What is Social Influence?

Social influence refers to the process by which people are exposed to persuasive communication and, as a result, develop and modify their attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and behaviors. Social influence is more likely when individuals rely on others to form their opinions rather than thinking independently. When social influence occurs, people modify their attitudes and behavior to gain approval from those they look up to or identify with in some way. This form of power can either be direct or indirect.

Social Influence Meaning

Social influence refers to the process by which individuals, groups, or institutions affect the thoughts, behaviors, or attitudes of others within a social context. It involves the exertion of pressure, persuasion, or conformity, shaping how people perceive, think, or act based on the influence of their social environment.

Factors Influencing Social Influence

Social influence is the behavior change that one person causes in another, intentionally or unintentionally, due to how the changed person perceives themselves the influencer, other people, and objects in their environment. Persuasion can be used to gain compliance from others or to motivate them to change their behaviors or attitudes. The following are some of the critical factors influencing social influence:

• Reciprocity: People tend to comply with requests from those who have recently met their demands. People also feel obligated to reciprocate favors if they think they owe someone something. Reciprocity is a substantial factor in decision-making because it activates guilt feelings when someone does not reciprocate when expected. It also leads to a cycle of reciprocal altruism in which people keep doing favors for each other indefinitely. 
• Dominance: Dominant individuals may persuade less by using logic than by using coercive power and making threats. 
• Physical attractiveness: Some research shows that physically attractive individuals are more persuasive than others, even if they don’t seem more intelligent or more competent than the less attractive person. Attractive people are likelier to be believed, rewarded and liked than unattractive people. Other studies show that men find women who wear red clothing more attractive and sexually desirable, while women find men wearing red shirts more attractive. Research suggests that this might be due to unconscious associations between the color red and love or romance.
• Scarcity: When we perceive an item as scarce, we usually want it more than when we perceive it as plentiful.

Three Areas of Social Influence

• Conformity: When we conform, we go along with the norms and expectations of a group or situation. We might do this because we want to fit in or believe it’s the right thing to do. 
• Compliance: Compliance is agreeing to do something requested by someone else. When we comply with someone, we do what they ask us to do. This is usually because we want to avoid punishment or because we want to receive a reward. For example, we might comply with a request to do something because we don’t want to get in trouble or want a friend to like us.
• Obedience: Obedience is an act done in response to an order given by someone who has authority over us, such as a police officer. The person who provides the order usually uses some form of power to convince us that what they are asking us to do is necessary.

Social Influence and Persuasion: Social influence refers to people’s tendency to conform to their peers’ behaviors and attitudes. It involves intentional and unintentional efforts to change another person’s attitudes, or behavior. In contrast, persuasion refers to the art of getting people to act per your desires and/or preferences. Both concepts are often discussed as being facets of influence and are heavily reliant on one another in terms of their effectiveness. However, they can be applied independently as well.

In this article, we will explore the meaning, types, factors, and effects of Social Influence and Persuasion.