Social Influence Task

An Social Influence Task is an interpersonal communication task that involves manipulating or affecting another's behavior or attitudes.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) be instantiated in a Social Influencing Act.
  • It can (typically) involve a Social Relationship.
  • It can (typically) be performed by an Influencer on an Influence Target Audience.
  • It can range from being a One-to-One Social Influence to being One-to-Many Social Influence to being Many-to-Many Social Influence to being Many-to-One Social Influence.
  • It can lead to changes in Beliefs, Attitudes, or Behaviors.
  • It can involve Persuasion Techniques.
  • It can be affected by an Influencer's social power or social status.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • Peer Pressure, such as friends encouraging each other to try a new activity.
  • One-to-One Social Influence, such as:
    • a personal trainer motivating their client to adopt healthier eating habits.
    • in Commercial Influence were a salesperson convincing a customer to buy a product.
  • One-to-Many Social Influence, such as:
    • Celebrity Influence with a celebrity promoting a product.
    • Political Influence, such as a politician making a speech to sway voters.
  • Many-to-Many Social Influence, such as:
    • an online forum where members share their experiences and opinions about a particular topic, influencing each other's views.
  • Many-to-One Social Influence, such as:
    • a politician taking into account the feedback and opinions of their constituents to shape their policy decisions.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Social Rejection, where an individual or group intentionally avoids another.
  • Solitary Activity, which involve no social interaction or influence.
• See: Persuasion, Conformity, Social Proof, Authority (Psychology), Reciprocity (Psychology), Normative Social Influence, Socialization, Obedience (Human Behavior), Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Compliance (Psychology), Identification (Psychology), Internalization, Social Impact, Social Control.

---

---

References

2020

• (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social_influence Retrieved:2020-6-18.
  • QUOTE: Social influence refers to the way in which individuals change their behavior to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. Typically social influence results from a specific action, command, or request, but people also alter their attitudes and behaviors in response to what they perceive others might do or think. In 1958, Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.

1. Compliance is when people appear to agree with others but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
2. Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
3. Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard described two psychological needs that lead humans to conform to the expectations of others. These include our need to be right (informational social influence) and our need to be liked (normative social influence). Informational influence (or social proof) is an influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality. Informational influence comes into play when people are uncertain, either because stimuli are intrinsically ambiguous or because there is social disagreement. Normative influence is an influence to conform to the positive expectations of others. In terms of Kelman's typology, normative influence leads to public compliance, whereas informational influence leads to private acceptance.

---