Advanced

CODE OF
INFLUENCE
 Advanced Code of Influence

Contents

PART 1: RECOGNIZING THE SELF ........................................................ 7

The Core of Influence: The Self ........................................................... 7

Self-Awareness ................................................................................... 8

The Two Kinds of Self-Awareness ...................................................... 10

Self-Knowledge: The Roadmap to the Self.......................................... 16

How Does the Concept of the Self Come About? ................................ 19

The Four-Step Feedback Method ...................................................... 22

How We Handle Discrepancies .......................................................... 25

Positive Social Reflection vs. Negative Social Comparison .................. 30

Self-Esteem ...................................................................................... 33

The Most Powerful Self-Motive of All ................................................. 38

Self-Enhancement Strategies ............................................................ 40

Developing the Social Self ................................................................. 44

In Focus: Cultural Differences .......................................................... 49

PART 2: ATTRIBUTIONS ...................................................................... 52

The Role of Attribution in People‟s Lives ............................................ 52

Kinds of Attribution .......................................................................... 55

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The How and Why of Attribution ....................................................... 57

Self-Serving Attributions................................................................... 67

The Importance of Social Representations ......................................... 74

PART 3: COGNITION, HEURISTICS & CATEGORIZATION .................... 78

Social Cognition ............................................................................... 78

The Role of Heuristics ....................................................................... 82

Representativeness Heuristic ............................................................ 83

Availability Heuristic ........................................................................ 87

False Consensus Effect ..................................................................... 88

Anchoring Heuristic.......................................................................... 90

We Are Social Tacticians ................................................................... 92

PART 4: SOCIAL CATEGORIZATON ..................................................... 99

Social Categorization ........................................................................ 99

Exploring Stereotypes & Social Categories .......................................104

The Motivation Behind Social Categorization ...................................108

From Categorization to Individuation ...............................................114

PART 5: HUMAN ATTITUDES .............................................................117

Attitudes .........................................................................................117

How Attitudes Are Formed ...............................................................118

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The Key Avenues of Attitude Formation ...........................................119

Implicit Conditioning & Operant Conditioning .................................121

The Power of Self-Perception ............................................................125

The Functional Theory .....................................................................126

Why Attitudes Matter ......................................................................133

Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Connection ....................................134

Specificity ........................................................................................134

Self-Awareness ................................................................................135

Attitude Accessibility .......................................................................137

Attitude Strength .............................................................................139

Attitude, Intention & Behavior .........................................................141

Understanding Attitude Changes .....................................................146

Attitude Change & Cognitive Dissonance .........................................147

When Does Dissonance Occur? .......................................................152

PART 6: PERSUASION ........................................................................155

The Ivory Throne: Human Persuasion ..............................................155

Figuring Out Which Route a Person Will Take ..................................157

Exploring the Peripheral Route ........................................................166

PART 7: GROUPS ...............................................................................171

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Groups ............................................................................................171

The Impact of Groups on Performance .............................................174

The Three Theories of Social Facilitation & Social Inhibition ............176

The Theory of Social Loafing ............................................................178

PART 8: LEADERSHIP ........................................................................180

How Leaders Are Formed .................................................................181

The Task-Focused Leader & the Socio-Emotional Leader .................185

The Transformational Leader ...........................................................188

Leadership Style ..............................................................................189

PART 9: SOCIAL INFLUENCE .............................................................193

Social Norms ...................................................................................194

Conformity: Indirect Influence .........................................................197

Factors That Affect Conformity ........................................................199

Factors that Affect Informational Influence ......................................201

Understanding Obedience................................................................205

PART 10: SOCIAL IDENTITY, AFFILIATION & ATTRACTION ................208

Determinants of Helpful Behavior ....................................................208

Affiliation.........................................................................................210

Determinants of Affiliation ...............................................................211

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Determinants of Attraction ..............................................................213

Friendship & Love ...........................................................................216

Gender-Related Differences .............................................................217

Types of Love ...................................................................................218

Satisfaction & Commitment .............................................................220

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PART 1: RECOGNIZING THE SELF

The Core of Influence: The Self

One of the key characteristics that differentiate the human species from

the rest of the animal kingdom is reflexive thought. Reflexive thought

works in two major ways. One, it allows you to think about your present

identity in relation to society and its various components and subgroups

and two, it also allows you to analyze how people see you as a distinct

and unique member of society.

Reflexive thought is the seed of individualism, creativity and excellence

and in many ways, this capability has allowed human to create vast

civilizations within a small timeframe compared to the time spent by

other species that have existed before humans.

The existence of reflexive thought proves that it takes more than

intelligence and the ability to use tools to forge a civilization. More than

anything, self-awareness has made humans what they are in the first

place. Without self-awareness, there will be no concept of survival and

there would be no „race‟ against other members of the species for better

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living spaces, resources, etc. In short – without reflexive thought, modern

society as we know it will not exist today.

Self-Awareness

With the presence of the self comes the realization that we are all distinct

individuals with peculiar behaviors, drives and desires. This

individuation (which occurs on the most basic levels of human

community and interaction) is defined by self-awareness. Self-awareness

is like your rear-view and side-view mirrors: it gives you a way to

evaluate your own position in relation to others.

With self-awareness, you become more aware of your positionality within

specific contexts or situations. It gives you access to true knowledge

regarding your own thought patterns and behaviors. Without self-

awareness, you will not be able to exert influence over others because

influence requires a mastery of the self, primarily, not of others.

We will come back to this crucial point later on in the book. Suffice to

say, self-awareness plays a very crucial role in the formation of one‟s

identity, which is the cornerstone of influence in society. Now, does self-

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awareness emerge along with other natural instincts, like suckling or

moving around our arms when feel like we‟re falling from a high place?

The answer is no: self-awareness, though it is peculiar to the human

species, actually develops over a period of time. Babies are not born with

a concept that they are distinct individuals moving about in an

environment with ever changing variables. An old study conducted a few

decades ago proved that at the outset, babies will treat their own mirror

reflections as other individuals.

However, when babies reached at eighteen months of age, they will begin

to react to their reflection in the mirror by performing actions that will

validate that they are indeed the ones in the mirror. For example, if you

place a red dot on an eighteen month old baby‟s nose, that baby will

react by touching the red dot on his nose. That single action marks the

transition from being „just‟ a baby to a being a self-ware individual.

Now, why does this happen in the first place? According to studies in

neurological science, it appears that the frontal lobe (which is

responsible for intentional behavior) begins to develop at an accelerated

pace at this age. During adulthood, there is evidence that there is also

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increased activity in the frontal lobe when a person chooses to be more

self-aware.

The Two Kinds of Self-Awareness

There are generally two kinds of self-awareness: private self-awareness

and public self-awareness. An individual becomes temporarily self-aware

about his appearance or actions when he sees himself on a mirror or

when he stops to think what he will be doing throughout the day. When

a person chooses to engage in private self-awareness, three things

happen:

1. There is a heightened emotional response

2. There is a more accurate analysis of existing condition

3. There will be reinforcement of familiar beliefs

Let‟s discuss these three consequences. The first consequence revolves

around a person‟s emotions. If a person is happy when he becomes

privately self-aware, the tendency is that he will become even happier.

There is a marked intensification of existing emotional states.

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Inversely, a depressed individual, upon contemplating his current

circumstances, may become even more depressed. A person‟s state of

mind is affected greatly by self-awareness and contemplation, which is

why it‟s important to shift out of negative emotional states because

negative emotions will only attract more negative emotions.

The second consequence is that a person becomes more aware of what‟s

happening within himself and without. A person who is privately self-

aware will base his analysis on what is truly happening rather than what

is being said by others.

There is an increased drive to clarify new and existing knowledge and the

person becomes more aware of the variables and conditions in his own

situation. The third consequence concerns self-validation more than

anything.

A person who is not self-aware will find it easier to change specific

behaviors if these behaviors have a negative impact on himself; inversely,

if a behavior is proving to be a beneficial behavior, he will continue on

the same path.

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Self-awareness on the other hand, will allow a person to „stick to his

guns‟ regardless of the impact of the behavior. Normative forces in

society will not affect a person‟s decision to stick to his behaviors.

Influence, therefore, decreases, when a person becomes privately self-

aware.

The second kind of self-awareness (based on a person‟s positionality) is

public self-awareness. Public self-awareness occurs when a person

experiences heightened self-consciousness because he can be evaluated

by another person or by a group of people (i.e. the media, an audience in

a meeting, audience in an academic presentation, etc.)

