Discover Your Knowledge of Social Influence with this Engaging Quiz!

Social Influence: Alteration of Attitudes and Behaviors Based on Outside Influences

• Social influence is the way individuals change their behavior to conform to the demands of a social environment.
• Social influence takes many forms such as conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing.
• Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence: compliance, identification, and internalization.
• Compliance is the act of responding favorably to a request offered by others.
• Identification is the changing of attitudes or behaviors due to the influence of someone who is admired.
• Internalization is the process of acceptance of a set of norms established by people or groups that are influential to the individual.
• Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in behavior, belief, or thinking to align with those of others or with normative standards.
• Minority influence takes place when a majority is influenced to accept the beliefs or behaviors of a minority.
• Obedience is a form of social influence that derives from an authority figure, based on order or command.
• Propaganda is information that is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda.
• Hard power is the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies.
• Social impact theory asserts that there are three factors that increase a person's likelihood to respond to social influence: strength, immediacy, and number.