Informational social influence: what it is and how it affects our thinking

Informative social influence occurs when the subject abandons his opinion and accepts that of the group, since believing that it is more accurate, an internal change occurs. This process is known as conversion, where we observe a conformance to the private type group.

Social influence happens more than we think or would like it to happen, because as social beings we are affected by the judgments expressed by our environment. Different investigations have been carried out that have verified such influence, observing different ways of acting and different factors that affect how the group influences.

In this article We will see what is meant by informative social influence, who exerts social influence, what is conformity and what variables influence it, and what is the difference between the two social influences.

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What is informational social influence?

Informative influence, also called social proof or social demonstration, is a type of conformity that occurs before the group

. In this case we perceive a private conformity, since the change of opinion of the subject is internal; the individual accepts the judgment of the group as more valid than his own. This process is known as conversion.

On the other hand, we understand by social influence the change that occurs in the opinions, judgments, ideas or attitudes of a person when exposed to the judgments, attitudes or opinions of other subjects. In other words, it is the modification of our beliefs, our way of thinking or behaviors in the face of the effect that society produces on us.

Although we human beings do not like to believe that our behavior or way of acting and thinking is influenced by society, this event happens constantly in our daily lives. day, when we buy a product, request a service or simply watch television, we are continually receiving opinions from others that to a greater or lesser degree they influence. We must not forget that we are social beings; we feel the need to relate to other individuals of our species, being inevitable that they influence us.

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Who exercises social influence?

When we think of social influence, the first idea that comes to mind is linked to the effect produced by a larger group, that is, the majority, on an individual or smaller group, the minority. But this influence can be bidirectional, since although it seems more difficult, using the necessary mode and components, a smaller group of people can influence the majority group.

Thus, depending on the size of the group exerting the influence we will consider that conformity occurs if it is linked to the majority or innovation if, on the contrary, the change is related to the minority.

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conformity

As we have seen, conformity occurs under the influence of the majority. This effect produced by the majority group has been verified in different investigations, such as the one carried out by the psychologist Muzafer Sherif, who was based on the autokinetic effect, which consists of the perception of erratic movement when a light point is placed on a dark background.

In Sherif's experiment, two groups were formed; one performed the test first accompanied by other subjects and then alone, and the other group did the reverse process, first alone and then accompanied. The results showed that when these subjects were first studied alone and then in a group, first instance a personal norm, and that in the second condition, in a group, an attempt was made to reach a shared position with the others. Instead, when they started the experiment in group mode, a group norm was already formed that persisted in the individual situation.

From the previous investigation it is concluded that when faced with an ambiguous, abstract stimulus, the subjects tend to let themselves be guided by the opinion of others, but what surprising was to verify that they also accepted and welcomed the opinion of others when the stimulus was clear and objective, they knew that the others were wrong. This influence is especially interesting, as despite knowing that others are wrong, we prefer to accept their opinion.

Another well-known experiment to test conformity to the majority was the one carried out by the psychologist Solomon Ash. The test was easy, it consisted of identifying, among three lines placed together, which one was as long as another line that was shown to the subject. As expected, the control group was correct most of the time, showing an error rate of only 0.7%. Instead, in the experimental situation where the subject had to give his answer publicly, the error rate increased to 37%.

The increase in the error observed in the Asch experiment was a consequence of the influence received by the majority: in In this experiment, the group was complicit and therefore several people intentionally gave the wrong answer. causing in a surprising way that the experimental subject accepted the answer of the others even though he intuited that it was not the correct one. This research was the starting point for others, such as those carried out to check whether the conformity was given privately or only publicly, that is, if the individual's opinion changes true or not

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Variables that influence conformity

In the study carried out by Asch and in later investigations it has been seen that public compliance is more powerful than private compliance. I mean, it happens more often than not. Now, different variables have been observed that will affect conformity, and one of them is the number of subjects that make up the group. As expected, if there are more people exerting pressure (voluntarily or involuntarily) more will be given. influence, but this does not increase proportionally: from three subjects adding one more affects each less time.

Linked to the number of subjects, it will also be important that they see themselves as independent individuals, that they do not present themselves as a group and an opinion as a whole, but that each one gives their own. If they are perceived as independent, more conformity will appear.

Another factor is the presence of an accomplice. If a subject is added who gives his opinion beforehand and coincides with that of the experimental individual, conformity decreases.

In the same way, intrapersonal variables affect: how competent one perceives oneself with respect to others and self-confidence influence conformity. If the subject has a better perception of himself, conformity with the group will be lower.

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Informative influence and normative influence

We see how individuals are influenced by our environment, and in this sense, to form a response and believe that one is right, the subject takes into account two variables. On the one hand, what he perceives through the senses, linked to the most objective part; and on the other hand, what others think or express. Depending on which of the two variables is stronger, we will speak of normative influence or the aforementioned informative influence.

The main difference between the two types of influence lies in whether the subject accepts the opinion of others because he trusts more in the opinion of others than in his own (in this case, as we already know, we refer to the informative influence) or he wants to be accepted by others and perceived as someone who supports the group and thinks like them (this time the type of influence is called normative, since the purpose is to follow the social norm to be perceived positively).

In this way, the change that occurs in each type of influence is different. In the case of informative influence, the subject abandons his opinion to accept that of the group, producing a change in both thought and external behavior. On the contrary, in normative influence where the objective is to avoid rejection and make the group happy, the individual will only modify the visible behavior; his inner thought will remain the same, hisor.

Likewise, in both cases conformity is observed, but in the informative influence we will consider that it is of a private type, given that there is an internal change. This process is known by the name of conversion, the subject converts the opinion of him. On your side, normative influence gives rise to public conformity, since it only modifies their behavior in front of others; this process is known as submission, he submits to be liked.

The two previous processes, submission and conversion, are independent. We perceive this independence when we compare the influence caused by the majority and the minority. In the case of the effect produced by the large group we see how submission normally appears, that is, normative influence (the subject changes externally). On the other hand, the minority makes the subject reflect and can accept her opinion, and thus an internal change will take place, a conversion, without this having to express itself externally.