Influence, Power and Leadership Flashcards
Influence processes
Compliance
How to get others to say yes?
Compliance: How to get others to say yes?
Six weapons of influence:
- Reciprocity:
- Not so free sample
- Door in the face - Commitment and consistency:
- Foot in the door
- Works in comparison to a big request will be more likely to say yes, if you do all small request before. - Social proof: Everyone is doing it!
- Liking: Flattery gets you everywhere
- Authority: Clothes make the deal
- Scarcity: What is scarce is more valuable
How to stop yourself from automatic social influence?
Point out the compliance tactic to the compliance professional → think → Understand how and why the tactic is working → Ask yourself: Do I really want to do this or am I doing it to please someone else? → Wait for a couple hours. If the desire goes away, you probably don’t need it. →
Why are people influenced by others? Three reasons:
- People want to make correct decisions (they want to be right)
- People seek social approval (they want to be liked)
- People want to manage their self-image (they want to be consistent)
Social influence
Interpersonal processes that change people’s thoughts, feelings, or actions.
Majority influence
Social pressure exerted by the larger portion of a group (the majority), directed toward individual members and smaller factions within the group (the minority).
Majority influence: The power of the many
Conformity and independence
Conformity across Contexts
Who will conform?
Conformity
A change in one’s actions, emotions, opinions, judgments, and so on that reduces their discrepancy with these same types of responses displayed by others.
Asch situation / experiment
An experimental procedure developed by Solomon Asch in his studies of conformity to group opinion. Participants believed they were making perceptual judgments as part of a group, but the other members were trained to make deliberate errors on certain trials.
What is this an example of the problems given to participants:
Subjects were told to look at the standard line (on the left) and then match it to one of the three lines on the right. The task was an easy one, but all of the group members, save the one true subject, were Asch’s confederates who deliberately made many mistakes?
Ash situation/experiment
The Crutchfield situation
Participants were in separate booths rather than seated together, face-to-face.
Majorities are more influential when unanimous and in strong (rather than weak) situations
Individuals in online groups conform at rates equal to and sometimes greater than face-to-face groups (because social identity model of deinviduation effects, or side effects)
Online there is a reduced sense of what the individual is. Online sets a norm where there is a less form of the I (identity) that’s why they conform.
Larger majorities are more influential up to a point, but then adding more members to the majority had less impact.
Conformity increases and decreases depending on a host of other situational factors sush as:
o accuracy needs
o cohesion
o task difficulty
o status of other members
Social impact theory stresses three key factors:
strength, immediacy, and number.
Who will conform?
- People who conform consistently tend to be more authoritarian but seek social approval.
- Nonconformists are more self-confident
- Women conform slightly more than men, primarily in face-to-face groups
- Individualism/collectivism is associated with conformity
- Conformity rates dropped slightly in the last half of the twentieth century
Minority influence
Social pressure exerted by a lone individual or smaller faction of a group (the minority), directed toward members of the majority.
When do people resist the group’s influence and instead, change the group? Conversion Theory of minority influence (Moscovici)?
A conceptual analysis of the cognitive and interpersonal processes that mediate the direct and indirect impact of a consistent minority on the majority (developed by Serge Moscovici).
- Behaviorally consistent minorities sometimes change the majority.
- Expanding minorities are more influential.
- Minority influence is more indirect than majority influence, so it generates conversion and innovation rather than compliance.
Predicting minority influence by four things:
- Consistency: Moscovici predicts a consistent minority is most effective
- Status: Hollander argues minorities that are accorded high status are most effective, for their idiosyncrasy credits protect them from sanctions
- Effort: Minorities exert more effort in their attempts to influence than majorities do.
- Decision rules: A majority-rules decision rules favor majority influence, and an unanimity rule favors minorities.
o In the court everybody needs to agree so the unanimity rule favors minority
Sources of group / social influence
Influence is sometimes direct and obvious, but in other cases indirect and subtle. It can take many forms, including implicit, informational, normative, and interpersonal.
