PSY 365 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Social Influence, Peer Pressure, Social Comparison Theory
Document Summary
Social influence: process whereby people directly or indirectly influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others, understanding of social norms and how they influence people. Social norms: provide guidance for how we ought to behave, think, and feel. Norms related to attitudes based on what individuals believe is morally correct. Norms related to actual behavior: social norms theory (perkins and berkowitz 1986) Peer influence plays a part in individual decision making around behaviors. Participants of an intervention focused on social norms are likely to question the initial message being presented to them due to misperceptions they hold. Poor data collection in the initial stages can lead to unreliable data and poor choice of normative message. This can undermine the campaign and reinforce misperceptions. Unreliable sources can result in an unappealing message that undermines the campaign, even if the message is correctly chose.
