social impact theory

• Latane (1981) - proposed a theory of social influence that can explain why people are obedient
• Latane suggested that we are greatly influenced by the actions of others and can be persuaded, inhibited, threated and supported by other people. This is known as social impact because of how others real or imagined impact on us.
• Target - person being impacted on
• Source - person being the influencer
• Latane developed a formulation of different principles that result in more or less social influence being exerted on the target.
• When a source is affecting a target the impact of the social influence is a function of the strength, immediacy and number of sources compared to targets.
• Social impact theory illustrates how influence from others is the result of acting on an individuals pressure from others.
• Social impact theory predicts conformity will increase with strength, immediacy and number.
• The strength of a source can be determined by the status authority and age and also how important the group/person influencing is to you.
• The immidiacy of is determind by proximity or distance between the source and target and the precence of buffers that could be barriers to the distance.
• Number refers to how many sources and targets there are in the social situation.
• In terms of obedience social impact theory suggests that the authority figures who are perceived to be legitimate, who are immediate to the individual and who are great in number, will be more likely to ensure obedience.
• What are the three social forces outlined by social impact theory?

  Strength, immediacy, number
• Who proposed the theory of social impact theory?

  Latane (1981)
• The greater the strength, immediacy and number of the source of authority, the greater the impact on the target.
• The light bulb effect - One lightbulb in a dark room will have a dramatic effect, a second will improve the lighting conditions but as more light bulbs are added, the effect becomes less pronounced.
• Berkowitz et al (1969) - Got between one and fifteen confederates to stand on the street and look up at the sixth floor of a university building. The number of passers-by that also looked up was counted. They found that increasing the number of confederates looking up did increase the number of passers-by imitating their actions but after a certain number of confederates the effect leveled off.
• The divisional effect - An authority figure has less/diminished capacity to influence someone if the someone is in a group or has allies.
• The divisional effect, Milgram - When their were two dissenting peer confederates in the room with the teacher obedience dropped from 65% to 10%.
• Division of impact - The number of targets to be influenced affects the impact of the source.
• Latane and Darley (1970) - Demonstrated divisional effect of social impact in a number of studies on bystander behaviour.
• Latane and Darley (1970) - Found that a lone person is more likely to help someone in need compared to a group of people; there was a diffusion of responsibility similar to a divisional effect.
• Divisional effect example - The ability of a speaker to persuade an audience is divided among many members of the audience.
• Social impact theory oversimplifies that nature of human interaction.
• The theory assumes that all individuals are passive receivers of others behaviours - this is not true as we all have individual beliefs
• Social impact theory is useful as a general formulation and can predict behaviour under certain conditions.
• Social impact theory doesn't explain why people are influenced by others just under what conditions they are more likely to influenced.
• Social impact theory cannot predict what would happen if two equal groups impact on one another. For example who would be the source and target of two football fan crowds that were equal in strength, number and immediacy.