What is social influence in psychology? Dr. David Matsumoto, Director of Humintell, led a free webinar on The Basics of Social Influence where he provided participants with an introduction to evidenced-based topics of social influence.
These social influence examples included topics of:
- Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
- Cooperation
- Emotion Contagion
- Social Loafing and Social Striving
- Leadership
- Persuasion and Influence
Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
In social science and social psychology, these topics (conformity, compliance and obedience) are generally considered together within the larger rubric of social influence.
They are all important constructs in any social system as ways of reinforcing behaviors.
Some of these words may have a negative connotation, but in reality they are important concepts for any group or society as ways of reinforcing behaviors.
Definitions of conformity, compliance and obedience can be found in the graphic to the left.
In this area of psychology there are a few studies that form the backbone of what we know about these three topics. Let’s explore them!
Solomon Acsh Conformity Experiments
Psychologist Solomon Acsh’s contribution to psychology is undeniable.
Ach conducted a very well-known set of experiments that are some of the first and classic studies on conformity and compliance.
In one of Acsh’s conformity studies, a participant went into a room with seven confederates who were part of the experimental team.
The participants were given lines (see example). You can see there is a target line and other lines on the right hand side.
Every person in the room was asked which line on the right hand side matches the target line on the left. There was an obvious correct and incorrect answer.
Asch’s conformity experiment results showed that when the participant is the last to answer and everyone before them has given the incorrect answer, it increases the likelihood that the participant will also give the incorrect answer.
On average 32% conformed to the incorrect answer. In over 12 trials, 75% conformed at least once.
Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments
Like the Acsh experiments, any people have heard about the obedience studies led by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram.
In one of the obedience studies conducted by Milgram, (that could not be conducted today due to ethical reasons), he recruited 40 men to come to a laboratory with equipment that was labeled with shock danger warnings.
The participant was told that they are the teacher who is going to deliver a shock to a student in a neighboring room. They couldn’t see the student (and who was not actually being shocked contrary to what the participant is told).
Every time the student answered a question wrong, the participant was instructed to deliver a shock to them of increasing intensity. The student in the other room banged on the wall, made other sounds, then eventually went silent.
The participants asked the experimenter if they should continue (to which they are told yes). In the study with 40 men, 26 delivered the maximum shock and 14 stopped before reaching the highest levels.
Like the Acsh conformity study, the Milgram obedience study demonstrates an amazing amount of conformity and obedience.
Over the years, these findings have been replicated many times all around the world in various countries suggesting that conformity, compliance and obedience may be universal human phenomenons.
Cooperation
Cooperation refers to people’s ability to work together towards common goals. Cooperation is necessary in every society and based on unique cognitive abilities, especially a concept called shared intentionality theory.
What is shared intentionality? Dr. Matsumoto believes that shared intentionality is at the root of human cultures and that the main purpose and function of human communication including language and non-verbal behavior is to share intentions.
Cooperation is a universal phenomenon that is part of the basis of social influence. It has been studied extensively in social psychology.
However, there is some research that suggest there are cultural and individual differences in cooperation.
Some research suggests that the rates of cooperation tends to be higher in collectivistic societies (e.g. East Asia, SE Asia, Latin/South America) compared to individualistic societies (e.g. USA, Canada).
Additional research suggests that individual differences in cooperation exist due to levels of trustworthiness (high trusters vs low trusters).
Research on cooperation has also been conducted regarding the sanctioning systems across various cultures as well as inter and intra-cultural environments.
Emotion Contagion
The concept of emotion contagion started with researcher Elaine Hatfield and others in 1993.
What is emotion contagion?
Emotion contagion refers to a phenomenon when someone’s emotions lead to or produce similar emotions in others.
What Hatfield and colleagues have demonstrated is when there’s a group of people, one person or several people’s emotions can affect the emotions of the rest of the people.
Why does emotion contagion occur?
The truth is that science has not gotten to the point where we know exactly why emotion contagion occurs.
However, there’s interesting literature within the emotion contagion literature that pertain to what’s called mirror neurons.
What are mirror neurons?
Mirror neurons are essentially special types of brain cells that are triggered when viewing the actions of other individuals.
For example, mirror neurons are activated when a person sees another person fall and hurt themselves. These neurons trigger the part of our own brain that would be activated if we had fallen.
Facial feedback is another concept that suggests that when we have an expression on our face our brains tell us we’re having that emotion and thus turns our emotional system on inside of us.
This may be the reason why some research suggests that smiling can improve your mood.
Social Loafing vs Social Striving
When people are in a group and they have a task to do, sometimes individual productivity and motivation is reduced. This concept is called social loafing.
Social loafing refers to the tendency for people to become freeriders- members of a group who are not producing as much as others.
On the other hand, there’s the opposite effect called social striving. A social striving example is when working in a group enhances individual performance rather than diminish it. Ultimately the product of the group is greater than the sum of the individual members.
One factor that has been shown to influence whether members of a group either loaf or strive is leadership.
Research has put issues faced by leaders into two buckets: 1) task performance and 2) group maintenance.
There has been extensive studies about the characteristics of leaders that are universally endorsed all around the world and the most influential set of researchers are known as the GLOBE project.
The GLOBE research project on leadership worldwide has produced a number of amazing findings that are universally endorsed as good leaders are:
- Charisma: ability to connect and persuade others
- Team Orientation: focus on the team as a whole
- Empathy: the degree to which leaders are perceived as being empathetic
Persuasion and Influence
Without a doubt, the most influential psychologist in the area of persuasion and influence is Robert Cialdini.
Cialdini’s principles of persuasion include:
- Reciprocity
- Consistency
- Social Proof (related to conformity)
- Liking (related to cooperation)
- Authority (related to obedience)
- Scarcity
- Unity
Cialdini has done an amazing amount of research himself but has also done a great job of integrating the knowledge in the field to come up with these various principles of persuasion and influence.
One of the points that Cialdini makes which Dr. Matsumoto finds absolutely true is that these principles exist because societies and cultures and all groups need them.
These principles work because they work to mobilize emotion, either through what’s known as cognitive dissonance or anxiety or something that motivates people to alleviate their emotion.
Other Social Influence Constructs
There are actually many other social influence constructs that have been demonstrated and documented in science including:
- Mere Exposure Effect
- Trust and Trustworthiness
- Rapport
Want to Learn More?
Our Tactical Social Influence Workshop, explores how to use various psychological techniques to discern points of views and detect nonverbal emotions, behaviors, and reactions in order to advocate, influence, and convince others.