SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Social influence refers to the idea that the presence and actions of others can control our perceptions, attitudes, and actions.

Cultural Influence

The culture in which we are immersed–all the tangible products of our society as well as its shared beliefs and values–teaches us what to value and how to behave. Culture dictates differences in beliefs, diet, dress, and personal space. In the course of adapting our behavior to that of others, we learn the norms of our culture. We accept cultural truisms without questioning their validity.

Cultural Assimilators

Cultures may seem strange to us if their norms are different from ours. Through techniques like the cultural assimilator, however, we can learn to understand and accept the perspective of people from different cultures.

Conformity

Besides cultural norms, the behavioral rules shared by an entire society, there are norms that pertain to smaller groups within the society, and these, too, shape our behavior. Voluntary yielding of one's own preferences or beliefs to the norms of a larger group is called conformity. Research by Solomon Asch and others has shown that characteristics of the situation and characteristics of the individual influence the likelihood of conformity.

Compliance

Compliance is a change in behavior in response to an explicit request from another person or group. Some techniques used to get others to comply are the foot-in-the-door effect, the lowball procedure, and the door-in-the-face effect.

Obedience

Classic work by Stanley Milgram showed that many participants were willing to obey orders to administer harmful shocks to other people. This obedience, or compliance to a command, was more in evidence when the authority figure was physically close and apparently legitimate, and when the victim was distant and thus easier to punish. According to Milgram, obedience is brought on by the constraints of the situation, but another interpretation holds that participants fail to perceive the situation correctly.