Anxiety and other negative emotions are common when a person

experiences public self-awareness. When you become too self-aware

when you have to present something to an audience, your body language

and speech will reveal your exact emotions. If you think that you will not

look good when you talk to someone or when you present something to a

large audience, you become even more anxious and nervous.

During periods of public self-awareness, a person also becomes aware of

two different images or projections of himself: the private image (or what

he thinks of himself) and the public image (the image seen by others

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when he is evaluated by the public). There is a big difference between

what you think you look like and what others see in you.

If there is a big incongruence between these two images, people tend to

think and feel negatively. Public self-awareness, unlike private self-

awareness, has a normative impact on people. Public self-awareness can

force a person to adhere to certain parameters of acceptable behavior.

The kinds of behavior that may be adapted by a public self-aware

individual will vary depending on the situation.

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Now, it is important to note that it is normal for people to become self-

aware at specific situations. There is nothing wrong with self-awareness;

in fact, with self-awareness, you can discover more about yourself and

you can improve the facets of yourself that have a direct impact on the

persona that you are projecting to the public.

However, if you become too self-conscious and you fail to use this ability

to reflect on your public image and your behavior, you may have to deal

with certain consequences. According to studies, people who have a very

high level of private self-awareness are more likely to develop neuroses or

psychological problems (i.e. depression) because self-aware people tend

to focus on negative aspects of their lives instead of the positive aspects.

This tendency to continually ruminate on the negative has a marked

impact on a person‟s mental health. What about public self-awareness?

Public self-awareness allows a person to adjust his behavior for a

particular group of people.

That‟s why we used the term „normative‟ earlier. However, too much

public self-awareness can also have a negative impact on yourself.

Chronic and heightened public self-awareness may affect you in two

ways. First, you may become obsessed with „fitting in‟. A person who is

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too preoccupied with „fitting in‟ may sacrifice his creativity and

individuality in the process of fitting in.

So you can imagine putting yourself in a situation where you sport the

same hairstyle, clothes and mannerisms of those around you. In essence,

that‟s what too much normativity does. It homogenizes people and cuts

out the parts of a group that is simply different.

Because of this marked change in the way you think because of

heightened public self-awareness, you may also begin to evaluate other

people based solely on their outward appearance and public projection.

In a way, your perspective of the world changes drastically because you

will no longer be interested in critically analyzing what‟s in front of you.

You will simply look once and examine a „thin slice‟ of the situation

based on physical appearance and other superficial traits.

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Self-Knowledge: The Roadmap to the Self

Self-awareness is like the doorway that leads directly to who you are.

This type of reflexive thought allows a person to literally examine what

his life has been like and what he can do to improve it.

Now, the human mind thrives on organization. Memories and thoughts

are not store haphazardly; there is a system and self-awareness itself

uses a particular scheme to store information in a way that will make

sense to a person when he is engaged in reflective thought. This scheme

is called the self-schema.

A self-schema can be defined in two ways:

1. A self-schema shows you exactly how you intend to react to

specific situations and events.

2. A self-schema consists of our experiences and traits; specific traits

are bound to different events. Our behavior is defined by the way

we react to people and situations.

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Here are examples of self-schemas:

Person A has always been an introvert (because he has always been a

quiet person at school and he keeps to himself most of the time).

He is good at sports (he joined the basketball team in high school and

earned an educational scholarship with his basketball prowess).

Person A has always loved Oriental cooking (as evidence by his preference

for Chinese and Japanese cuisine).

Take note that we do not code all of traits, tendencies and behaviors in

one large schema. We create many schemas in our memory and we use

these schemas as needed.

As you can imagine, some self-schemas are more useful and important

than other schemas. Some minor schemas are only used in rare

occasions (i.e. when a person is required to dance in front of others with

a partner; the response to this type of situation is dictated by the

particular schema that a person already has about similar experiences).

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It is very important to become aware of our self-schemas because these

are the internal codes that we refer to when we need to something.

Without self-schemas, reflective thought and meaningful interaction with

others is simply not possible. When a person is faced with a situation, it

is the self-schema that tells the person directly what to do.

Stimulus/Experience/
Self-Schemas Action
Event

This diagram shows how self-schemas are utilized in every activity and

interaction.

Simply put – you cannot escape your own self-schemas any more than

you can escape the fact that you have to wake up at one point during the

day. It is unavoidable which is why we need to embrace it because you

can actually use self-schemas to improve the way you behave or react in

different situations.

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How Does the Concept of the Self Come About?

We all know now that we are able to access knowledge about ourselves

by referring to the various self-schemas that we have developed over the

years. But the question now is: how do these self-schemas develop in the

first place?

Modern studies in human behavior and thinking have been able to define

specific contours and boundaries when it comes to the formation of the

concept of the self. Of course, there can be endless debates as to how the

self is actually developed over time.

The concept of the self is so important to so many disciplines that you

will find different models and theories about it across a wide plethora of

fields such as anthropology, philosophy and even literary criticism. But

for the purpose of this book, we will be looking carefully at the concept of

the self as it is applied directly to any social setting.

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Now, let‟s move on to a concept called self-comparison. Self-comparison is

every important to the concept of the self because without it, there would

be no way for a person to establish coordinates that will allow him to

develop the self over time.

How does self-comparison work? Here‟s a straightforward explanation:

self-comparison works by setting standards that person would model

himself against. These standards may come from an ideal mental image

of the self or from certain standards emanating from one‟s own social

group. The type of comparison taking place in our minds is dependent on

the kind of self-awareness that we have.

If you are always privately self-aware, you are more concerned with

personal standards of appearance, behavior, accomplishments, etc. If

you have a higher level of public self-awareness, you will be more

concerned with what other people think of you and how other see you, so

you are more concerned with extraneous standards of behavior,

appearance, etc.

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Self-comparison can happen on both conscious and subconscious levels.

So even if you are not consciously thinking that you are trying to satisfy

certain standards in your life, you are actually actively working to fulfill

these standards in your own life.

Only a person with very dim self-awareness will be able to avoid this type

of thinking because any person who wants to at the best position to

influence others and to accomplish his goals in life would want full

access to mental tools that will allow a person to modify his way of

thinking.

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The Four-Step Feedback Method

According to one theory, people consciously (or unconsciously) use a

four-step feedback method to test whether or not they are attaining

personal goals or satisfying particular standards. You can use this

feedback method too, so you can systematically improve certain aspects

of your life that require your attention. The four-step feedback method

works this way:

Step # 1: Identify a particular goal or standard that you think would help

improve yourself in any way.

Step # 2: Ask yourself – do you already fulfill this standard or have you

attained this goal?

If the answer is “no”, proceed to Step # 4. If the answer is “yes”, proceed

with Step # 3.

Step # 3: What would help you attain this goal or satisfy this

private/personal or public standard? Test your theory and perform the

actions needed to satisfy the standard you had in mind. After testing your

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theory through action and appropriate decision-making, ask yourself once

again: do you satisfy the standard?

If the answer is “no”, repeat Step # 3. If the answer is “yes”, proceed to

Step # 4.

Step # 4: You have completed the feedback method.

It is crucial that you always ask yourself this vital question when you are

performing the four-step feedback method: am I attaining my goal with

what I am doing? Since you are choosing to consciously perform this

feedback method, I have to remind you gentle folks that you have to go

back to Step # 3 if you still haven‟t satisfied the standard or goal that you

had in mind.

Since this process of self-critique can be quite taxing, I recommend that

you focus on one standard or one goal only whenever you want to

perform this feedback method. Because according to social theory, 9

times out of 10, you will be mentally tuckered out after just one round

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with the four-step feedback method. So learn to pace yourself and don‟t

focus on other issues when you are actively engaged in this method.

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How We Handle Discrepancies

As a person develops and adjusts his own identity (or self) to the

constantly changing demands of the world that he lives in, he uses

different tools to reach goals and satisfy beneficial standards. With

constant striving he is able to implement changes to the way he thinks,

interacts and behaves in different situations.

Whenever a person becomes consciously self-aware, he has to contend

with three very different (yet intimately associated) self-schemas: the

actual self, the ought self and the ideal self. The actual self reflects a

person‟s behavior, thought patterns, tendencies and accomplishments at

the present time.

So in essence, it‟s the „basket of goodies‟ that a person carries around

with him wherever he goes. The contents of the basket are already in his

possession. The ought self on the other hand, is composed of self-

schemas that show a person what kinds of traits or goals he should

pursue.

