Influence of Others

A small world
We buy products from every place in the world, at home.
We travel abroad to work.
We work in organizations that either have headquarters in
another country or in organizations that are connected to
other countries for internal or external reasons.
Motivated by concerns regarding the impact of cultural
diversity on group interaction results in a desire to find out
the similarity of group perception and the influence of
group performance.
A Small World (cont’d)
There are many cultures: professional corporate, educational,
national, religious, spiritual, generational, family and gender.
All of these cultures influence us…we see the world through
our cultural lenses.
Sometimes, one or more cultures may take dominance over
another, depending on the situation.
Corporate culture dominates over national culture.
National culture dominates over religious culture.
 Religious culture dominates over sexual orientation.
Generational culture dominates over gender culture.
How does culture influence us?
A number of cultural aspects influence the way we
interact with other people as such:
How we conduct work
Our behavior and style
Our use of language
How we solve challenges, problems, and conflicts
How we negotiate
How we go about creating relationships…etc.
How does culture influence us? (cont’)
All of the above is guided by people’s values.
Values and beliefs are learnt in national culture, and they
may be unconscious.
You may not be aware of your own values and beliefs
until you are confronted by someone who holds different
values and beliefs.
How does culture influence us? (cont’)
We tend to judge other’s behavior based on our own cultural
norms, “the lens” we see through.
This can cause conflicts to happen as there will be
misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Different values lead to different behavior.
Which community or group, we identify with differs greatly:
Example: the French identity with country and family,
whereas the Japanese identity with the corporation, and the
Irish identity with the Roman Catholic Church.
At this point the idea of social influence arises.
Social influence
Social influence is the change in behavior that one person
causes in another.
This change can be happen intentionally or
unintentionally.
It occurs as a result of the way the changed person
perceives himself in relationship to the influencer, other
people and society in general.

Three Forms of Social Influence
1. Conformity (In accordance with):
the tendency to behave in an expected way.
It involves a change in a person's attitudes or behavior in
response to pressure from others.
2. Compliance (Falling in Line):
the act of behaving in accordance to a request or demand.
3. Obedience(Submission): giving into the commands of
an authority.
Origin of Influence
The three forms of influence vary in the degree of
pressure exerted on an individual.
In all three cases, the influence may originate from a
person, a group or an institution.
In all instances, the behavior in question may be:
Constructive (helping oneself or helping others)
or
Destructive (hurting oneself or others), or neutral.
Social Influence Varies
Social influence varies according to the degree of
pressure exerted on the individual.
People may conform or maintain their independence
from others.
They may comply with direct requests or react with
assertiveness or courage.
They may obey the commands of authority or oppose
powerful others in an act of defiance.
Social Influence Varies (cont’d)
 Yielding to Influence: Obedience, Compliance and Conformity
or
 Resisting Influence: Independence, Assertiveness and Defiance
(disobedience)
People have a great impact on each other.
The term social influence refers to the ways in which people
are affected by real and imagined pressures from others.
Sometimes the social influences that move us can be
potentially threatening to our health.

Why do people copy each other?
1. Such imitation serves an important social function,
that being alike in pace, posture, mannerisms, facial
expressions, tone of voice, accents, speech patterns,
and other behaviors enable people to interact more
smoothly with one another.

