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It may seem that we are in control of our thoughts and behavior. But social psychology tells a different story.

Social psychology is defined as "the scientific study of how nosotros retrieve about, influence, and relate to one another." Nosotros are social beings. Most of usa communicate with others every day, spending large portions of our waking hours in some form of communication.

One lesson from social psychology is the influence others have on us. Research shows we practise not have equally much control over our thoughts and behavior as we call up. We take cues from our environs, especially other people, on how to human action.

How groups influence us

Consider the concept of group polarization. The idea is that likeminded people in a grouping reinforce one some other's viewpoints. Group polarization strengthens the opinions of each person in the grouping.

In a report by French psychologists Serge Moscovici and Marisa Zavalloni, researchers asked participants some questions. Get-go, researchers asked virtually their opinion of the French president. Second, they asked nigh their attitude toward Americans. The researchers then asked the participants to discuss each topic equally a group.

After a discussion, groups who held a tentative consensus became more extreme in their opinions. For example, participants held slightly favorable attitudes toward the French president. But their attitudes magnified equally group members spoke with ane some other. They held slightly negative attitudes toward Americans. But their attitudes intensified equally each member learned others shared their views about their allies away. The researchers concluded, "Group consensus seems to induce a change of attitudes in which subjects are likely to adopt more extreme positions." When we see our uncertain opinions reflected back to us, our beliefs strengthen.

Many of us too savour being with others who share similar behavior. In one experiment, researchers invited people to discuss issues including same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and climate change. People in one group came from predominantly liberal Boulder, Colorado. People in another group came from mostly conservative Colorado Springs. The discussions on controversial topics led to increased agreement within the groups. Beliefs we hold are strengthened when we are effectually others who hold similar views.

If other people exercise information technology, that ways it'south right. Right?

There is a heuristic near of united states of america use to determine what to practice, call back, say, and buy: the principle of social proof. To learn what is right, we await at what other people are doing. In his bestselling volume Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, psychologist Robert Cialdini writes, "Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will exist of import in defining the respond." Social proof is a shortcut to determine how to act.

Cialdini has used the principle of social proof to prevent environmental theft. Consider the case of Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park. Visitors would arrive at the park and learn of past thievery from prominent signs: "Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of xiv tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time."

In ane experiment, Cialdini removed the sign from a specific path in the park to measure whatever differences it might make. The path with no sign had i-tertiary less theft than the path with the sign. Visitors interpreted the sign'south bulletin as permission. Put differently, visitors thought information technology was "normal" to have pocket-sized pieces of wood, considering and then much was stolen every year.

Researchers have also used the principle of social proof to help people overcome their fears. In ane study, Albert Bandura and his colleagues worked with a grouping of young children frightened of dogs. The children watched a four-year-old male child happily play with a domestic dog for 20 minutes a day for 4 days. After the four twenty-four hour period menstruum, 67 percent of the children who watched the boy play with the dog were willing to enter a playpen with a dog. When the researchers conducted a follow-upwardly study one month subsequently, they institute the aforementioned children were willing to play with a canis familiaris. Watching a trivial boy take fun with a dog reduced fright in children. They used the beliefs of a boy playing with a domestic dog as a model to modify their own beliefs.

Why practice others influence the states so much?

Clearly, others affect our behavior. One reason for this is that we alive in a complex world. We use the decisions of others as a heuristic, or mental shortcut, to navigate our lives. English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead once said, "Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking virtually them."

In his volume Influence, Cialdini uses the example of advertisers informing the states that a product is the "fastest-growing" or "best-selling." Advertisers don't take to persuade us that a product is adept, they only need to say others recall so.

Cialdini notes that consumers frequently use a simple heuristic: Popular is good. Post-obit the crowd allows us to function in a complicated environment. Most of us do not have time to increase our knowledge of all trade and research every advertised item to measure its usefulness.

Instead, we rely on signals like popularity. If everyone else is buying something, the reasoning goes, at that place is a adept gamble the item is worth our attention.

A second reason others influence us is that humans are social. We have survived considering of our ability to band together. Early humans who formed groups were more probable to survive. This affected our psychology.

As Julia Coultas, a researcher at the University of Essex, puts it, "For an private joining a grouping, copying the behaviour of the majority would then be a sensible, adaptive behaviour. A conformist trend would facilitate credence into the group and would probably lead to survival if it involved the determination, for instance, to cull between a nutritious or poisonous food, based on copying the behaviour of the majority."

In our evolutionary past, our ancestors were nether constant threat. Keen awareness of others helped our ancestors survive in a dangerous and uncertain world. Modern humans have inherited such adaptive behaviors.

These behaviors include banding together and promoting social harmony. This includes not dissenting from the grouping. In a hunter-gatherer grouping, being ostracized or banished could take been a death judgement.

Thoughtful reflection on social influence may atomic number 82 us to a greater sensation of ourselves and our relationships with others.

References

Bandura, A., Grusec, J. E., & Menlove, F. L. (1967). Vicarious Extinction of Abstention Behavior. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, five(one), xvi-23. doi:10.1037/h0024182

Cialdini, R. B. (2003). Crafting normative messages to protect the surround. Current directions in psychological science, 12(4), 105-109.

Cialdini, R. (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion (Rev. ed. ; 1st Collins business organization essentials ed.). New York: Collins.

Coultas, J. C. (2004). When in Rome .... An Evolutionary Perspective on Conformity. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 7(4), 317-331. doi:10.1177/1368430204046141

Lee, D., & Hatesohl, D. (n.d.). Listening: Our Most Used Communication Skill. Retrieved September 8, 2014.

Moscovici, S., & Zavalloni, G. (1969). The grouping as a polarizer of attitudes. Periodical Of Personality And Social Psychology, 12(two), 125-135. doi:ten.1037/h0027568

Schkade, D., Sunstein, C. R., & Hastie, R. (2007). What Happened on Deliberation Day?. California Law Review, 95(3), 915-940.