Cognitive Connie
What is social influence?
Social influence describes the ways in which individuals change their beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure. It is one of the oldest and most researched areas of social psychology, producing some of the discipline's most dramatic and ethically controversial findings — including Stanley Milgram's obedience studies and Solomon Asch's conformity experiments.
01. Overview
Four forms of social influence.
Conformity, compliance, obedience, and minority influence share a common theme — social pressure reshaping individual behaviour — but differ in the source of that pressure, its directness, and the mechanisms involved.
Conformity
Adjusting one's beliefs or behaviour to match a group norm without a direct request. Can be driven by informational influence (others know better) or normative influence (desire to fit in and avoid rejection). Asch's line studies showed conformity occurs even when the group is clearly wrong.
Compliance
Yielding to an explicit request from another person or group, without necessarily changing private beliefs. Key techniques include foot-in-the-door (small request first), door-in-the-face (large request then smaller one), and reciprocity (returning a favour).
Obedience to Authority
Following a direct order from a perceived authority figure. Milgram's electric shock studies showed that 65% of participants obeyed instructions to administer potentially lethal shocks to a stranger — revealing how powerfully legitimate authority overrides personal moral judgment.
Minority Influence
The process by which a consistent, committed minority can shift the beliefs of a majority over time. Moscovici's research showed that consistency and flexibility are key — a minority that maintains its position clearly but engages constructively can produce genuine attitude change.
Key figures
Turkish-American social psychologist who studied informational influence using the autokinetic effect, and intergroup conflict through the Robbers Cave experiment. His work established both the formation of social norms and the psychology of in-group/out-group dynamics.
Polish-American psychologist whose line-judgment studies demonstrated the power of normative social influence — that people will publicly conform to an obviously incorrect group judgment to avoid standing out. He also showed that a single dissenter could dramatically reduce conformity.
French social psychologist who challenged the assumption that influence always flows from majority to minority. His research on minority influence showed that consistency is the key mechanism through which minorities shift majorities — producing slow but genuine attitude change.
American social psychologist whose obedience studies at Yale produced one of the most disturbing and influential findings in social science — that ordinary people would administer apparently lethal electric shocks on the instructions of an authority figure. His work on obedience, the small-world problem, and social networks shaped the field profoundly.
Key concepts
Normative social influence
Conforming to be liked or accepted by a group, even when you privately disagree. Driven by the desire to fit in and avoid rejection or ridicule. Produces public compliance without necessarily changing private beliefs. Most powerful in ambiguous situations where the desire for social approval is high.
Informational social influence
Conforming because you genuinely believe others have more accurate knowledge than you. Particularly powerful in novel or ambiguous situations where you are uncertain what to think or do. More likely to produce genuine private attitude change alongside public compliance.
Milgram's obedience experiment (1961–62)↗
Participants were instructed by an authority figure (experimenter in a lab coat) to administer escalating electric shocks to a confederate learner. Despite the learner's expressed pain, 65% of participants administered the maximum 450-volt shock. Key factors increasing obedience included proximity of authority, distance from victim, and the prestige of the setting.
Asch's conformity studies (1951)↗
Participants judged which of three lines matched a standard line — a task with an obvious correct answer. When confederates unanimously gave the wrong answer, 75% of real participants conformed on at least one trial. Asch showed that conformity dropped dramatically when even one other person broke with the majority.
Agentic state
Milgram's concept describing the psychological shift from seeing oneself as a responsible, autonomous agent to seeing oneself as an instrument of an authority's will. In the agentic state, individuals feel less personal responsibility for their actions — a key mechanism explaining extreme obedience.
Foot-in-the-door technique
A compliance strategy in which a small initial request is made first, increasing the likelihood the target will agree to a larger subsequent request. Works through commitment and consistency — once people comply with a small request, they are motivated to behave consistently by complying with larger ones.
Minority influence (Moscovici)
Serge Moscovici showed that a minority can influence a majority if it is consistent (maintains its position across time and members), flexible (not dogmatic), and willing to engage. Unlike majority influence, which produces rapid but shallow conformity, minority influence tends to be slow but produces deeper, more lasting private attitude change.
Sherif's autokinetic effect studies
An early conformity experiment using an ambiguous perceptual task: participants estimated how far a stationary light appeared to move in a dark room (it doesn't move — the movement is an optical illusion). When placed in groups, individual estimates converged on a group norm, demonstrating informational influence in conditions of uncertainty.
Test your knowledge
Frequently asked questions
What is social influence in psychology?+
Social influence refers to the ways in which a person's thoughts, feelings, or behaviour are affected by others — whether real, imagined, or implied. It includes conformity (matching a group), compliance (following a request), and obedience (following an authority). Social influence is one of the most studied areas in social psychology because it helps explain a wide range of phenomena, from everyday social norms to extreme events like the Holocaust.
What did Milgram's obedience experiment show?+
Milgram found that 65% of ordinary American adults, recruited through newspaper advertisements, would administer what they believed to be a 450-volt electric shock to a stranger on the orders of an authority figure. The experiment demonstrated the power of legitimate authority to override personal morality — and challenged the assumption that atrocities like the Holocaust required unusual cruelty or psychopathology in perpetrators. Milgram's work also identified key factors that increase or decrease obedience: proximity to the victim, proximity to the authority, and the prestige of the setting.
What is the difference between conformity and obedience?+
Both are forms of social influence, but they differ in source and mechanism. Conformity involves changing your behaviour to match a group norm, often without any explicit request — the pressure comes from the desire to fit in (normative influence) or from uncertainty about what is correct (informational influence). Obedience involves following a direct order from a specific authority figure. Conformity is typically lateral (peer to peer); obedience is hierarchical (authority to subordinate).
Why do people conform even when they know something is wrong?+
Asch's studies showed that people conform to avoid social discomfort — being the only dissenter is psychologically aversive, even when you know the group is wrong. This is normative social influence. People fear rejection, ridicule, and social exclusion. Importantly, Asch also found that having even one ally — one other person who breaks from the majority — dramatically reduces conformity, because the social cost of dissenting drops when you're not alone.
What is informational vs normative social influence?+
Informational social influence occurs when we conform because we genuinely believe others have more accurate information — we look to others as a guide to reality. It is most powerful in ambiguous or novel situations. Normative social influence occurs when we conform to gain social approval or avoid rejection — we know what's right but go along with the group anyway. The key difference is in the outcome: informational influence often changes private beliefs; normative influence typically produces public compliance without changing what we privately think.
Sources
Last reviewed July 2025- 1.
Cialdini R.B. (2001). Influence: Science and Practice (4th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
+About this source
Classic text on the principles of social influence, widely used in social psychology teaching.
- 2.
Hogg M.A. & Vaughan G.M. (2018). Social Psychology (8th ed.). Pearson.
+About this source
Comprehensive textbook covering social influence, conformity, and obedience with full research coverage.