Chapter 8: Social influence and persuasion
Two types of social influence
1. Being liked and accepted: Normative influence
Normative influence: involves going along with the crowd in order to be liked and
accepted.
To live together, people usually need to agree on a set of common beliefs, values,
attitudes and behaviours that reduce ingroup threats and act for the common good.
People learn to conform to their group’s rules.
Polish psychologist Solomon Asch did a study about normative influence.
Several factors influence whether people will conform to group norms:
Conformity increases as group size increases up to a point, the it
levels of.
When people deviate from group norms, they may pay a heavy
price, including social rejection.
Social rejection can be painful.
Asch found that people would agree with the group, even when
they knew that the group was wrong, rather than suffer social
rejection.
2. Being correct: Informational influence
This illusion of movement, caused by very slight movements of the eye, is called the
autokinetic effect.
Muzafer Sherif used the autokinetic effect to study the formation of group norms.
Group norms: the beliefs/ behaviours that a group of people accepts as normal.
Social norms are not temporary, either: they can last at least a year.
Social norms can be passed on from one person to another.
Studies conducted by Sherif indicate a second type of social influence called
informational influence.
This involves going along with the crowd because you think the crowd knows more
than you do , not because you want to be liked as with normative social influence.
It fits the ‘people first’ theme.
Two types of situations increases how likely you are to be affected by informational
influence:
(a) Ambiguous situations, in which people do not know how to behave.
(b) Crisis situations, in which people don’t have time to think for
themselves.
In these situations, people conform to what others do because they assume that
those other people must know what they are doing.
Sometimes this assumption is wrong – others really do not know more than we do.
In fact, others may assume that we know more than they do!
In some cases, nobody knows anything such is called a state of pluralistic ignorance
There are two different kinds of social influence: normative and informational.
A key difference is whether the conforming person comes to believe that others are right
(informational) or believes they are wrong but conforms simply to aviod rejection, ridicule, hostility,
or other kinds of punishment (normative).
, Informational social influence helps produce private acceptance – a genuine inner belief that others
are right.
Normative social influence may bring about mere public compliance – outwardly going along with
the group maintaining a private, inner belief that the group is wrong, or at least having serious
doubts about the group’s decision.
Techniques of social influence
Social influence techniques can be organised according to four basic principles:
(1) Techniques based on commitment and consistency
Several techniques of influence are based on the principles of commitment and
consistency.
Once people make a commitment, they feel pressure to behave consistently with
that commitment.
Inconsistent behaviour causes a form of psychological discomfort called cognitive
dissonance.
(a) Foot-in-the-door technique
Based on the principle that you start with a small request in order to get
eventual complience with a much larger request.
The term refers to the way the old-fashioned door-to-door salespeople
would try to get ‘one foot in the door’ as a starting point to eventually
getting their whole body into the house.
(b) Low-ball technique
Shifts from a smaller request to a larger request is the low-ball technique.
The requester first gets a person to comply with a seemingly low-cost
request and only later reveals hidden additional costs.
(c) Bait-and-switch technique
An influence technique based on commitment, in which one draws people
in with an attractive offer that is unavailable and then switches them to a
less atractive offer that is available.
Is based on the principle of commitment and consistency.
It gets people to make a psychological commitment, and then relies on
consistency pressures to keep them loyal to this commitment even when
the influencer changes the terms.
(d) Labelling technique
Is another way to induce complience.
It involves assigning a label to an individual and then requesting a favour
that is consistent with the label.
This technique is related to the self-fulfilling prophecy.
People tend to live up to the positive labels others give them.
The labelling technique is also based on the commitment and consistency
principle.
Whether positive labels are assigned by oneself or by others, people like
to live up to them.
Labelling also uses the importance of self-concepts.
How people think about themselves can influene their behaviour.
Two types of social influence
1. Being liked and accepted: Normative influence
Normative influence: involves going along with the crowd in order to be liked and
accepted.
To live together, people usually need to agree on a set of common beliefs, values,
attitudes and behaviours that reduce ingroup threats and act for the common good.
People learn to conform to their group’s rules.
Polish psychologist Solomon Asch did a study about normative influence.
Several factors influence whether people will conform to group norms:
Conformity increases as group size increases up to a point, the it
levels of.
When people deviate from group norms, they may pay a heavy
price, including social rejection.
Social rejection can be painful.
Asch found that people would agree with the group, even when
they knew that the group was wrong, rather than suffer social
rejection.
2. Being correct: Informational influence
This illusion of movement, caused by very slight movements of the eye, is called the
autokinetic effect.
Muzafer Sherif used the autokinetic effect to study the formation of group norms.
Group norms: the beliefs/ behaviours that a group of people accepts as normal.
Social norms are not temporary, either: they can last at least a year.
Social norms can be passed on from one person to another.
Studies conducted by Sherif indicate a second type of social influence called
informational influence.
This involves going along with the crowd because you think the crowd knows more
than you do , not because you want to be liked as with normative social influence.
It fits the ‘people first’ theme.
Two types of situations increases how likely you are to be affected by informational
influence:
(a) Ambiguous situations, in which people do not know how to behave.
(b) Crisis situations, in which people don’t have time to think for
themselves.
In these situations, people conform to what others do because they assume that
those other people must know what they are doing.
Sometimes this assumption is wrong – others really do not know more than we do.
In fact, others may assume that we know more than they do!
In some cases, nobody knows anything such is called a state of pluralistic ignorance
There are two different kinds of social influence: normative and informational.
A key difference is whether the conforming person comes to believe that others are right
(informational) or believes they are wrong but conforms simply to aviod rejection, ridicule, hostility,
or other kinds of punishment (normative).
, Informational social influence helps produce private acceptance – a genuine inner belief that others
are right.
Normative social influence may bring about mere public compliance – outwardly going along with
the group maintaining a private, inner belief that the group is wrong, or at least having serious
doubts about the group’s decision.
Techniques of social influence
Social influence techniques can be organised according to four basic principles:
(1) Techniques based on commitment and consistency
Several techniques of influence are based on the principles of commitment and
consistency.
Once people make a commitment, they feel pressure to behave consistently with
that commitment.
Inconsistent behaviour causes a form of psychological discomfort called cognitive
dissonance.
(a) Foot-in-the-door technique
Based on the principle that you start with a small request in order to get
eventual complience with a much larger request.
The term refers to the way the old-fashioned door-to-door salespeople
would try to get ‘one foot in the door’ as a starting point to eventually
getting their whole body into the house.
(b) Low-ball technique
Shifts from a smaller request to a larger request is the low-ball technique.
The requester first gets a person to comply with a seemingly low-cost
request and only later reveals hidden additional costs.
(c) Bait-and-switch technique
An influence technique based on commitment, in which one draws people
in with an attractive offer that is unavailable and then switches them to a
less atractive offer that is available.
Is based on the principle of commitment and consistency.
It gets people to make a psychological commitment, and then relies on
consistency pressures to keep them loyal to this commitment even when
the influencer changes the terms.
(d) Labelling technique
Is another way to induce complience.
It involves assigning a label to an individual and then requesting a favour
that is consistent with the label.
This technique is related to the self-fulfilling prophecy.
People tend to live up to the positive labels others give them.
The labelling technique is also based on the commitment and consistency
principle.
Whether positive labels are assigned by oneself or by others, people like
to live up to them.
Labelling also uses the importance of self-concepts.
How people think about themselves can influene their behaviour.
