Social influence

What it means

Social influence is the broad process by which the presence, actions, or expectations of other people — real, imagined, or merely implied — change an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It is conventionally organized into types: compliance, a public change in behavior in response to a request or pressure without private acceptance; conformity, aligning with a group norm; obedience, following the directives of an authority; and internalization, genuine private acceptance of an influence as one's own. Two engines run beneath these: informational influence, where others' behavior is taken as evidence about reality and the right thing to do, and normative influence, where one goes along to gain acceptance or avoid disapproval. The distinction matters because informational influence tends to produce lasting, internalized change while normative influence produces compliance that may evaporate once surveillance is removed. As the unifying concept behind conformity, persuasion, norms, and obedience, it matters for everything from marketing and public-health campaigns to the dynamics of crowds, polarization, and collective action.