–following the existing rules/order/system/norms/culture under pressure (real or imaginary)
- Obedience – Following orders under Extreme external pressure.
According to Aristotle persuasion can be brought about by the speaker’s use of logos, ethos and pathos:
- Logos: Facts, reason and evidence
- Ethos: Trust, reliability and ethics
- Pathos: Emotions
Principles of Influence
- Obligation: We feel obliged to give back to people who have given to us.
- Imitation: We copy what others do, especially when we are unsure. People will be more open to things they see others doing.
- Peer pressure: most of us learn many things under peer pressure like smoking.
- Low balling: Low-balling is a persuasion technique that deliberately offers a product at a lower price than one intends to charge (but charges high than normal)
- Foot-in-the-door technique: Foot-in-the-door technique works by first getting a small yes and then getting an even bigger yes.
- Challenging Beliefs
- Developing Counter-arguments
Enablers of Social Influence
- Peer pressure
- Charisma
- Master servant relationship
- Content (beneficial, rational, practicable)
- Presentation