Implicit influence is produced by …?
Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes that are neither consciously controlled nor noticed.
- Mimicry: Group members tend to unconsciously imitate each other
- Mindlessness can cause individuals to conform automatically (often we don’t think)
Definition = A state of reduced cognitive processing characterized by actions based on habit, routine, or previously formed discriminations rather than conscious deliberation.
Example of mindlessness, Langer found people complied with a request to jump in front of a line of people using a copier if the line jumper said either “I’m in a rush” OR “I need to make copies”. …
Informational influence
three theories
We use others’ responses as reference points and informational resources.
- Social comparison theory: Basing conclusions on others’ responses
- False consensus effect: Misjudging the extent to which others agree. Perceivers’ tendency to assume that their beliefs, attributes, and actions are relatively common and appropriate in any given situation.
- Dual process theories: In general, any conceptual analysis that identifies two sources or forms of influence: direct (such as persuasion and discussion) and indirect (such as imitation and herding)
Social comparison theory
Basing conclusions on others’ responses
False consensus effect
Misjudging the extent to which others agree. Perceivers’ tendency to assume that their beliefs, attributes, and actions are relatively common and appropriate in any given situation.
Dual process theories
In general, any conceptual analysis that identifies two sources or forms of influence: direct (such as persuasion and discussion) and indirect (such as imitation and herding)
Normative influence
Change-promoting interpersonal processes based on social norms, standards, and convention. Because individuals internalize their group’s norms, they strive to act in ways that are consistent with those norms.
We feel, think, and act in ways that are consistent with our group’s social standards.
Disagreeing with others can trigger cognitive dissonance, an unpleasant and neurologically detectable psychological state that individuals are motivated to reduce
Cialdini’s focus theory of normative conduct argues that injunctive norms (normative influences) and descriptive norms (informational influences) work when they are made salient, and that normative influence requires more cognitive resources that informational influence.
Cialdini’s focus theory of normative conduct argues that
Injunctive norms (normative influences) and descriptive norms (informational influences) work when they are made salient, and that normative influence requires more cognitive resources that informational influence.
Interpersonal influence
Schachter
Influence is sometimes direct and not subtle at all. Members selectively encourage conformity and discourage or even punish nonconformity. For example:
o Do what I say or else
o Here is your reward for going along with us
o You can’t do that
o You are acting like a fool by doing that
o Change what you are doing, or we will throw you out of the group.
Schachter studied interpersonal influence by measuring communication with members who disagreed (deviants), disagreed initially but then changed (sliders), and those who agreed with the group from the outset (modes).
So, why are people influenced by others?
- People want to make correct decisions (they want to be right)
- People seek social approval (they want to be liked)
- People want to manage their self-image (they want to be consistent)
When influence inhibits the bystander effect
The majority is about….
The minority is about….
…liking
…being right, it can come with the cost that people don’t like you
Dynamic social impact theory
Authority / obedience / Milgram
The Milgram Experiments
Subjects were ordered to give painful and potentially harmful electric shocks to a confederate. (No shocks were actually given.)
o Rigged drawing (teacher, learner)
o Shock machine
o Basic condition: series of errors, pounding on the wall at 300 volts, refused to answer at 315 volts
o The Demands (Prods): “The experiment requires that you continue.”
The Milgram’s Findings
Milgram varied a number of aspects of the situation to determine their impact on obedience.
Groups both increased and decreased obedience
o Only one of the three group members was an actual subject.
o If two others gave shocks, there was 92% obedience.
o If others refused to give shocks, only 10% obeyed.
The power of the Milgram situation
- Milgram’s results suggest obedience is common in hierarchically organized groups.
- Further analysis of the study has identified some lapses in experimental procedures.
- The findings have been replicated by other researchers
- Some critics note that subjects were striving to help the researcher, rather than blindly obeying a malevolent authority.