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The “ought self” is a self-image based on what we think we should do in

life (i.e. an office worker may imagine himself to be a photographer or

artist instead of being „just‟ an office worker). The ideal self is a set of

self-schemas that point to traits and accomplishments that a person

wishes he could possess in the future. It should be noted that the “ought

self” is usually developed using standards and expectations that are

extraneous to oneself.

Here‟s an example: Person B is currently working as a line cook in a

restaurant. Deep down he feels that he wants to be a painter or

photographer. He loves the arts. His parents on the other hand, want

him to pursue a career in engineering. Here‟s how we can break down

the various self-schema groups:

Actual self: line cook

Ought self: Engineer

Ideal self: Artist

Even if Person A did not receive any feedback from his family, the “ought

self” would eventually develop due to the pressures of society itself.

Notice that if you perform a facile analysis of the three group self-

schemas, there is incongruity or discrepancy.

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Incongruity or discrepancy between groups of self-schemas is very

common – which is why self-aware individuals are almost always working

hard to make sure that the actual self is congruent with the “ought self”

and the “ideal self”.

Now, it is important to note right now that whenever you are trying to

resolve any differences between the three groups of self-schemas, you

have to stay focused on your different goals and you should not let your

emotional baggage get the best of you.

Because according to social psychology when people perform even small

activities that remind them of their “ought self” and “ideal self”, people

are at higher risk for psychological discomfort. There is a tendency for

people to become anxious, agitated, depressed and worried about their

own goals in life.

This shouldn‟t be the case anymore. If you want to create an ideal,

influential identity for yourself, you have to put yourself above the

emotional baggage. You must exert firm control over what you think and

what you feel. Gone are the days that you can be easily swayed by

negative emotions or a „bad day‟.

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To a person of influence, there is no such thing as a bad day anymore

because he would be too busy working on something that would

ultimately benefit himself. And there really is no reason for you to be

agitated about your other self-schemas.

Why should you be depressed or anxious in any way? These schemas are

yours. You created these schemas. You were the one who accepted these

standards in the first place and if something really isn‟t working out right

now and you feel depressed or agitated because of these self-schemas,

you can choose to either modify or adjust these self-schemas as you see

fit.

In the end, there really isn‟t a fixed ideal representation of what your

identity should be in the first place, because identities were meant to be

created and adjusted based on a person‟s capacities and his present

opportunities.

We create “ought” self-schemas and “idea” self-schemas by comparing

our actual self with the self-schemas of other people. This isn‟t

necessarily a bad thing, in fact, you can learn a lot about personal

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excellence from people that you look up to in terms of achievement,

accomplishments, etc.

What I‟m trying to point out here is that self-evaluation and self-schemas

should be used to complement your current abilities. If your self-schemas

make you feel anxious and degraded all the time, then your self-schemas

are essentially destructive/counter-productive.

In this kind of situation, there is no other choice but to completely

discard counter-productive self-schemas because in the end, you will

only become paralyzed with all the emotional baggage that these self-

schemas generate.

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Positive Social Reflection vs. Negative Social Comparison

Social comparison and social reflection can be so powerful that it can

affect your self-esteem. Merriam-Webster defines self-esteem as “a

confidence and satisfaction in oneself”. As you can already imagine, self-

esteem is an absolute necessity if you want to continue pursuing your

current goals.

But here‟s the problem: we can‟t help but engage in social comparison if

we know that another person is succeeding in something that we are

trying to be good in. We can‟t help but compare ourselves to others if we

are essentially threatened by the presence of another person who is

doing extremely well in what we do.

Is positive social reflection even possible? Well, it is – but only if one of

two conditions is present:

1. The other person is in a field of endeavor that does not matter to

you.

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2. You know that you are also doing extremely well and the success

of other person within the same field of endeavor does not threaten

you at all.

If both of these conditions are absent, upward social comparison will take

place. If you don‟t like the idea of comparing yourself to others so much

because it prevents you from focusing on your own drive to be the best at

what you do, there are four simple strategies that you can use:

Strategy # 1: Mentally exaggerate the skills of the other person so you

wouldn‟t be on the same „playing field‟ anymore. For example, if Person A

is intimated by Person B‟s performance at work, he can say tell himself

that the other person is older and more experienced by far. If the playing

field is made uneven, direct comparison would become irrelevant. The

other person‟s achievements would then become an inspiration instead of

being a threat.

Strategy # 2: Instead of comparing yourself to the person who threatens

you the most, compare yourself to others who are not performing as well

as you do. We are not engaging in fanciful imaginings here – we are

actually consciously changing our perspective and positionality to avoid

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upward comparison. Because you have to engage in reflective thought

the effort should produce something positive.

Strategy # 3: If the very presence of the other person makes you feel

anxious and worried, why do you have to tolerate the other person‟s

presence? Distance yourself – and focus on you own goals for personal

excellence.

Strategy # 4: Shift the point of comparison. If the other person is good at

persuasive speaking, find another point of comparison where you would

emerge the superior person. For example, Person XYZ may be good at

something else, but that won‟t matter anymore because you have

another excellent set of skills.

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Self-Esteem

As critical beings with the ability to reflect on our own standing in

society, we spend most of our days accomplishing one goal after another

in the hopes that we will someday become fully satisfied with our various

self-schemas.

Before a person can have enough confidence to carry out his life‟s goals,

he needs a relatively stable level of self-esteem. Now, people have varying

levels of self-esteem, depending on the situation.

A neurosurgeon may feel extremely confident in the operating room but

his self-esteem may drop if he was required to perform social dancing in

front of his colleagues. A person‟s self-esteem is intrinsically tied with his

self-schemas.

Since a person‟s behavior in specific contexts is determined by individual

self-schemas, a person who has mostly negative self-schemas will react

negatively to most situations. Does self-esteem have an effect on a

person‟s valuation of his own concept of the self?

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Actually, it does: having a low self-esteem means a person has low

valuation of his „self‟. Inversely, a person who has a high level of self-

esteem has a high/positive valuation of his concept of the self.

How does a person‟s self-esteem come about in the first place? Does a

person have a consistent level of self-esteem when is born? Or is it

something that develops over time with the help of people from a person‟s

environment?

According to studies in social psychology, people who have been brought

up by parents who are authoritarian (i.e. parents who consistently

demand specific modes of behavior and actions from their kids) but are

responsive to the needs of their children tend to have higher self-esteem

than folks who have been brought up by parents who are demanding but

are permissive or very indulgent toward their children.

In short – people who have been brought up by parents with expectations

and are able to reinforce these expectations through positive action are

more likely to have a consistent level of high self-esteem.

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Demanding

Authoritatian

Responsive to
needs

High level of self esteem

Demanding

Authoritarian

Permissiveness

Low self-esteem

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What impact does self-esteem have on a person‟s ability to face

challenges in life? Well, it appears that people who have high self-esteem

are more adept in mood regulation. Mood regulation is actually an

indicator of how motivated a person is to improve his outlook in life.

A person who has a more positive outlook of the self is more likely to act

upon negative moods. Inversely, a person who has chronic low self-

esteem will most likely dwell on negative emotions and thought patterns.

I must point out at this point in time that there is big difference between

a reasonably high level of self-esteem and false self-esteem – which is

also known as narcissism. Narcissistic individuals appear to have high

self-esteem but their version of self-esteem is actually very unsteady.

Narcissistic individuals are extremely dependent on direct social

validation to keep their self-esteem at a certain level. If social validation

does not produce the type of validation that will complement their high

self-esteem, then a person may become extremely defensive and

aggressive in response to the threat to the ego.

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A person who has a normal level of self-esteem will not respond with

aggression (or at least, not as frequently as a narcissistic individual).

People with low self-esteem will not react aggressively when their ego is

threatened.

For narcissistic individuals, an aggressive response is the first line of

defense against anyone or anything that stands in the way of a

consistently high self-esteem. This is why people who have narcissistic

tendencies are more likely to become extremely argumentative when

other people disagree with their ideas.

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The Most Powerful Self-Motive of All

Why do we hold on to the concept of the self all the time? Why do we

continually struggle with private and public standards of achievement,

appearance, etc.? There are three associated motivations with the self:

- Self-verification

- Self-assessment

- Self-enhancement

Among these three associated motivations, no motivation is more

powerful than self-enhancement. The motivation for self-enhancement

pushes a person to seek new information as to how he can improve

himself in different ways.

This self-motive is present in everything that we do unless a person

consciously avoids thinking about himself when he tries to accomplish

things. Self-awareness and self-motive are intimately associated; one

cannot exist without the other.

