Social impact theory attempts to explain conformity alongside other group behaviours, such as obedience to

authority, majority and minority behaviour, and social influence as a whole. Social impact stems from the
individual’s perception of events to feel influenced even if others do not intend to influence them.

Social impact is when individuals or groups influence the thoughts or actions of others through their behaviour
or presence.

Social impact theory explains the well-known social identity theory, which describes why people behave
differently depending on whether they belong to the majority or the minority. Doing so explains prejudice, why
it occurs, and how to stop it.

Social identity theory, in social psychology, the study of the interplay between personal and social
identities. Social identity theory aims to specify and predict the circumstances under which individuals
think of themselves as individuals or as group members. The theory also considers the consequences of
personal and social identities for individual perceptions and group behaviour.

Social impact theory makes sense of studies such as Milgram’s obedience study. However, social impact theory
is reductionist as it fails to consider the ability of the target to influence the source of influence.
The Milgram experiment is a famous psychological study exploring the willingness of individuals to
follow the orders of authorities when those orders conflict with the individual's own moral judgment.
SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY MODEL
Bibb Latané, an American psychologist, was the first to propose the social impact theory. He suggested three laws
of behaviour in the social impact theory: social force, immediacy, and numbers. Let us look at them in detail.
1. Social force is when people feel pressured to change their behaviour or ideas when they disagree with
the majority. This pressure can manifest itself in various ways, such as direct persuasion by others or
jokes about people who do not fit in.
Several factors can affect the power of social force. Strength is the perceived power of the person exerting
social force. If a friend tries to get you to stay after class to study, you are less likely to do so than if a
teacher does the same. The teacher has more influence and power to affect your life than a friend.
Example:
If your whole group bought new trainers, your friends might joke about your old ones, prompting you to
buy new ones too.

Two categories of strength determine a source’s impact: trans-situational strength and situation-specific
strength.
(1) Trans-situational Strength
The first type of strength exists no matter what the situation is. Trans-situational strength includes:
a. The source’s age
b. Physical appearance or other characteristics
c. Held authority
d. Perceived intelligence

Of course, society and culture may influence whether the source has trans-situational strength.
In some countries, royalty has more strength than any other government figure. In other
countries, the government leaders are the most important. Context will shape the source’s
strength regardless of the situation.

(2) Situation-specific Strength

This type of strength looks closer at the situation at hand and the behavior that the target is being
asked to perform. Let’s say you were reading an article online about COVID in the early days of the
pandemic. You see a quote from a medical doctor telling you to stay inside. You’re more likely going
to listen to that doctor because they have authority in the situation.
 Now let’s say you’re reading an article about fashion. You see a quote from a medical doctor telling
you that the color pink is out, and the color orange is in. Not only are you unlikely to listen to the
doctor’s advice, but you are also likely to be confused as to why this person is making a comment on
something so out of their expertise.

Other factors under the umbrella of situation-specific strength include:

a. Peer pressure
b. Intoxication
c. Political climate

2. Immediacy refers to the proximity of the social force in terms of distance and time.
The numbers indicate that a group exerts more social force than a single person. It will always be harder
to turn down plans with friends when the whole group is acting on you, rather than just a single friend,
because they exert greater social force together.

Example:
You may find it easy to turn down plans a friend tried to arrange with you over text a few days ago, but
it may be harder to say no if your friend is right in front of you.
Three forms of immediacy may impact a target: physical immediacy, temporal immediacy, and social
immediacy.

(1) Physical Immediacy

Immediacy may also be defined as “the quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement
with something.” If a source is physically close to a target, they are more likely to have an impact.

Think about this. If someone sends you an email asking you to answer a survey, you may take them
up on it. (This is when strength really comes into play.) But if someone comes up to you at the grocery
store and asks you to answer a survey, you are more likely to say yes (or at least respond to the person
who is asking.)

(2) Temporal Immediacy

 Time also makes an impact on a target. A target is more likely to act immediately after a source asked
them to do so. If the target waits five, ten, or twenty minutes, the likelihood that they are going to ask
will decrease with time.

Marketers often consider this as they build campaigns or write ads. People are more likely to “buy
now” rather than “buy at some point.” If you give potential customers too much time to weigh their
options, they are less likely to act.

(3) Social Immediacy

The last form of immediacy is social immediacy. This ties in with the strength of a source. If the source
and target are “close,” the source is more likely to make an impact. The target may see themselves in
the source because of the source’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. The idea that we are
more comfortable with people who are “like us” is not new in psychology. But the Social Impact
Theory suggests that are also more likely to be influenced by people who are “like us.”

3. Social Impact Theory:

(1) Psychosocial Law
The psychosocial law states that the more sources of social pressure in a situation (i.e., the more people
come into your space), the more the additional effect plateaus. While there is a big difference between
one person or five people trying to peer pressure you, there is not a big difference between 20 or 30
people trying to pressure you.
(2) Division of impact is the idea that social impact is equally distributed among those it is directed to. If
your friends make fun of you for not wearing the latest trainers, there is less pressure to conform if
you are not the only one they are making fun of.
Example:
When one friend asks you to go to the park, you tell them you don’t feel like going but end up going
because many of your friends ask you to come along.

Social Impact Theory: French and Raven (1959)

French and Raven found that, as claimed by Latané, power affects people’s actions, thoughts, and feelings. They
divided this idea of power into five different categories. These are:

 Legitimate power is the perceived power that comes from a person’s seniority and the natural authority
that comes with their role.
 Reward power derives from a person’s ability to reward good behaviour and performance.
 Expert power arises from the perception that someone has a high knowledge, skill, or experience on the
subject in question.
 Referential power results from a person’s social standing and ability to be liked or even idolised by
others.
 Coercive power is a person’s ability to subdue others through coercion or force.

COMPUTATION
The idea of a mathematical formula to calculate Social Impact is very useful. Latané believes that, if you know the
number (N) of people involved and the immediacy (I) of the order and the strength (S) of the authority figure,
you can calculate exactly how likely someone is to obey (i) using the formula i = f (SIN).

In Social Impact Theory, “i” is the impact. It’s a function of three variables: strength (s,) immediacy (i,) and the
number of sources (n.) If any of these are significantly high or low, it will have a serious effect on the impact on
the target.