Bases of power - French and Raven’s theory of power bases emphasizes sic sources of power
o Reward: rewards given or offered
o Coercive: threaten or punish
o Legitimate: sanctioned right to influence
o Referent: identification, respect, and attraction
o Expert: skills and abilities
o Informational: access to and control of information
Power tactics
Weber’s concept of charisma suggests…
Blass confirmed empirically that Milgram’s experimenter derived power from all six bases. However,…..
Individuals select particular tactics depending on….
Power tactics are specific methods, such as persuasion, bargaining, and evasion, that people use to attain the goal of influencing others.
That certain leaders exert their influence by relying on legitimate power and referent power.
the experimenter was higher on expert, legitimate, coercive, and informational power, but lower still on referent power.
their personal depending on their personal characteristics and the nature of the group setting.
What are the 3 type of power tactics?
o Hard-soft
o Rational irrational
o Lateral-bilateral.
Dynamic social impact theory
An extension of Latané’s social impact theory, which assumes that influence is a function of the strength, the immediacy, and the number of sources present and that this influence results in consolidation, clustering, correlation, and continuing diversity in groups that are spatially distributed and interacting repeatedly over time (developed by Bibb Latané).
- Consolidation: As individuals interact regularly, their actions, attitudes, and opinions become more uniform. Over time, the majority’s opinions spread throughout the group, causing the minority to shrink.
- Clustering: People are more influenced by those closest to them, leading to clusters of members with similar opinions. Clustering is more likely when members frequently communicate with nearby individuals and when they can relocate to be with like-minded people.
- Correlation: Over time, group members’ opinions become correlated, even on topics they have never explicitly discussed. For example, dorm roommates may align in views on unrelated issues, such as labor unions or the Greek system, simply due to shared environments.
- Continuing Diversity: Minority opinions persist when their members are shielded from majority influence. However, if the majority is too large or if minority members are physically isolated, diversity declines. When minority members actively engage with the majority while resisting influence, diversity remains.
Application: Understanding Juries – Does social influence shape juries’ verdicts?
Jury dynamics = Social influence plays a crucial role in shaping jury decisions
Story model = A theory of cognitive processing of trial information that suggests jurors mentally organize evidence in coherent, credible narratives.
Jury dynamics
Social influence plays a crucial role in shaping jury decisions
Story model
A theory of cognitive processing of trial information that suggests jurors mentally organize evidence in coherent, credible narratives.
The magnitude of social influence suggests that the decisions reached by groups, including juries, are shaped by ….. rather than by ….
social processes
an unbiased weighing of evidence
The Chicago Jury Project and work by Hastie, Penrod, and Pennington (1983) suggest that….?
jurors, through deliberation, develop narratives to account for evidence (story model).
Most juries use either … or … deliberation strategies. The verdict favored by most of the members prior to deliberation (or on the first straw poll) is usually the jury’s final verdict, although hung juries occur in about 10% of all trials. Jurors who have … tend to dominate the group’s discussion.
verdict-driven or evidence-driven
higher status occupations
Studies of juries support their continued use for making legal decisions
- Despite size-related changes in group dynamics, small and large juries do not differ significantly in the types of verdicts reached.
- Juries that do not have to reach a unanimous decision render their judgments twice as quickly and are far less likely to be hung juries.
- Several alterations of procedure have been developed to help jurors remember and process trial information, but their impact is not yet known.
- Voir dire procedures are often used to select jury members, but Wrightman maintains that this process can undermine the representativeness of the jury (Wrightsman et al., 1998).
Improving juries by…?
jury size, unanimity, procedural innovations and voir dire.
What are the influneces of these three on jurors?
Normative Influence
Informational Influence
Minority influence
Normative Influence: Jurors may conform to avoid conflict within the group.
Informational Influence: Jurors may change their opinions based on persuasive arguments.
Minority influence in juries can lead to deeper discussions and reconsideration of evidence.
Voir dire
The oral or written questioning of prospective jurors by counsel or the judge.
What are the limits of an authority’s power?
Milgram (1974) tested people’s obedience to an authority who ordered them to give painful and potentially harmful electric shocks to a confederate (no shocks were actually given).