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When a person is motivated by self-enhancement, he looks for positive

information that will help him achieve goals or satisfy standards. There is

a big contrast if we compare self-enhancement with self-verification.

Self-verification is primarily concerned with finding differences or

discrepancies between groups of self-schemas. In a way, this leads a

person to focus on negative aspects of himself rather than on positive

aspects. It is alright to seek out genuine weaknesses and areas that you

can improve but I have to warn everybody that you should never dwell on

negative aspects of the self.

Dwelling on something is quite different from acknowledging it and

acting upon a negative aspect to improve that aspect. If you focus on

self-enhancement most of the time, you will be able to modify your

behavior in such a way that you will be able to continually reach your

goals by simply being yourself. The modification of negative traits will

come naturally as you implement plans that you have devised after you

have utilized the self-enhancement motive.

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Self-Enhancement Strategies

People make use of two main strategies to maintain their positive outlook

in life. The first strategy focuses on self-affirmation. Self-affirmation

usually occurs when a person suffers from low self-esteem, either

because he feels that he has not been able to attain his goals or he his

ego has been threatened in some other way by people or situations.

A person affirms his positive traits and qualities in the face of low self-

esteem to raise his self-esteem and to improve his outlook in life. This

strategy is useful not only for raising your self-esteem but also for

improving the chances of following through with plans and goals.

According to a foundational study, it was discovered that people who

affirmed that they possessed a particular trait or were ready for a

particular undertaking were 95% more likely to respond to a similar

undertaking just so they can re-affirm that they indeed possess this trait

or capability.

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The second self-enhancement strategy is called selective attribution.

Here‟s how it works:

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Let me explain how this strategy is actually implemented: when

something good happens to a person, he will immediately attribute his

success to internal factors, like his traits. Inversely, when a person

experiences something bad, like failure, he will attribute the failure or

negative event to extraneous factors (i.e. other people, society,

circumstances, etc.)

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Here are some examples of how this strategy is used by people to

maintain their level of self-esteem:

“I aced the exam because I have always been clever in Mathematics.”

“I failed the exam because the teacher did not discuss the subject matter

adequately.”

“I got a hole-in-one today because I’ve been working so hard on my swing

these past few months.”

“My golf was horrible today because of the wind speed and we tried out a

new golf course.”

“I sold a lot of products today because of my good marketing skills.”

“I wasn’t able to sell a lot of products because people didn’t have money

and they don’t know how to respond to a great marketer like me!”

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Developing the Social Self

Each person, whether he likes it or not, belongs to at least on social

group. If you do not belong to any other group in society, you still belong

to the primary social group which is your family.

We possess two distinct identities in this regard; the private self and the

social self. The social self can mature and develop adequately if we are

aware how social groups can impact the way we think, talk, decide and

behave.

If you a person identifies strongly with a particular social group, he

exerts consistent effort to incorporate thinking patterns, behavior,

personal traits and beliefs that his social group is espousing at the

moment.

Because people can easily adapt any behavior being espoused by the

majority of the members of a social group it is important for the social

group to create and maintain a positive group identity.

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A social group must not only look good from the inside, it must also look

good from the perspective of the public. Because as a group, it is still

being evaluated based on the norms of society itself and people are apt to

categorize social groups based on superficial traits.

How can a social group maintain its cohesion and positive social identity

from the inside? There should be constant comparison and evaluation

between the members of a group to ensure that specific ideals and

standards are followed.

As a group, members can compare themselves to members of other

similar social groups so they can improve discrepancies and weaknesses.

For example, a small group of aspiring photographers would usually

compare their activities with a much older and more established

organization of professional photographers or advanced amateur

photographers to see what they can do to come close to the level of

expertise of the older and more experienced photograph group.

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It is normal for members of certain social groups to show a bias when it

comes to upward comparison of similar social groups. If a person feels

threatened by another group, his social self will immediately come to the

fore to protect his own social group.

The social self has a great preference for „smaller and smaller social

circles‟. For example, a person who belongs to a large stamp-collecting

club would have an in-group of his own that he would prefer to work

with at all times.

Within that small in-group, that person would have his own pals that he

would prefer over other members of the smaller in-group. As a person

joins smaller and smaller social circles, he is able to gauge his social self

based on comparisons of his sub-group to the main group, the main

group versus other similar groups, etc.

Your social identity has an intimate association with the collective

identity of your social group. If you belong to a group that has a positive

social identity, you would have no problems competing with other groups

because you know that your group looks good from the outside and from

the inside, it is doing what it does best.

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But what do you do when your group is suffering from a poor public

image? A group with a poor public image cannot compete easily with

other groups because from the perspective of the public, you have a

weaker group. There are some strategies to handle this kind of situation:

1. Your group can try to compete with a higher ranking group in

certain aspects to improve the status of your social group.

2. Your group can try to discover something that you are better at

compared to other groups. This gives the public eye a new

dimension to scrutinize and evaluate positively. If you succeed in

any of these two strategies, your group‟s social identity will become

more positive and members of your group will reap the benefits of

the change.

If your group is not showing any redeeming values a third strategy exists:

leave the group. Leaving a group completely or dis-identifying with a

group allows a person to renew his private identity and find a new social

group to identify with.

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Now how do you deal with the ups and downs of having a social group?

For example, if you are a member of a particular group of workers within

your company, how can you maintain a more positive self-concept in the

face of variable successes and failures? There are two ways to do this:

1. If your group is successful, you can simply bask in the glory of the

moment because you are part of the group and you are entitled to

the positive social identity that your group has is enjoying because

of its current success.

2. If your group has failed at something, you simply have to look past

the failure and not dwell on it. You should also encourage other

members of your group to do the same – never dwell on negativity

and failures!

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In Focus: Cultural Differences

We now live in a very multi-cultural and globalist world. Gone are the

days when you have to deal with just one large group of cultural values.

Now we have to contend with economic and cultural forces that are

reshaping the very landscape that we have been so familiar with before.

Why are we discussing cultural differences now?

Well, there are some differences in the concept of the self across various

cultures throughout the world. Differences brought about by culture will

have a large impact on a person‟s ability and mode of interacting with

people from other cultures. To be truly a person of influence, you must

be able to navigate the stream of cultural differences that is becoming

more and more common nowadays.

We don‟t have to engage in a very lengthy discussion of cultural

differences because there are only a handful of vital facts that you have

to be aware of when dealing with people from other countries and

cultures:

1. Countries that are collectively place under the rubric of the

West/Occident usually espouse a dominant ideological tendency of

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individualism. Individualist cultures champion the importance of

the unique individual and promote fair competition, innovation,

creativity, etc.

2. Countries that have a more collectivist culture emphasize the

importance of belongingness and nationhood. A person coming

from this culture isn‟t just a lone individual with his own private

identity.

He is a member of the nation and everything that he does is a

reflection of the nation that he belongs to as a whole. A person

from a collectivist culture does not enter a foreign country as a

Jane Doe or John Doe, he enters as a member of a foreign

collectivist culture. There is always a reference to the „mother land‟

or „father land‟.

3. Migrants from other countries will often face the problem of

sticking to old cultural values or adopting the cultural values of

the host country. Usually people choose biculturalism instead of

subscribing to just one mode of thinking.

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A bicultural individual chooses to keep his old cultural values

intact while adapting to new ways of thinking. Biculturalism helps

reduce friction between native peoples and migrants and also helps

migrants find their place in their new society more quickly.

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PART 2: ATTRIBUTIONS

The Role of Attribution in People’s Lives

Imagine going to work one day feeling extremely happy because you got

some good news. Naturally, you want to spread the good cheer to your

office mates, so you make eye contact with an office mate that you rarely

talk to and smile to him.

You wave your hand a little to say „hi‟ to the person. In return, your

officemate literally slams down his hands and storms out of the office,

leaving papers and pens scattered in his cubicle. Your office mate is

visibly upset by something.

Was it you who did that? What could have triggered such behavior from

your office mate? As you think of the reasons why a person would behave

in such a manner, you are actually attributing potential causes of the

other person‟s reaction and behavior.

Attribution is the foundation of social cognition or how folks like you and

me think about other folks. At the outset, attribution itself is more about

rationalization than epistemology. Attribution is more concerned with

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linking together what you already know than generating new knowledge

about a particular even.

Humans, being critical and rational beings, engage in attribution due to

two basic reasons:

1. People need to come up with a perspective of their society and its

members that would make complete sense to them.

