There are three kinds of social influences persuasion, obedience, and conformity. Persuasion is the use of social influence that persuades people to change their behaviors and attitudes. Obedience is the result of a change in behavior when a direct command is given by a high authority. Conformity is when one’s behavior is changed due to indirect social pressures.
Persuasion is made up of four main factors: source, message, channel, audience. Source factors play a big role in sending out a persuasive message depending on what or who the source is, it determine whether or not your persuasive message will work in changing the attitudes and behaviors of it’s intended audience. Factors that increase the chance of your message being effective are: expertise, attractiveness, and trustworthiness.
If the person was none of the above mostly likely you wouldn’t even remember what he said a minute later because he didn’t make a lasting impression and therefore did not influence you to change your attitude or behavior. (Davis & Palladino, 2007 pg. 670) A perfect example would be back in 1996 when Oprah made the statement that she was no longer going to eat meat because cattle were eating cattle and there was an increased chance that mad-cow disease could come to the US.
Because Oprah made this statement people listened. She has been well known for over 20 years she has become a part of people’s homes and everyday lives. She may have not been and expert in this case but she had the experts to back her up. This made people listen. Now if you or I were to make a statement like that only a few friends and family would listen but it wouldn’t reach a national level.
Back in the 1960’s Stanley Milgram conducted a series of studies in social psychology. In New Haven, Connecticut more than 800 people participated in these experiments. During these studies teachers were instructed read a list of pairs of words then give the first word to the learner and ask the learner for the second word, but they had to choose the correct word out of four words. When and incorrect answer was given the teacher gave and electric shock to the learner. As the study went on and more incorrect answers were given the intensity of the shocks were increased.
The teachers continued to follow instructions but shortly after the learners began to protest. They knew that what they were doing was ethically wrong and wanted to stop but because of their obedience they continued even though they faced conflict within themselves. (Davis & Palladino, 2007 pg. 675) It is believed that one can be too obedient there are a few factors that affect how obedient one will be; proximity of the victim, proximity to the authority, and assumption of responsibility.
The closer one is to the victim the less obedient they will be and will not harm the victim, where as the closer one is to the authority figure the more obedient they will be and carry out their commands. Responsibility plays a role in obedience because the less responsible one feels for their actions the more likely they are to be obedient and vice verse. (Davis & Palladino, 2007 pg. 676)
When a group is given a question and you are the next to last one to answer and everyone before you answered incorrectly and you were aware of this you may feel the need to also answer incorrectly because of conformity. Conformity is when you change your action or behavior because of indirect social pressures. There have been many studies to research conformity many of supported the risky-shift phenomenon which states that groups make riskier decisions compared to individuals. Another phenomenon is group polarization where decision making within a group enhances opinions of the group members. (Davis & Palladino, 2007 pg. 677)
Persuasion plays a big role on the internet. When you go to a store there are sales people to throw you a sales pitch for you to buy there item the internet doesn’t have that. Looks are everything when it comes to this virtual world. On a daily basis I use Yahoo as my search engine, my website host, and my email account. As soon as I type in Yahoo.com the first thing I always notice is the advertisement on the right hand side about a quarter of the way down. Instead of going to Yahoo for what I originally went there for whether it be to check my mail or update my website a majority of the time I click on that advertisement.
The colors, flashy graphics, the sale or product it’s advertising catch my attention and since it’s from Yahoo I know it has to be good. Yahoo has been around for years so they know what they are doing, it is a trustworthy site, and has a clean user friendly appearance. Those are three key factors of persuasion. Other sites that I visit on a normal basis are: Ask.com, Google.com, CNet.com, Excite.com, Downloads.com, MSN.com, Go.com, Amazon.com, Search.com, eBay.com, About.com, MySpace.com, Half.com, PayPal.com. Yahoo is my main site because I have my email account and web hosting with them.
All of those sites except Ask.com have some type of advertisement whether it be self promoting or for something out side of their site there was some type of persuasion going on trying to get you to buy or sign up for something. The one I find most annoying and try to use on a last resort basis is Search.com at first when type in Search.com it is a very plain and simple layout no advertisements but as soon as you type in what you are searching for there is an ad on the page and a pop-up appears.
When I visit that site I feel like I’m being bombarded, pressured almost to see what it’s all about because it already opened another window for you. All of the above listed sites have the three factors that increase the chance of their message getting across they’ve all been around for years that create trust, for the most part they all have user friendly appearance so that give them their attractiveness, and in the world of the internet if you don’t know what you are doing you usually don’t last very long and all these sites have been around for quite some time so there is your expertise.