A majority (65%) obeyed fully; those who did not often stopped when the learner retracted his consent to participate.
Obedience (= Compliance with authoritative directives pertaining to a given situation, including changes in behavior in response to instructions, orders, and demands issued by those with authority)
varied as Milgram manipulated aspects of the setting, including the harm, proximity, research location, surveillance, legitimacy, and groups.
Milgram’s studies suggest that
Obedience is common in hierarchically organized groups, such as those found in military, educational, and organizational settings.
Critic on Milgram
Critics noted methodological flaws and suggested that the personal characteristics of Milgram’s participants prompted them to obey, but the findings have been replicated by other researchers.
What are the sources of power in groups?
French and Raven’s (1959) theory of power bases emphasize six sources of power—reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, expert power, and informational power.
- Milgram suggested obedient individual believed themselves to be agents of the authority—the agentic state—but recent research suggests they identified with the experimenter and the project’s scientific goals.
- Weber’s (1956/1978) concept of charisma suggests that certain leaders exert their influence by relying on legitimate power and referent power.
- Blass (1990) confirmed empirically that Milgram’s experimenter derived power from all six bases.
Power bases
Sources of social power in a group, including one’s degree of control over rewards and punishment, authority in the group, attractiveness, expertise, and access to and control over information needed by group members (originally described by John French and Bertram Raven).
What are the six bases of power?
- Reward power = Power based on control over the distribution of rewards (both personal and impersonal) given or offered to group members.
- Coercive power = Power based on the ability to punish or threaten others who do not comply with requests or demands. like bullying
* Agentic state = A psychological state that occurs when subordinates in an organized status hierarchy experience such a marked reduction in autonomy that they are unable to resist authorities’ orders (proposed by Stanley Milgram). - Legitimate power = Power based on an individual’s socially sanctioned claim to a position or role that includes the right to require and demand compliance with his or her directives.
- Referent power = Power derived from social relationships between individuals, including identification with, attraction to, or respect for another person or group.
* Charisma = From the Greek xarisma (a divine gift of grace), the ascription of extraordinary or supernatural acumen, ability, and value to a leader by his or her followers (coined by Max Weber). - Expert power = Power based on the belief that an individual possesses superior knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- Informational power = Power based on the potential use of informational resources, including rational argument, persuasion, or explanation
Agentic state
A psychological state that occurs when subordinates in an organized status hierarchy experience such a marked reduction in autonomy that they are unable to resist authorities’ orders (proposed by Stanley Milgram).
Charisma
From the Greek xarisma (a divine gift of grace), the ascription of extraordinary or supernatural acumen, ability, and value to a leader by his or her followers (coined by Max Weber).
Foot-in-the-door technique
Influencing a person by extracting compliance to a small initial request before then making the second, more substantial, request.
The so-called “brainwashing” methods used by Chinese military personnel during the Korean War relied on various methods of…?
influencing, including behavioral commitment.
What are the sources of status in groups?
Berger’s expectation-states theory argues that…?
Group members allocate status by considering specific status characteristics (= In status characteristics theory, task-specific behavioral and personal characteristics that people consider when estimating the relative competency, ability, and social value of themselves and others) and diffuse status characteristics (= In status characteristics theory, general personal qualities, such as age, race, and ethnicity, that people consider when estimating the relative competency, ability, and social value of themselves and others) (Berger et al., 2014).
specific status characteristics and diffuse status characteristics
= In status characteristics theory, task-specific behavioral and personal characteristics that people consider when estimating the relative competency, ability, and social value of themselves and others
= In status characteristics theory, general personal qualities, such as age, race, and ethnicity, that people consider when estimating the relative competency, ability, and social value of themselves and others
Expectation-states theory
An explanation of status differentiation in groups, which assumes that group members allocate status to group members judged to be competent at the task at hand and to group members who have qualities that the members think are indicators of competence and potential.
What is status generalization? And what happens when it occurs?