2. Attribution demystifies events and interactions with other people

which in turn reduce the strangeness of the world at large.

Rationalization, coupled with better understanding, can give a

person more control over his own life and the actual reality that he

is in.

People feel the need to attribute in everyday life because the process of

attribution produces not only potential reasons why an event happened

the way it did but because this process also actively gives meaning to the

world that we live in. Meaning itself can only be possible if a person

thinks about something.

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Meaning does not exist in a vacuum, to be picked up by people as they

please. You have to think in order to make sense of something that is in

front of you. People create meaning; meaning does not „find‟ a person. If a

person says that the meaning of life revealed itself to him in a dream it is

more likely that he has been obsessing about this topic for quite some

time and his brain finally gave him an answer.

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Kinds of Attribution

There are two general categories of human attribution: internal attribution

and external attribution. When people try to make sense of an event, they

can either attribute the event to internal traits and characteristics or

they can attribute it to external forces and circumstances. Here‟s an

example: imagine that you were walking in a quiet street when all of a

sudden, a car screeches out of control and „parks‟ itself on the sidewalk.

All its lights are flashing but it didn‟t hit the small store that was

standing a few inches from its bumpers. You observe how the driver

nonchalantly backs up his car and drives away after the frightening

display. You try to figure out what just happened and you come up with

these causes:

Internal attributions:

“Maybe the driver is just plain crazy!”

“The driver has to be drunk to do that kind of stunt.”

“The guy has to be in a really bad mood.”

“Maybe he the guy is just learning how to drive.”

“That guy doesn‟t know how to park properly!”

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External attributions:

“Maybe he got spooked by a big truck somewhere.”

“The guy‟s brakes got jammed, probably.”

“The car is old, maybe that‟s why he can‟t control it well.”

“Maybe this just wasn‟t a good day for him.”

Internal and external attributions can also be further sub-categorized as

being stable or fluctuating. For example, an attribution that someone has

poor driving skills means you are invoking stability or natural ability

while an attribution that the guy has probably had one too many drinks

means you are invoking temporary or fluctuating conditions. Both types

of inference or attribution are affected by varying degrees of

controllability (i.e. drinking alcoholic beverages versus not drinking any

alcohol before driving).

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The How and Why of Attribution

There are two main theories regarding the process of attribution in

varying social contexts: the correspondent inference theory and the co-

variation model. Both these theories are helpful in figuring out how

people are able to create their own explanations of events and situations

that they meet every day.

Correspondent Inference Theory

The first theory of attribution stipulates that people make inferences

about other people that are indicative of internal traits and

characteristics, instead of external circumstances. Why do people choose

to think of internal characteristics instead of external circumstances?

The answer lies in people‟s general preferences for stability. For example,

if you meet a waiter who was not very helpful when you wanted to order

something special for yourself and your partner, it is likely that your first

attribution to such a behavior is that the waiter was simply incompetent.

Since the waiter has already been tagged incompetent, the tag of

incompetence will remain in the future. So in essence, you have been

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able to exert some degree of control over the situation since you will be

avoiding the waiter in the future to avoid inconvenience.

People don‟t usually attribute things based on external circumstances.

For example, if you did not get the kind of service that you wanted from a

restaurant, you won‟t think that maybe the waiter is just having a bad

day or maybe the management was evil because they did not train the

waiter adequately.

The instant tendency is people attribute internal characteristics to

behavior, actions, speech, etc.

Since we are always on the lookout for even more stability in our lives,

such inferences gives us the kind of knowledge and control that we want

because internal characteristics such as “incompetence” or “rudeness”

are essentially unchanging attributes. We attempt to associate behavior

and people‟s personalities based on three groups of facts:

- Social desirability

- Choice

- Non-common effects

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Let‟s discuss these three fact groups. Social desirability refers to the

desirability of a person‟s behavior compared to what is considered

acceptable/normal/agreeable or desirable in society in specific contexts.

People believe that when people show undesirable behavior, this

undesirable behavior is linked to an internal trait or internal

characteristic. People use this fact group to create attributions because

people usually want to stay within the bounds of acceptable behavior at

all times.

When a person stays within the bounds of what is considered normal or

acceptable, he will not be excluded in any way. Inversely, a person who

chooses to act beyond the bounds of what is considered acceptable may

be excluded or ridiculed for what he has done.

This ridicule itself has a function – in a way, it forces a person to cease

from performing the same unacceptable behavior and return to what is

considered normal. Now, let me ask you: do socially desirable behaviors

tell us what type of person we are actually dealing with?

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The answer is: not necessarily. You see, people perform „acceptable

behavior‟ on a regular basis so they can avoid exclusion. In a way, this is

one form of self-preservation.

If Person A‟s car was slightly scratched by another motorist, he will

accept the apology and attempt to fix the situation with the least amount

of hullabaloo because this is the acceptable mode of behavior in such a

situation.

However, this behavior does hide the fact that Person A may have felt like

being aggressive and violent when his car was damaged. What about

people who show undesirable behavior?

It‟s the direct opposite when you are dealing with people who openly

show to the public unacceptable behavior. Since these folks are not even

thinking of socially acceptable behavior anymore, their behavior may be

indicative of their actual internal traits and personalities.

The second fact group involves free choice. People can make inferences

about another person‟s behavior by evaluating whether or not the other

person‟s action was freely and consciously chosen or not.

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If a person freely chose to do something then by virtue of his conscious

choice he is actually revealing a part of himself to the public eye. Why

would a person freely choose to do something? The answer is simple: the

decision resonates with his personality and beliefs.

The third fact group deals with unique consequences. When an action or

behavior results in a unique consequence, a person can classify the same

as having a non-common effect.

Events that have unique consequences or non-common effects are most

likely caused by internal traits (i.e. a person who screams at people at the

slightest provocation will be despised by people; that person will also be

classified as being anti-social and aggressive and ultimately, he should

be avoided by others).

The Co-variation Model

The obvious limitation of the first theory is that you would only be able to

analyze singular events or behaviors. You won‟t be able to take into

account behavior patterns and multiple behaviors. The co-variation model

of attribution handles the limitations of the first theory. The co-variation

model, unlike the first theory, takes into account internal

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traits/characteristics as well as external circumstances. The core principle

of the co-variation model is simple: for something to cause or trigger a

particular behavior, it must be present when a person is exhibiting the

behavior. On the flipside, the behavior must not exhibit itself when the

potential cause is absent.

Three types of information are vital to the co-variation model:

- Consensus

- Consistency

- Distinctiveness

All three clusters of information are used by a person to create an

internal attribution or external attribution. Consensus refers to similar

behavior of people around the target subject. Are other people exhibiting

the same behavior as the subject? Consistency on the other hand

answers the question: does the person behave in the same way in other

occasions? Distinctiveness (the third cluster) refers to the frequency of a

particular behavior in other contexts and situations (i.e. will a rude

person stay rude if he was doing volunteer work?)

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The following table explores how people make attributions based on the

three clusters:

Cluster Degree Type of Attribution

Consensus High consensus Situational

Example:

Everyone is driving

strangely.

Low consensus Dispositional

Example:

Only Person A is

driving strangely.

Consistency High consistency Dispositional

Example:

Person A drives

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strangely all the time.

Low consistency Situational

Example:

Person A drove

strangely today.

Distinctiveness High distinctiveness Situational

Example:

Person A drove

strangely on Monday.

Low distinctiveness Dispositional

Example:

Person A has always

driven strangely

around the city.

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Not every situation will be analyzed with these three distinct clusters of

information. Sometimes, people just stick to one or two clusters and

attribute causes to behavior without bothering with the third cluster.

The presence (or absence) of any of these clusters will dictate whether a

situational (external) or dispositional (internal) attribution will result

from a person‟s analysis of a situation.

If a person sees that everyone in the environment is doing the exact same

thing (i.e. students in a whole auditorium is wearing a red cap) then the

attribution will most likely be situational.

However, if only the speaker is wearing a red cap, then the attribution

will most likely be dispositional (i.e. the speaker likes wearing red caps).

It should be noted also that not everyone performs analysis based on the

co-variation model. In fact, when you look at the co-variation model, it

actually resembles a conscious train of thought that requires utmost

attention.

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This doesn‟t mean that the model is wrong; it just means that at any

given time, a person can be using other methods of deduction to

understand the world at large. The two theories we have just discussed

are by no means strict rules that people follow.

According to researchers, people often react to situations based on gut

feel or what people like to call their instincts. People won‟t spend a lot of

time thinking whether or not a person should be trusted. If a person is

threatened by another person, he will instinctively avoid that person

because he will be acting instinctively.

