Social impact theory

Social Impact Theory:

Who proposed it?

Bibb Latane (1981). He said that it can be used to explain obdeince.

We are greatly influenced by the actions of others, we can be

• Persuaded
• Inhibited
• threaghtened
• supported by other people

These effects are the result of others actions, and effect changes to how we feel and how we act in response. The target is the person, and the source is the influencer.

Principles

Social Forces

The impact of the social influence is a function of the

• STRENGTH - can be determined by status, authority, or age
• IMMEDIACY - determined by proximity or distance between the target and source, and the presence of bufferes that could be barriers to the distance
• NUMBER OF SOURCES COMPARED TO TARGETS - refers to how many sources and targets are in the social situation.

Authority figures are then percieved as legitimate,  immediate to the individual and who are greater in number. They will be more likely to ensure obedience.

Psychosocial Law

Its not always the case that if strength, immedieacy and number increase then so will the social impact they have on the target.

THE LIGHTBULB EFFECT

As more lightbubls are added the effect dies down.

Berkowitz, Bickman and Milgram  (1960) demonstrated this reduction on social impact. They got…