Psychology
Peer vs. Expert: The Effects of Influence Source on Conformity
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
Psychology
Start Date
11-4-2014 10:15 AM
End Date
11-4-2014 12:00 PM
Sponsor
Bill Altermatt (Hanover College)
Description
"Social proof" (Cialdini, 1993) or "informational social influence" (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955), is the tendency for people to use the behavior of others as persuasive information. For example, people are more likely to buy something if they know that 9 out of 10 consumers chose it over another product. We were interested in whether participants were more likely to be influenced by social proof that was based on their peers' opinions or on experts' opinions. In this study, participants from Hanover College were first given the text of a new smoking policy and then told the percentage of their college peers and the percentage of faculty from biology and kinesiology departments who were in favor of the policy. Participants were randomly assigned to a specific group that dictated which set of opinions would be depicted through pie charts (one of four conditions: peers against and experts against, peers in favor of and experts against, peers against and experts in favor of, and peers in favor of and experts in favor of). They then rated their own opinion using a (1 - 6) Likert scale regarding the new smoking policy. We expect that students who participate in our study will be more influenced by faculty rather than by their peers.
Peer vs. Expert: The Effects of Influence Source on Conformity
Indianapolis, IN
"Social proof" (Cialdini, 1993) or "informational social influence" (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955), is the tendency for people to use the behavior of others as persuasive information. For example, people are more likely to buy something if they know that 9 out of 10 consumers chose it over another product. We were interested in whether participants were more likely to be influenced by social proof that was based on their peers' opinions or on experts' opinions. In this study, participants from Hanover College were first given the text of a new smoking policy and then told the percentage of their college peers and the percentage of faculty from biology and kinesiology departments who were in favor of the policy. Participants were randomly assigned to a specific group that dictated which set of opinions would be depicted through pie charts (one of four conditions: peers against and experts against, peers in favor of and experts against, peers against and experts in favor of, and peers in favor of and experts in favor of). They then rated their own opinion using a (1 - 6) Likert scale regarding the new smoking policy. We expect that students who participate in our study will be more influenced by faculty rather than by their peers.