Social Psychology
Social Influence
-occurs when one person (the source) engages in some
behavior (such as persuading, threatening or promising, or
issuing orders) that causes another person (the target) to
behave differently from how he or she would otherwise
behave.
Various outcomes can result when social influence is attempted:
•Attitude Change
•Compliance
Social Psychology
Forms of Social Influence
Influence attempts can be either open or covertly
manipulative:
• Open Influence, the attempt is readily apparent to the
target.
•Manipulative Influence, the attempt is hidden from the
target.
There are many forms of open influence.
(1)The use of persuasive communication to change the target’s
attitudes or beliefs
(2)The use of threats or promises to gain compliance
(3)The use of orders based on legitimate authority to gain
compliance.
Social Psychology
Attitude Change via Persuasion
•Persuasion, may be defined as changing the beliefs,
attitudes, or behaviors of a target through the use of
information or argument.
•Persuasion is widespread in social interaction and
assumes many different forms.
Social Psychology
Communication-Persuasion
Paradigm
SOURCE
- EXPERTISE
-TRUSTWORTHINESS
-ATTRACTIVENESS
MESSAGES
-DISCREPANCY
-FEAR APPEAL
- 1-SIDED OR 2 SIDED
TARGET
-INTELLIGENCE
-INVOLVEMENT
-FOREWARNED
EFFECT
- CHANGE ATTITUDE
- REJECT MESSAGE
- COUNTERARGUE
- SUSPEND JUDGMENT
- DEROGATE RESOURCE
Social Psychology
The Source
The identity of the source provides the target with information
above and beyond the content of the message itself.
COMMUNICATOR CREDIBILITY
Denotes the extent to which the communicator’s credibility is
“in the eye of the beholder” – a given resource may be credible for
some audience but not for others.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE EXTENT TO WHICH A SOURCE IS CREDIBLE:
•Expertise
•Trustworthiness
•Attractiveness and likability
Social Psychology
EFFECT OF MULTIPLE SOURCES.
factors other than the source’s expertise and
trustworthiness can affect whether a message is persuasive.
SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY
-The general framework applicable to both persuasion and
obedience, states that the impact of an influence attempt is a direct
function of strength (social status or power), immediacy (physical or
psychological distance), and number of influencing sources.
-predicts that a message will be more persuasive when a
target receives it from multiple sources
Social Psychology
The Message
Persuasive communications differ dramatically in their
content.
Messages differ in their:
•detail and complexity (simple versus complex
arguments),
•their strength of presentation (strong versus weak
arguments),
•and their balance of presentation (one sided or two
sided).
Social Psychology
MESSAGE DISCREPANCYA discrepant message is one advocating a position that
is different from what the target believes. Discrepancy is a
matter of degree; some messages are highly discrepant, others
less so.
“The greater the levels of discrepancy, the greater change in
attitude.”
There is an important interaction between message
discrepancy and source credibility. Sources with high credibility
produces maximum attitude change at higher levels of
discrepancy than do sources with low credibility.
Highly discrepant messages from low-credibility sources
are ineffective, because the target will quickly derogate the
source.
Social Psychology
FEAR AROUSALMost messages intended to persuade incorporate
either RATIONAL APPEALS or EMOTIONAL APPEALS.
Perhaps the most common emotional appeal are
those involving FEAR.
FEAR-AROUSING COMMUNICATION
Fear-arousing messages are types of messages
that direct the target to some negative or undesired
outcome that is likely to occur unless the target takes
certain actions advocated by the source.
Social Psychology
ONE-SIDED VERSUS TWO-SIDED MESSAGES
One-sided messages emphasize only those facts that
explicitly support the position the position advocated by the
source.
Two-sided messages presents not only the position
advocated by the source but also opposing viewpoints.
Social Psychology
The Target
Involvement with the issue. One important attribute of targets is the extent
of their involvement with a particular issue.
