Chapter 8

Social Influence

This is one of the relevant topics in social psychology as there are number of influences in

social set up that determine the behaviour of an individual. The topics in this chapter range

from what is social influence, to the three main terms in social influence namely conformity,

compliance and obedience. The chapter also discusses on social norms.

What is Social Influence?

Principles of interpersonal influence

1. Scarcity

2. Liking/friendship

3. Commitment/consistence

4. Reciprocity

5. Social validation.

Social impact theory

Conformity

Influences on conformity

 Commitment to the group

 Group size

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  Group unanimity

 The desire for individuation

Normative Social Influence and Informational Social

Influence

 Normative social influence

 Informational social influence

Minority Influence

Compliance

Bases of social power

1. Reward

2. Coercion

3. Expertise

4. Information

5. Referent power

6. Legitimate authority

 Techniques of compliance

 Ingratiation

 Foot in the door technique

 Door-in-the-face technique

 That’s not all (TNA) technique

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  Other techniques of compliance

Obedience

Social Influence and Social Reality

Social Norms

Activities/Assignments

1. An exercise can be carried out where students identify what influences their behaviour
in day-to-day life.

2. The various definitions of social influence can be discussed to highlight the key points
covered in the definitions.

3. Various experiments carried out under social influence can be used as case studies
and discussed.

4. Encourage the students to come up with examples for conformity, compliance and
obedience.

5. Ask the students to submit an assignment on latest research on social influence.

Resources

 https://www.slideshare.net/Savipra/social-psychology-social-influence

 http://study.com/academy/lesson/social-influence-in-psychology-theories-

definition-examples.html

 https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html

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 Chacoma, A., & Zanette, D. H. (2015). Opinion formation by social influence: From

experiments to modeling. PLoS One v.10(10). Online publication. doi:

10.1371/journal.pone.0140406