Social Impact Theory

• who proposed social impact theory?

  Latane 1981
• what is social impact theory?

  Social impact theory is a model that conceives of influence from other people as being the result of social forces (pressures from other people) acting on individuals, much as physical forces can affect an object. It predicts that conformity/obedience will increase with increasing strength, immediacy and the number of influence in a group.
• what are the 3 laws of behaviour? - state

  1. Social Force

  2. Psychosocial Law

  3. Divisions of Impact
• what are the 3 laws of behaviour? explain

  A person is potentially a "source" or a "target" of social influence

  1. Social Force- This is a pressure that gets put on people to change their behaviour - if it succeeds, that is Social Impact. Social force is generated by persuasion, threat, humour, embarrassment and other influences. Social force is made up of Strength, Immediacy and Numbers:

  Latané suggests a mathematic equation to work out the Social Impact (i) in any situation. This is i = f (SIN) where S, I and N are Strength, Immediacy and Numbers.

  A. Strength: This is how much power you believe the person influencing you has. For example, if the person has rank in an organisation, their orders will have more Strength

  B. Immediacy: This is how recent the influence is and how close to you, from an order a minute ago from your boss standing right next to you (very immediate) to an email you received from your boss last week (not very immediate)

  C. Numbers: The more people putting pressure on you to do something, the more social force they will have

  2. Psychosocial Law - This is the idea that the first source of influence has the most dramatic impact on people, but that the second, third, fourth, etc. sources generate less and less Social Force. (LIGHT BULB EFFECT)

  3. Divisions of Impact - Social Force gets spread out between all the people it is directed at. If all the Force is directed at a single person, that puts a huge pressure on them to conform or obey. But if the Force is directed at two people, they only experience half as much pressure each. If there are ten of them, they only feel one tenth of the pressure.(DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILTY)

  This is known as diffusion of responsibility - the more of you there are, the less personal responsibility each of you will feel.

  This applies to Milgram too because his other variations showed how obedience went down when the participant had a rebellious partner.

  Latané has an equation for this too: i = f (1/SIN)
• what is the diffusion of responsibility?

  Being part of a large group makes people feel anonymous and this reduces their feelings of responsibility. It might make them less likely to obey orders.
• what is the light bulb effect?

  If you have one light bulb in a room, adding another will make a huge difference, however, by the time you have 5 light bulbs, adding a sixth won't make that much difference.
• what is the multiplier effect?

  The higher the strength, immediacy and number the higher the social impact will be. This is called the multiplier effect
• why is the theory significant?

  1)It underlies Milgram's obedience study, which is a mandatory study for the Social Approach.

  2)It expands on Social Identity Theory, which suggests that people instinctively fall into in groups and react negatively towards out groups.

  3)It illustrates features of the Social Approach, since it shows how decisions that people think are personal to them are actually expressions of their group identity and social pressures

  4)It ties in to your Key Question in Social Psychology, since it helps explain prejudice and how to reduce it
• compare agency theory and social impact theory

  Agency Theory

  - Specifically about obedience

  Evolutionary trait as well as learnt behaviour

  - Describes obedience doesn't explain it (says why we obey authority but not other situations)

  Social Impact Theory

  - Can apply to obedience

  - Explains high / low obedience in groups

  - Doesn't account for individual differences such as situation or personality
• AO3 - strengths


  - The use of a mathematical formula means the results are objective and valid. It allows predictions to be made about levels of impact on society, as long as we can measure the immediacy and size of the group.

  - Model is useful as a formulation and can predict behaviour under certain conditions.

  - Can be observed in every day life, applicable to every day life.

  - The experiments demonstrated the impact of strength, immediacy and number.
• what are the Different Kinds of Power?

  When it comes to obedience, a lot depends on whether you perceive the person giving the orders to be an authority figure or not.

  French & Raven (1959) identified different types of authority:

  (i) legitimate power (authority figures with high status),

  (ii) reward power (those who have money or who can perform favours),

  (iii) coercive power (people who can punish you),

  (iv) expert power (people seen as knowledgeable), and

  (v) referent power (people who belong to groups you respect).

  This fits in well with Social Impact Theory because it explains the different reasons why a person's orders may have Social Force.
• AO3 - weaknesses


  - everyone is different, so the theory oversimplifies the nature of human interaction and IGNORES INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES between each of us.

  - Some of us are more resistant to social impact and some are more passive (individual differences).

  - Doesn't take into account how the source and the and target interact with each other.

  - More description than explanatory, so doesn't explain WHY people are influenced by others, juts under what conditions they are more likely to be influenced.

  - Cant predict what might happen to two exact groups of the same authority.
• What is Social Impact Theory attempting to explain?

  Obedience
• Social Impact Theory was developed by Bibb Latané
• Social Impact Theory is based on studies from the 1960s and 1970s.
• Match the theory with its focus:

  Social Impact Theory ↔️ Explains obedience

  Social Identity Theory ↔️ Ingroup vs. Outgroup

  Milgram's Study ↔️ Authority and obedience
• What are the three laws of behavior in Social Impact Theory?

  Social Force, Psychosocial Law, Divisions of Impact
• Social Force is influenced by Strength, Immediacy, and Numbers
• Immediacy refers to how recent the influence is.
• What does the psychosocial law suggest about social force?

  The first source has the most impact
• Social Force is spread out between all the people it is directed at, leading to diffusion of responsibility
• Social Impact Theory explains why obedience decreases in groups.
• What was the hypothesis in Latané's research with Billy Graham?

  Billy Graham would make more converts in front of small audiences
• Latané's research with Billy Graham supported divisions of impact.
• In Sedikides & Jackson's zoo study, visitors obeyed more when the confederate was dressed as a zookeeper
• What type of social force did the zookeeper's uniform increase in Sedikides & Jackson's study?

  Strength
• Order the types of authority identified by French & Raven (1959)

  1️⃣ Legitimate power

  2️⃣ Reward power

  3️⃣ Coercive power

  4️⃣ Expert power

  5️⃣ Referent power
• Which type of authority involves the ability to punish?

  Coercive power
• Referent power is based on respect for a group or individual.
• Diffusion of responsibility occurs when being part of a large group reduces individual feelings of responsibility
• In Latané & Darley's intercom experiment, what happened to the rate of helping when more participants were present?

  It decreased
• Social Impact Theory explains prosocial and antisocial behavior
• Social Impact Theory has been criticized for treating people as passive recipients of influence.
• What is Dynamic Social Impact Theory attempting to explain?

  Minority and majority influence
• Dynamic Social Impact Theory considers how people change their views to match the group
• Who developed Dynamic Social Impact Theory in 1996?

  Latané et al.
• Dynamic Social Impact Theory explains how minorities and majorities influence each other
• Social Impact Theory focuses on the characteristics of the person receiving orders.

  False
• What are two personality types that Social Impact Theory does not address?

  Compliant and rebellious
• Social Impact Theory treats people as passive