2. People copy others more when they are motivated

to affiliate than when they are not.
Conformity
Conformity is the tendency to change our
perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are
consistent with group norms.
some degree of conformity is required if individuals
are to form communities and coexist peacefully.
At other times, conformity can have harmful
consequences, as when people smoke or drink
because others are doing the same.
Conformity (cont’d)
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors to group norms.
Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of
individuals, that guide their interactions with others.
Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when
an individual is alone.
Why do people conform?
People conform for two different reasons:
1. Informational influences:
Influence that produces conformity when a person
believes others are correct in their judgment.
People conform because they want to be correct in
their judgments and they assume that when others
agree on something, they must be right.
Conformity (cont’d)
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a
change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.
...
Group pressure may take different forms, for example
bullying, persuasion, teasing, criticism, etc. Conformity is
also known as majority influence (or group pressure).
Conformity refers to a change in an individual's behavior
made in response to a real or imagined external influence.
Why do People conform? (cont’d)
2. Normative influences:
Influence that produces conformity when a person feels
the negative social consequences of appearing
unexpected.
People conform because they don’t wish to seem
different.
Research shows that individuals who stray from a group’s
norm are often disliked, rejected, and ridiculed.
Thus, Wanting to be accepted and liked makes people
conform.
Types of Conformity
1. Private conformity: called true acceptance or
conversion, describes instances in which others cause
us change not only our behavior but our minds as
well.
To conform at this level is to be truly persuaded that
others are correct.
2. Public conformity: called compliance, refers to a
superficial change in behavior, people often respond
to normative pressures by pretending to agree even
when privately they do not.
Cultures and Conformity
Societies desire and work to achieve cultural conformity
within their population as a means of promoting harmony,
diminishing social unrest, eliciting agreement and
cooperation and ensuring the reproduction of cultural
norms and values in the future.
Understanding the role that culture and conformity play in
social life is vital background for all those interested in the
sociology of culture and social influence.
(Culture and Conformity (cont’d)
Culture is the mechanism through which societies
promote and achieve conformity of behavior, dress,
language, expectations, and laws.
Culture includes the collection of customs, attitudes,
values and beliefs that characterizes one group of people
and distinguishes them from other groups. Culture is
passed from one generation to succeeding generations
through immaterial culture, such as values, norms,
language, rituals, and symbols, and material culture, such
as objects, art, and institutions.
Conformity and the Socialization Process
The socialization process creates conformity by
conveying society's values, norms and laws to the
individual.
The socialization process occurs in two interconnected
ways: family socialization and cultural socialization.
In some instances, as in the case of immigrant families,
individuals can be socialized partially or completely into
two or more cultures.
Individuals socialized into two cultures are considered to
be bicultural.
Conformity and Socialization (cont’d)
Cultural socialization refers to the process of transmitting
cultural values and norms to one's children.
It is the mechanism that teaches and produces cultural
conformity.
Sources of socialization include family, peers, school,
work, community, media, legal system, and cultural belief
system.
Families and the Socialization Process
Families, both primary and extended, transmit individual
and group values to the next generation of adults.
The nuclear family, with its gender-based social roles,
functions to support the economy and society and the
marriage becomes the source of feminine and masculine
role socialization.
The family socialization process does not stop after
childhood. For instance, marriage and parenting socialize
adults through expectations, impulse control and meaning
making.
Factors for conformity
1. Group size: the power in numbers. As the number of
people in a majority
increases, their impact does too.
2. Awareness of the Norms:
 Social norms give rise to conformity only when we know and
focus on those norms. We are influenced not by social norms
only, but by our perceptions of the norms.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
3. Gender Differences:
Women conform more and men conform less in public
situations. That is, men behave with independence and
autonomy, and women play a more gentle and
submissive role.
 4. Age Differences.
Age differences in conformity are found among adults.
Older men and women prefer to spend time with an inner
circle of family and close friends- and care less about
what others around them think.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
5. Minority Influence:
Sometimes, minorities resist pressures to conform
and are able to influence majorities.
However, majority influence is greater on direct and
public measures of conformity, but minorities show
their impact in indirect or private measures of
conformity.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
6. Cultural Influence:
Each culture has its own ideology, music, fashions,
foods, laws, customs and manners of expression.
In the affairs of day to day living, each culture
operates by its own rules of conduct.
Just as cultures differ in their social norms, they also
differ in the extent to which people are expected to
adhere to those norms.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
Different cultures facilitate and promote different levels
of conformity.
For instance, collectivist cultures, such as those found in
Asian, Latin American, and African nations, promote and
value high levels of conformity.
In contrast, individualistic cultures, such as those found in
the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, tend to
value individuality and allow some degree of cultural
transgression and rebellion.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
In Collectivist societies, for example, in Asia and
Africa, societies are homogenous or “tight” (where
members share the same language, religion, and social
customs).
They tend to be rigid and intolerant of those who
divert away from norms.
In Individualistic societies, characterized by diversity,
there is a tendency to be more permissive of dissent—
thus allowing for individual expression.
Factors for Conformity (cont’d)
Groups most likely to conform include adolescents,
women, people with low self-esteem and collectivist
cultures.
Factors that effect conformity include gender, group
cohesion, reinforcement, social approval, cultural
norms and values and psychological disposition