Chapter 1. Social Influence

Short Description

Our tendency to form groups is part of the story of human evolution. Survival and reproduction require that we interact with others to satisfy our basic physiological and safety needs.

Long Description

When these needs are met, our groups also provide us with a sense of belonging and relatedness. From the culture in which we live to the sports team on which we play, we are part of many kinds of groups, each with different qualities and functions. When our emotions, opinions, and behaviors are affected by others in these groups, we are experiencing social influence.

We can become successful in influencing others by understanding what motivates human behavior. Our desires for pleasure, for fitting in, and for making sense of the world are key mechanisms of social influence. This program outlines the three motives of social influence (hedonic motive, normative influence, and informational influence) and introduces students to two famous experiments on conformity and obedience. The ways in which social influence is used in business and to get others to behave badly is also explored.

Hedonistic motivations are what allow humans to learn, says Daniel Gilbert. He argues that behavior, in humans and animals alike, is motivated by a desire for pleasure over pain. But, we are also motivated by our desire for approval and acceptance from others and, therefore, seek out groups for information that will support our growth and survival. Conformity occurs when we match our behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs with those of our social group in order to avoid social rejection. This type of influence can be unconsciously created or may come in the form of social pressure. Similarly, cues for behavior may also come from the demands of authority. Stanley Milgram's classic obedience experiments demonstrated how people will "do what they were told" even if it means pushing the boundaries of what is considered appropriate.

The social conformity studies led by Solomon Asch offered insight into how, why, and when people conform and the effects of social pressure on behavior. As Jeff Greenberg explains, Asch set up a situation where subjects would give their answers after the confederates of the study gave their wrong answers. Over a third of the time, the subjects would also choose the wrong answer.

Further in the program, Scott Plous describes the types of sales techniques commonly used by salespeople that operate on the principles of social influence. The idea behind each of these, says Gilbert, is that a message is communicated to the potential buyer that since others are doing it, it must be the right thing to do. One negative aspect of being in a group is that we can become deindividuated, lose our sense of selves, and go on to commit acts that social norms would typically restrain us from doing.

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