In a way, this is how people engage in self-preservation. And this is also

how people show that they will always choose the path of least resistance

when interacting with people, especially people who are showing

behaviors that are not socially acceptable. In short: people like shortcuts

when it comes to the process of making attribution and analyzing things.

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Self-Serving Attributions

When we hear “self-serving” we usually think of something negative or

selfish; I‟m here to tell you today that in the context of attribution, the

word „self-serving‟ actually has a more positive connotation.

You see, when people analyze situations, they do it without referring to

themselves. For example, if a person was driving down a quiet street and

a guy in a motorcycle suddenly appeared from nowhere and nearly hit

the person‟s car, the person in the driver‟s seat would probably think

that the motorcycle driver didn‟t have any road manners and didn‟t have

any knowledge of road safety at all.

But if you look at it from a broader perspective, the person in the car

probably has had his share of „bad driving‟ over the years. If the driver

had thought the motorcycle driver was incompetent, would he also

attribute his own bad driving in the past to incompetence or lack of

proper knowledge? Of course not.

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In the first situation, the driver of the car would be making an internal

attribution and in the future, should he see the same motorcycle driver

again, he would probably do his best to avoid the other person for his

own safety.

We don‟t realize that as we create attributions about other people, we

also suspend certain parameters so we can maintain our self-esteem and

our self-confidence. When someone does something wrong, we don‟t

reflect on our own mishaps in the past and use the same strategy of

attribution (internal attribution).

Instead, we would most likely use a self-serving attribution. Self-serving

attributions were meant to preserve a person‟s image of himself. Because

let‟s face it, we want to keep ourselves as ideal as possible in all aspects.

So if we drove badly in the past, we won‟t attribute our bad driving to

being incompetent. We will attribute it to something else, like bad road

conditions or someone suddenly calling your cellular phone while you

were trying to negotiate a sharp turn.

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Internal
Other Ordinary
attribution
people's process of
or external
behavior attribution
attribution

Your
negative Self-
External
behavior serving
attribution
and/or attribution
failures

Your
positive Self-
External
behavior serving
attribution
and/or attribution
success

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Attributions are essentially shortcuts to understanding and taking control

of the reality that we live in. If there was a car crash near our home, we

would immediately make attributions and make decisions based on those

attributions.

We won‟t approach the car and ask the driver if he is a safe driver or not.

We won‟t stick around long enough near the accident scene to determine

whether or not it was still safe to have the kids play in the street. We

would immediately make personal decisions based on what we attribute

to the situation.

Now let‟s talk about something closer to home – personal attributions or

attributions about ourselves. Often we like to think that we are very

objective fellows and we don‟t mind criticizing ourselves. But the real

question here is: how inclined are we to make internal attributions about

our own negative behaviors and failures?

If you make a mistake, would you make a dispositional (internal)

attribution or a situational (external) attribution? You don‟t have to feel

guilty or anything because it‟s a natural tendency to attribute personal

failures to external circumstances. It is also natural if we bask in the glory

of our successes by attributing our successes to internal traits.

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Why do we do this in the first place? Well, as I have mentioned earlier,

we do everything we can to preserve and support our self-concept. Only a

crazy person would intentionally destroy his self-concept because that

goes directly against the instinctual drive to protect ourselves and

survive no matter what it takes.

And that‟s how other people deal with their own situations. If something

good happens to another person, he will attribute the success or positive

event to an internal trait. If something bad happens, you can be sure

that there will be external attributions.

Let‟s try to apply the two modes of attribution to certain situations:

Situation # 1: You failed a math exam.

Possible attributions:

“I wasn’t able to study hard because of my rowdy roommate.”

“I didn’t have enough money and I was so worried that I wasn’t able to

study.”

“The professor didn’t motivate me in this course subject.”

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“My neighbors have been partying like crazy these past few weeks and I

barely have enough sleep every night.”

Situation # 2: You got promoted to a higher paying position, complete

with a new office and signature furniture.

Possible attributions:

“They loved what I did with the last project!”

“I am the best in what I do.”

“I am the only one in my team who knows what he’s doing.”

“I deserve this promotion because I am the most hardworking person in

this office.”

Note that both external and internal attributions can have a factual

basis. However, factuality doesn‟t really matter to people when it comes

to their own attributions about themselves.

For example, if a person did fail in a Math exam it is possible that he

wasn‟t able to study because of noisy neighbours but it is also possible

that this person was never really interested in studying hard

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If a person got a promotion and he was given a new office to work in, it

is possible that he was the most hardworking person in the office but it

is also possible that the promotion was given to him because there was

no one else to hold the position after a previous employee was fired for

not doing his job correctly. We have this particular attribution tendency

because we want to boost positive feelings about ourselves and we want

to avoid feeling bad or depressed about ourselves as often as possible.

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The Importance of Social Representations

Humans are social beings; we know this now for a fact. Everything about

our self-concepts is intimately associated with the public sphere. We can

be private individuals but in the end, we cannot help but look outward to

social groups and the larger society that we belong to.

A person can pretend to ignore society but his own thought patterns and

behaviors are still molded by both personal and public expectations. That

is why we now turn to social representations so we can zero in on one of

the most important aspects of the social being – us.

Social representations, unlike theories of attribution are studied

qualitatively by social scientists because it is nearly impossible to come

up with a bulletproof quantitative or statistics-based analysis of people‟s

beliefs and tendencies.

Knowledge itself cannot be measured accurately even in small

populations because knowledge eludes the common coordinates used in

statistics. So we have to shift our framework a little to accommodate the

fact that knowledge and causal relations (the core of human

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understanding) are transmitted by people and to people through informal

communication.

In an ideal society, everyone would have the opportunity to have the

same knowledge as everyone else. In such a utopian society, people

would be given the chance to receive equal amounts of knowledge.

Accurate measurement of competence and knowledgeableness would

also be possible since everyone was educated in the same way.

In the reality that we live in, this is simply impossible so humans have

devised ways to transmit knowledge in a more informal way. Of course,

we cannot expect knowledge to be full transmitted through informal

discussions.

You will have to expect some level of dilution when knowledge is passed

down literally from one person to another. Despite the nature of common

epistemic transfer, we have to remember that mass culture, popular

culture and even elite culture are created and bound by social

representations.

Do not be confused by the term „social representations‟. Often people

think that social representations can only be used for politicians and

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historic figures. In reality, social representations can be about anything

from warm donuts to what you have to do to avoid toe fungus.

Social representations are in the way we eat and how we choose a new

formal dress for that luncheon meeting. Social representations are in the

way we choose to be called in online social networking platforms and

chat rooms.

We cannot escape social representations any more than we can escape

communicating with other people through verbal and physical language.

Social representation exists because people agree about the causal

relations of things.

For example, it is widely held that a person who is shy and keeps to

himself is an introverted person. People who espouse this knowledge may

not have heard of Freud or psychoanalysis, but the remark that a shy

person may be an introverted person is essentially correct.

Knowledge from the academe has filtered down to popular/common

usage through word of mouth. The knowledge is diluted and is somewhat

incomplete, but people believe in this knowledge wholeheartedly because

other people believe in it to.

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You can imagine how powerful this concept can be when you think of

how people tend to accept new information more easily if other people

have already validated that what is being said is acceptable and true.

Think about this the next time that want to influence a large group of

people.

Again, you don‟t have to exert a tremendous amount of effort to convince

each and every one of the people in your audience. You just have to

convince one or two people but you have to do it in a way that will draw

in the rest of your audience so that they will more readily agree with

what you are saying.

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PART 3: COGNITION, HEURISTICS & CATEGORIZATION

Social Cognition

The world we live in makes sense to us because humans are capable of

social cognition. Social cognition is an over-arching term that refers to

how people process and encode information at any given time and how

people recall and utilize the same when they need to understand the

behavior of other people.

It is very important to understand how people actually process

information when they are trying to make sense of other people‟s speech

and actions. Earlier in the book we focused on some primary theories

regarding attribution, self-esteem and so forth.

Attribution is a vital social process that allows people to analyze

behaviors and events easily. However, more recent studies in social

psychology reveal that people do not necessarily engage in

critical/analytic processes all the time.

So it is possible for a person to attribute causal relations but it is also

possible that he is working purely on „gut feel‟. Does this mean that

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people are just plain lazy because they don‟t like to „think things

through‟? Not necessarily.