The tendency for individuals known to have achieved or been ascribed authority, respect, and prestige in one context to enjoy relatively higher status in other, unrelated, contexts (e.g., a celeb rity who exercises influence in a group even though this diffuse status characteristic is not relevant in the current group context).
When status generalization occurs, group members unfairly allow irrelevant characteristics, such as race, age, or ethnicity, to influence the allocation of prestige.
When are status allocations particulary unfair in a group?
Status allocations are particularly unfair when individuals who are members of stereotyped minority societal groups are also underrepresented in the group itself, with the most extreme case being solo status (being the only individual of that category in the group).
What is solo status?
Solo status = The state of being the only group member who is a representative of a specific social category in an otherwise homogenous group (e.g., a man in an all female group).
In some online groups, the effects of status on participation are muted, resulting in a ….?
Participation equalization effect
Michel’s iron law of oligarchy
The principle of political and social control that predicts that, in any group, power is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals (an oligarchy) who will act in ways that protect and enhance their power (described by Robert Michels).
Interpersonal complementarity hypothesis
The predicted tendency for certain behaviors to evoke behaviors from others that are congruous with the initial behavior, with positive behaviors evoking positive behaviors, negative behaviors evoking negative behaviors, dominant behaviors evoking submissive behaviors, and submissive behaviors evoking dominant behaviors.
Keltner’s Approach/inhibition theory
An integrative conceptual analysis of the transformative effects of power that finds power to be psychologically and behaviorally activating but the lack of power inhibiting (posited by Dacher Keltner).
predicts that individuals who do not feel powerful will display more negative emotion and reduced motivation. These negative effects are more likely when power holders use coercive influence methods.
The positive effects of power include …..?
increased activity levels, more positive emotions, consistent goal-striving, enhanced executive functioning, increased authenticity, and lower levels of conformity.
The negative effects of power include….?
an increased tendency to act in a risky or inappropriate way, a negative impact on others’ emotional states, loss of perspective-taking, the tendency to misjudge others, and increased self-satisfaction.
Kipnis’s (1974) studies of the metamorphic effects of power found that …?
people who are given coercive power will use this power, and that once it is used, the powerholders tend to overestimate their control over others and devalue their targets.
Bathsheba syndrome? And when does it occur?
The tendency for high-status members to claim unfair and inappropriate privileges and honors, including predacious sexual activities.
occurs when authorities use their power to exploit others, particularly in a sexual way.
Revolutionary coalition
A subgroup formed within the larger group that seeks to disrupt or change the group’s authority structure.
Kelman’s (1958) compliance–identification internalization model
describes a sequence of increasing private acceptance of an authority’s beliefs, values, and perspectives.
compliance –> identification –> internalization
Milgram’s (1974) theory of the agentic state traces obedience back to the nature of the authority–subordinate relationship?
When individuals become part of an organized hierarchy, they tacitly agree to follow the leader’s orders. They also experience a reduction of responsibility and reduced agency.
Zimbardo’s simulated prison study was terminated prematurely when participants became too dominant and too submissive.
Lucifer effect
The transformation of benign individuals into morally corrupt individuals by powerful, but malevolent, social situations; named for the biblical character Lucifer, an angel who fell from grace and was transformed into Satan (proposed by Phillip Zimbardo).
fundamental attribution error (FAE)
People who blame obedience on the individuals in the situation may be displaying the fundamental attribution error (FAE), which underestimates the power of group-level processes.
Romance of leadership fallacy
The tendency to overestimate the amount of influence and control leaders exert on their groups and their groups’ outcomes.
The two-factor model of leadership identifies two basic sets, or clusters, of leadership behavior:
- Task leadership focuses on the group’s work and its goals.
- Relationship leadership focuses on the interpersonal relations within the group.
Two-factor model of leadership
A descriptive model of leadership, which maintains that most leadership behaviors can be classified as either performance maintenance or relationship maintenance.