Involvement with the issue fundamentally
affects the way the target processes a message. When
highly involved, a target will want to scrutinize the
message closely and think carefully about its content.
In contrast, the target who is uninvolved will have less
motivation to think carefully about the message.
Social Psychology
NEED FOR COGNITION
Beyond involvement with the issue, there are some
personality traits that affect the persuasion process. In
particular, how much an individual enjoys puzzling through
problems and thinking about issues plays an important role
in persuasion attempts. Those who do enjoy these thinking
tasks are said to have high need for cognition.
DISTRACTORS
Anything that prevents the target from giving full
attention to the argument will affect the persuasion attempt.
Social Psychology
Compliance with Threats and
Promises
Influence based on promises and threats differ
from persuasion attempts in a fundamental way. When
using persuasion, the source tries to change the way a
target views the situation.
Social Psychology
Effectiveness of Threats and Promises
Threat is a communication from one person (the source)
to another (the target) that takes the general form,
“If you don’t do X (which I want), then I will do Y (which you don’t
want)”
For a threat to be effective the target must want to avoid the
sanction.
Promise is similar to a threat, except that it involves
contingent rewards, not punishment. A person using a promise
says,
“If you do X (which I want), then I will do Y (which you want)”
Social Psychology
Magnitude of Threats and Promises
In promises, the greater the magnitude of the reward offered
by a source, the greater the probability of compliance by the
target.
A similar principle holds for threats. Compliance with threats
varies directly with the magnitude of the punishment involved.
Credibility of Threats and Promises
To judge the credibility of a threat, targets gauge the cost to the
source of carrying out the threat. Threats that cost a lot to carry
out are less credible than those costing less. Targets also
estimate the credibility of a threat from the social identity of the
source.
Social Psychology
The SEV Model
A threat’s subjective expected value (SEV) is a measure
of the pressure that the target feels from the threat.
The level of SEV depends on several factors:
• SEV increases as the threat’s credibility increases and
as ,magnitude of punishments threatened increases.
•When both credibility and punishment magnitude are
high.
•When both credibility and punishment magnitude are low.
•When one is high and the other is low.
Social Psychology
Obedience to Authority
AUTHORITY refers to the capacity of one member
to issue orders to others – that is, to direct or regulate the
behavior of other members by invoking rights that are
vested in his or her role.
Social Psychology
The hoax subject is actually a confederate of the
experimenter, while the real subject is accompanied by an
actor playing as the experimenter/authority.
Whenever a participant (teacher) expressed concern or
dismay about the procedure, the experimenter (actor)
urged him to persist by telling him:
Social Psychology
RESULTS:
About two-thirds of participants (teachers) ended up
delivering the maximum 450 volt shock.
All the volunteers continued to at least 300 volts.
Despite of the tortured reaction of the learner
(confederate),
most participants followed the experimenter’s orders.
Social Psychology
Factors Affecting Obedience to Authority
Milgram’s results show that obedience was highest
when the person giving the orders was nearby and was
perceived as an authority figure, especially if they were
from a prestigious institution.
Other factors:
overt display of symbols
Person in authority can back up his or her demands with
punishment
Direct surveillance
Physical proximity
Social Psychology
Resisting Influence and Persuasion
InoculationMcGuire (1964) proposed that a target can be
inoculated against persuasion. He specified attitude
inoculation treatments that would enable target t defend
their beliefs against persuasion attempts.
- one such treatment is called a refutational
defense, is analogous to medical inoculation, in which a
patient receives a small dose of a pathogen so that he or
she can develop anti-bodies.
Social Psychology
Forewarning
a second aid to resisting influence is simply
warning people that they are about to be exposed to a
persuasion attempt.
-the more advance notice people have that the
persuasion attempt is coming, the more resistant they are
to the persuasion attempt.
Social Psychology
Reactance
Occurs when the target of the persuasion attempt
begins to feel that their independence and freedom are
being threatened.
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