We have to remember that people have to face a lot of information on a

daily basis. Analysis and critical thinking are very taxing and people have

limited cognitive resources. Due to the limitations of the human mind

when it comes to processing large volumes of information, people have to

use „shortcuts‟ to arrive at rationalizations that will still help them make

sense of the world at large.

Back in the 70s and 80s, social scientists and psychologists championed

the idea that people were constantly thinking about people and physical

reality. Scientists came up with models that answered some questions

about how people actually attributed causal relations to the things they

encounter on a daily basis.

Social scientists came up with the idea that people were „naïve scientists‟

because they believed that we were always constantly testing our

theories and inferences about reality. Fast forward to the nineties –

younger researchers began seeing the flaws of the earlier models of

attribution.

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For one, these models were inherently limited because of fixed

coordinates (consistency, frequency, etc.). And statistically there was no

hard data that proved that people were indeed naïve scientists all the

time.

And so they created another theory: that people are actually cognitive

misers. Cognitive misers, as the name implies, do not expend a lot of

effort in trying to critically analyze available information.

Instead, they take shortcuts or they take „thin slices‟ of information so

they can make an analysis of a particular situation instead of using a

longer process of deduction and attribution.

Since humans are essentially limited when it comes to cognitive

resources, it is worthwhile to explore the newer theories of social

cognition because you would be able to apply these in your question for

influence.

We must remember though that even though people have a tendency to

take cognitive shortcuts to make inferences, it doesn‟t mean that they

will be at risk for inaccurate inferences.

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Amazingly, even though people have a tendency to skip long attribution

processes, they are still able to produce accurate inferences about events

and most importantly, the behavior of the people they meet.

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The Role of Heuristics

How are people able to create snappy yet accurate judgments without

going through complex mental calculations? How can a person remain

rational or logical even if he is essentially a cognitive miser? The answer

lies in heuristics.

Heuristics works in this manner: people take a large chunk of

information (i.e. casual relations) and create a „rule of thumb‟ based on

what they have understood from the large chunk of casual relations.

After creating the rule of thumb, similar situations will trigger the

memory of the rule of thumb and people can then make quick judgments

based on the rule of thumb alone.

Heuristics: Instant
Information "Rule of judgment/
thumb" inferences

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It is very easy to create inferences based on pre-formulated rules of

thumb. However, this method „thin slicing‟ information does come with a

downside. Social scientists discovered that no matter how objective a

person is, heuristics still produces biased output (just like attributions).

Now, there are actually two kinds of heuristic cognitive methods:

representativeness heuristic and availability heuristic.

Representativeness Heuristic

This type of heuristic utilizes general categories or prototypes to produce

valid inferences about a situation, thing or behavior. When a person

receives an input (i.e. a peculiar behavior from someone), he will

immediately reach into his reservoir of categories to check if he already

has a schema or category for this type of behavior.

If he is able to match the behavior with a category that already exists in

his memory, he will stick to this category and make a decision based on

what the heuristic method has given him. The representativeness

heuristic is present even in the small things that we do on a daily basis.

Here are some examples:

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When you go to a clinic, you try to find:

1. A man or woman wearing a scrub suit (NURSE)

2. A man or woman wearing a stethoscope and a white laboratory

gown (DOCTOR)

If you want to find a commodity in an unfamiliar grocery store:

1. You try to find an aisle that has similar products

You are lost and you don‟t know which direction to go:

1. You try to find road signs to more familiar areas

2. You try to find a sign that will lead you to a gas station or

someplace where you can ask directions

The representativeness heuristic is a deeply ingrained skill that every

person has. Though it is still essentially a theoretical model, I can say

with confidence that this heuristic is used by people very frequently and

on a daily basis.

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Imagine how you can apply this knowledge to increase your influence.

Since people use the representativeness heuristic to make quick

judgments, you can shape your words and behavior so that people would

become confident of what you are trying to convey more quickly, since

you are sending out the right signals that trigger both emotional and

logical responses from the other person.

So for example, if you are trying to sell a product or service to another

person, you won‟t have to think of very complex ways to influence the

other person to trust in what you say. You just have to identify potential

triggers that will convert the other person‟s thinking pattern.

Now, while it is very convenient for a person who is trying to influence

someone to use a particular tendency or weakness (in this case,

representativeness heuristic), we must also remember that the

representativeness heuristic still produces biased inferences or causal

relations.

Each person‟s particular bias to different social representations can

produce desirable or no so desirable valuations of your own words and

actions. For example, if you try to dress up well just before a meeting to

impress your bosses, you may impress your bosses but other members of

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the meeting (i.e. your team members or project co-workers) may think of

you as a complete braggart because you dressed above them.

The bosses think you are showing your professionalism since you

dressed well before presenting facts to them. However, your co-workers

will think that you might be trying to make them look bad because some

of them are wearing old suits and shirts while you chose to wear new suit

on the day of your big presentation.

Regardless of your actual intentions, people would still use the

representative heuristic to categorize you the moment they see you.

Going back to the presentation/meeting scenario, if you overdress,

members of the upper echelon of your company will immediately

categorize you with terms like “well dressed” or “smartly dressed” while

your co-workers will probably think of you as “over-dressed” or “a

braggart”.

As you can see, when a person makes an inference using the

representative heuristic, he automatically misses out on other potential

inferences that may be more accurate than his first inference.

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Availability Heuristic

While the representative heuristic is used to analyze people‟s behavior,

the availability heuristic is more frequently used to determine whether or

not an event is likely to happen based on available information about

similar events.

The availability heuristic is intimately associated with informational

accessibility or the degree at which a person can easily recall a situation

or event from his own memory. The big difference between the availability

heuristic and informational accessibility is that there is a subjective

participation when one uses the availability heuristic.

For example, the concept of cookies is easily accessible for most people

but that does not mean that a person would be constantly recalling his

subjective experiences about cookies. The only time that the information

becomes part of s heuristic would be when a person has to recall

something related to cookies when he has to make a decision related to

cookies.

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The availability heuristic in situations where we feel anxious about doing

something because we have read or heard about something similar. For

example, if there are a string of muggings in your area, you would have a

natural fear to go out alone at night because of the stories that you hear

from your neighbors.

Because of the high accessibility of related information (i.e. stories about

the muggings), you are led to believe that you should not go out at night

alone because you might be mugged, too.

False Consensus Effect

The false consensus effect is a specific bias that usually results from the

use of the availability heuristic. The false consensus effect points to the

tendency of some people to exaggerate the validity of their own opinion

by thinking that the majority of those around them will have the same

opinion.

There is no way to measure whether or not the majority of the population

will agree with a person and therefore, the false consensus effect will

never generate anything that is truly objective/neutral or statistics-

based. People just think that other agree with them. For example, if you

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ask someone if he likes a particular restaurant, his train of thought

would be something like:

1. “Yes, I like that restaurant it serves really good food at really great

prices.”

2. “I think other people like this restaurant, too”

3. “9 out of 10, people around this area will choose this restaurant over

other restaurants.”

As you can see, a person who has a false consensus effect will defend his

positive or negative statement about something by citing false consensus,

regardless of what other people actually think or feel about something.

The false consensus effect is quite common among people because long

standing beliefs are easily pulled from the conscious memory. Strongly

held beliefs are tied integrally to our own behaviors and tendencies and

therefore, our judgment of other people‟s appearance, behavior,

credibility, etc., are partially influenced by our own behavioral biases.

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Anchoring Heuristic

The anchoring heuristic has some similarities to the availability

heuristic. First, it is also based on informational accessibility. The more

accessible the information, the more quickly this heuristic is used.

Second, the anchoring heuristic can also result in a false consensus

effect.

However, the big difference between the anchoring heuristic and the

availability heuristic is that with the anchoring heuristic it is not the

informational accessibility that is the primary influence but the order at

which options are given to a person.

The anchoring heuristic is also more commonly used when a person has

to give a quantitative analysis of a situation. Studies regarding the

anchoring heuristic have shown that people are more likely to provide a

higher quantitative estimate if a person was given a higher starting point.

So for example, if you asked a person if there would be a 90% chance of

his favorite team winning (as opposed to asking him if there was more

than a 1% chance of the team winning), he would probably state a higher

quantitative estimate if you use the “90%” anchor.

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According to social scientists, our own use of the anchoring heuristic is

dependent not only on our own capacity to analyze but also on a peculiar

mechanism in our minds. You see, when something is presented to you

in a series, the first thing that is given to you becomes the most

accessible piece of information in the series.