Leadership substitutes theory
A conceptual analysis of the factors that reduce or eliminate the need for a leader (substitutes) or prevent the leader from dispatching his or her responsibilities (neutralizers).
Paralleling Carlyle’s great leader theory
A view of leadership, attributed to historian Thomas Carlyle, which states that successful leaders possess certain characteristics that mark them for great ness and that such great leaders shape the course of history.
Tolstoy’s Zeitgeist theory
A view of leadership, attributed to Leo Tolstoy, which states that history is determined primarily by the “spirit of the times” rather than by the actions and choices of great leaders.
The trait clusters in the five-factor model of personality and the dark triad, what is the dark triad?
The set of three socially aversive personality qualities comprised of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
Certain competencies are associated with leadership emergence?
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence
The component of social intelligence that relates to one’s capacity to accurately perceive emotions, to use information about emotions when making decisions, and to monitor and control one’s own and others’ emotional reactions.
Sternberg’s (2012) systems model of leadership….?
stresses the importance of practical and creative intelligence.
Babble effect
The tendency for group members who talk at a high rate in the group to emerge as leaders, even if the information they share with the group is of low quality.
Implicit leadership theory
Group members’ taken for-granted assumptions about the traits, characteristics, and qualities that distinguish leaders from the people they lead; also known as leader prototypes.
Social identity theory
predicts that leader endorsement depends on leader prototypicality and the members’ social identity.
Eagly social role theory
A conceptual analysis of sex differences that recognizes men and women take on different types of roles in many societies and that these role expectations generate gender stereotypes and differences in the behavior of women and men (proposed by Alice Eagly)
Terror management theory
A conceptual analysis of the implicit psychological processes thought to defend individuals from the emotionally terrifying knowledge that they are mortal and will someday die.
Leadership Grid proposed by Blake and Mouton
A theory of management and leader ship assuming that people vary in their concern for results and their concern for people and that individuals who are high on both dimensions (9,9) are the best leaders.
The situational leadership theory, proposed by Hersey and Blanchard
A theory of leadership suggesting that groups benefit from leadership that meshes with a group’s stage of development.
Fiedler’s (1964) contingency theory
suggests that leadership effectiveness is determined by the leader’s motivational style and the favorability of the situation.
- Fiedler’s theory predicts that task-motivated (low-LPC) leaders will be most effective in situations that are either extremely unfavorable or extremely favorable, whereas relationship-motivated leaders are most effective in intermediate situations.
Leader–member exchange theory (LMX)
A dyadic, relational approach to leadership assuming that leaders develop exchange relationships with each of their subordinates and that the quality of these leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships influences subordinates’ responsibility, decision influence, access to resources, and performance.
Participation theories
suggest that leadership should be distributed throughout the group rather than concentrated on a single individual.
Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) compared three types of “group climates”: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.
Laissez-faire leadership was ineffective compared to democratic and autocratic, with members preferring democratic.
Kelley’s (2004) theory of followership suggests that
followers vary along two dimensions: active/passive and independent/dependent. He identifies five types of followers: conformist, passive, pragmatic, alienated, and exemplary.
Transformational theories of leadership
examine how charismatic leaders promote change
Burns (1978) distinguished between transactional leaders and transformational leaders and suggested that
the latter are able to elevate both themselves and their followers.
- Transactional leadership = A traditional form of leadership that involves contributing time, effort, and other resources in the pursuit of collaborative goals in exchange for desired outcomes.
- Transformational leadership = An inspirational method of leading others that involves elevating one’s followers’ motivation, confidence, and satisfaction, by uniting them in the pursuit of shared, challenging goals and changing their beliefs, values, and needs.
Bass (1997) identified four components of transformational (rather than transactional) leadership:
idealized influence (or charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration; they can be measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire.
Women tend to adopt ….. styles of leadership, whereas men are more likely to ….. styles. Women’s skills are particularly well suited for ……
participative and transformational
enact autocratic, laissez-faire, and transactional
organizations of the future, which will be less hierarchical and require a collaborative, shared approach to leadership
