Social influence

Social influence

Social influence involves the ability of individuals to change their behaviour for them to fulfil the demands of their immediate environment. In social influence, a person’s attitudes and behaviours are altered depending on the beliefs and actions of others. Social influence is a large field in psychology that manifests in various forms. Some of the types of social influence include compliance, obedience, conformity, leadership, peer pressure, among others.

Compliance is a form of social influence where a person acts in line with what others request them to do. Irrespective of the source of the request, if a person acts per the request, then it is said that the individual has complied with the request (Robert, 1998). When an individual asks a person to vote for a certain candidate during the upcoming election, and they vote for the said candidate, then it will be true to say that they complied with the request.

Another type of social influence is conformity. Conformity involves a change in belief, actions or behaviour to fit in with the majority group. There are two forms of conformity, namely normative and informational. Normative conformity mainly occurs when a person wants to fit in with a group. According to Cialdini (2004), this kind of conformity occurs because a person fears being rejected and isolated by the group. Informational conformity involves accommodating and embracing views of the group and adopting them as an individual. In a situation where one is faced with an ambiguous situation, one may choose a decision which is respected by the majority. This happens because one has the desire to be right in all situations. One may choose to vote for a candidate not because the candidate has a great manifesto, but because the majority prefers the candidate.

In conclusion, social influence has a great impact on people’s behaviours. People change or adopt certain behaviours to be accepted in society. Some people lack adequate information and hence choose to follow what the majority are opting for. Many people believe that the majority is always right, but that is not always the case.

Work cited

Cialdini, Robert B., and Noah J. Goldstein.” Social influence: Compliance and conformity. ”Annu. Rev. Psychol. 55 (2004):591-621.

Cialdini, Robert B., and Melanie R. Trost.” Social influence: Social norms, conformity and compliance.”(1998)