Social Influence

1. Social Influence How People Get Us to Do things

2. R R’ Depiction of social influence. Social influence occurs when one person does something, S, which leads to a behavioral response, R, in another person. When the stimulus is not present, S’, the behavior does not occur, R’. S S’

3. Social Influence • Physical/symbolic • Intended/unintended

4. Represented in Mind of the Source Communicated by the Source Represented in Mind of the Recipient Intended by the Recipient Executed by the Recipient Progression of a behavioral model in social influence. The unit of analysis in social influence is the behavioral model. The model in the social influence process begins as a conceptualization in the mind of an influence source, who communicates it to an intended recipient. If done successfully, the behavioral model forms a representation in the recipient’s mind. Not only must the recipient comprehend the model, she or he must adopt the plan for personal use—hence the recipient intends to carry out the depicted behavior. From there, the recipient will produce the conduct given sufficient skill and opportunity. A BEHAVIORAL MODEL IS…

5. Landscape of Influence Family: member Friends: friend Peers: peer Media: consumer Sport’s team: player Politics: voter, party member Hobbies: hobbyist Companies: consumer, workers Entertainment: consumer Government: citizen Education: student Health and medicine: Patient Legal system: witness, accused, victim, convict

6. Social Influence Course • Emphasis on • Concrete techniques • Interaction with mental processes

7. Factors in social influence. Boxes made up of solid lines represent situational factors in influence. These can be manipulated by the influence source in his or her attempt to alter the conduct of the influence recipient. All of the external factors must be present before influence can occur. Boxes composed in dotted lines represent cognitions that must be changed to make influence possible. Context Interaction Opportunity Perception of object Compliance test Attitude Behavior

8. Perception of Object • Clarity • Hoping for A but asking for B • Reactance • Unfair restriction perceived, person acts to restore freedom • Influence-resistance trade-off • Propaganda • Education

9. Attitudes • Attitude • Evaluative judgment stored in memory (Olson & Zanna, 1993) • Evaluation—favorable/unfavorable, good/bad, positive/negative • Memory representation (Pratkanis & Greenwald, 1989—sociocognitive model) • Object label • Evaluation • Knowledge structure supporting evaluation

10. Attitudes • Attitude correlates • Associative network • Cognition • Affect • Behavioral intention • Spreading activation

11. Attitudes • Attitude concept is essential to model because the concept is • Easily linked to technique elements • The motivational construct of social psychology • Principal Social Influence Strategy • Create opportunity for a recipient to act in attitude-consistent ways

12. Attitudes • Functions of attitudes (Katz) • Value-expressive function: performing the behavior is the appropriate thing to do • Knowledge function: the behavior serves to fill in a vacuum regarding how one should act • Social adjustment function: provides a way to be accepted by a desirable group • Utilitarian/instrumental function: allows for a good personal gain/loss ratio • Ego-defensive function: helps preserve a desirable self-conception

13. Techniques • See course outline

14. The “Cold Controller” • Two portions of course • Basic research • Application • Propaganda (vs. education) • Self-interest • Two faces • Smiling • Cold • What techniques are used? • How can we recognize and defend against them?