So in essence, the mind latches on to this first element and slowly, the

mind‟s ability to latch on to the second element, third element and so

forth, is reduced over time (since our cognitive resources are inherently

limited).

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We Are Social Tacticians

Reading through all the strategies that I have included in this book, you

might be thinking: which strategy is really being used by people? Which

theory is the correct theory? Truth be told, we cannot really pin down a

single social theory when it comes to influence and identity.

In fact, if we were to do that, we would continually hit a brick wall

because people don‟t process information using just one internal

paradigm. People are essentially social tacticians regardless of culture

and education.

Over time, people learn how to use different processing strategies to

protect and enhance their self-concepts. And over time, people are also

able to examine different human behaviors and events using different

theoretical models.

Of course, people don‟t have to read about social attribution, social

representation and all these theories to be able to use them. Always

remember that the social aspects of culture were formed before these

theories were created.

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These theories only describe the existing social phenomena. Now if we

were to think about how people process information, you might think

that there would be some incongruence between reality and these

theories.

For example, we discussed earlier that people can be cognitive misers

because they make use of „rule of thumb‟ to „thinly slice‟ information to

make quicker evaluations of what‟s in front of them.

While it is true that this situations, people choose to expend their

cognitive resources to come up with a critical appraisal of an event or

situation. What does this all mean? Does this mean that people are

thinking chaotically and that meaningfulness can only be derived

through this chaos? Not necessarily.

What we do know now is that people also evaluate their inferences and

attributions before they can wholeheartedly believe in these and that

there are also other factors that affect a person‟s approach to analysis.

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People can also make use of a variety of different methods to come up

with a satisfactory analysis of a situation. Now, social scientists have

been able to identify four major factors that affect how a person chooses

his strategies when analyzing social situations:

1. Time availability

2. Cognitive load

3. Importance

4. Informational availability

Let‟s discuss the first factor, which is time availability. If a person is in a

rush and he has to make a quick judgment about something, which

strategy would be most likely? Well, it has been discovered that people

choose heuristics over other methods because this approach offers the

fastest route to a sound and accurate judgment.

I‟m not saying that every decision based on heuristics is a sound one,

but we have to admit that heuristics (anchor, representativeness and

availability) is a fairly easy way to get a good answer to our personal

queries.

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If a person does not have enough time to think of something critically,

using heuristic methods is the best option because it produces an answer

that would at least be close to a critical answer. The soundness of an

attribution created with heuristics will not be questioned because a

person who is using heuristics would be making use of his long-standing

beliefs and subjective experiences to “thinly slice” a situation.

The next major factor in our list is cognitive load. Cognitive load refers to

the amount of cognitive resources needed to carry out a mental task.

Among all the theories we have discussed so far, heuristics offers the

lowest cognitive load among all the methods.

Inversely, a person who wishes to test his theories about the world at

large would have to expend a lot more mental energy to get satisfactory

answers because he would analyze variables from the target situation

itself, whereas in heuristics, you don‟t even have to analyze the situation

anymore.

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You just note the event and try to match the event with an existing

experience in your memory. Also, if you have a high cognitive load to

begin with (i.e. you are thinking about your work all the time), you

simply won‟t have any time left to engage in more critical/analytical

thought patterns. The mind would shift gears and choose heuristics over

long attribution processes because you already have something in your

mind that you have to pay close attention to.

The third factor is importance. We all know that not all information is

important. In fact, I‟m willing to bet that 85% of all the information that

you receive on a daily basis is not crucial and does not require your

immediate attention.

This is one unfortunate truth that we have to contend with in our

modern time. With the further evolution of the Internet, things have

changed considerably. Thirty years ago, people were only barraged by

advertisements and other wads of „disposable information‟ when a person

choose to read a newspaper or any other printed medium.

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With the Internet, information overload is highly likely. The human mind

is extremely efficient. It won‟t allow the information overload to get the

best of it. What it will do is it will simply raise its selectivity level so that

only the most crucial bits of information are processed thoroughly.

For example, if you receive an advertisement for a hair growth solution,

would you think about that more than a call that says that your house

was on fire? Of course not. The mind automatically (and urgently) pulls

to the surface memories and schemas so you make a quick and almost

reflexive decision to disregard the hair growth advertisement because

your house is on fire.

Also, people tend to be more critical if the information at hand is vital to

one‟s career, life, etc. You won‟t be making snap judgments if you

received information that your debt has tripled in the past three months.

You will immediately discard the heuristics in favor of the more critical

thinking process.

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And finally, the fourth major factor is informational availability. When

someone tells you that a new burger joint down the block is serving the

best food because their hamburgers are extremely fat and juicy, is it

possible to critically analyze the situation? Sadly, no.

There is simply too little information at hand and you don‟t even have

subjective experience yet. So in some instances, it is impossible to be

critical immediately if informational availability is far too low.

In such instances, you will be forced to resort to heuristics to make a

decision. Will you go to the new burger joint? You can only make an

informed decision by pulling out similar experiences and memories and

thus, you would be using heuristics instead of critical attribution.

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PART 4: SOCIAL CATEGORIZATON

Social Categorization

Social categorization, as the name implies, involves the classification of

things based on similarity and difference. At its very core, this is social

categorization. But I am not saying that social categorization stops here.

Otherwise, everyone would simply be making decisions based on

similarity and difference (and that is just plain strange). Social

categorization thrives of equivalence and differences because this allows

people to make sense of information as it arrives by the boatload every

single day.

Social categorization, like attribution, is an important activity that

directly affects a person‟s self-concept. Because as a person matures and

develops through the years, he amasses his own categorical schemas

that in turn shape his drives and desires.

For example, over time, a person would be able to classify a whole bunch

of activities as desirable. Inversely, this person would also have a schema

of activities that he would never do again because of perceived

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disadvantages. Without social categorization, there would be no way to

create order in a very chaotic physical reality.

This activity gives a person control over the information that he receives

so he can classify or even discard information as he sees fit. Social

categorization also allows people to directly compare one object to

another object or to a whole group of objects. Relationships of varying

degrees can also be established with the help of social categorization.

For example, if Person A had a preference for Windows-based computers,

he would associate a cellular phone with a Windows-based platform with

the current Windows operating system.

This in turn would encourage a person to buy the cellular phone because

it has an intimate association with that person‟s favorite operating

system. Here‟s another example: if a person was in love with a brand of

fast food, what are the chances of this person buying a condiment (i.e.

barbecue sauce) that has the same fast-food brand?

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Of course, chances are this person would be converted immediately to

the new barbecue sauce brand because it has a deep connection with the

person‟s favorite fast-food. However, we should remember that the rubric

of social categorization itself does not capture the entirety of human

perception.

Again, we will hit a brick wall if we choose to fit human perception in a

very solid framework. Human perception is very fluid; theories like social

categorization are not. The boundaries of theoretical frameworks need to

be rigid in order to be believed in by social scientists; human perception

is vacuous and is always in a state of flux.

Like mercury in room temperature, it‟s hard to pin down human

perception with just one finger. It will slip and slide effortlessly, eluding

your weary hand. Here‟s a good example: what is the first thing that

comes to mind when you think of the word “pet”? It is likely that you

answered either dog or cat.

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Some of you may have answered parakeet or turtle. And still some

(though these are rare) would have answered baby octopus and sugar

gliders. If I ask you why you chose a particular animal when you read the

word “pet”, your response would probably be something along the lines

of: the animal is more pet-like than the other animals that I know.

There is nothing wrong with picking other animals; this just reflects the

fact that some people have different schemas for common categories. But

for the majority, the schemas that they are using to utilize social

categorization are actually filled with prototypes or stereotypes.

What are prototypes? Let‟s erase the negative connotation of the word

prototype or stereotype, because this is actually a very important concept

in the realm of human influence. Let me explain: categories are actually

groups of concepts that are associated with each other in varying degrees.

These categories emerge from popular culture and popular knowledge

and we actually learn these categories little by little, as we engage in

informal discussions with different people. And of course we cannot

ignore the impact of popular media like the Internet and television.

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These outlets of mass culture also play a role in creating and propagating

categories and stereotypes. Now, let‟s go back to the earlier question that

I posed to you. Since social categories are simply interconnected bits of

information (i.e. objects, events, politics, etc.), eventually, there will be a

hierarchy in these sets of information.

Some members of these sets will be more visible and will be more

recognizable, too. The most recognizable members of social sets are

called the stereotypes. Stereotypes are representative members because

the information about these members are highly available to people.

As we have already discussed earlier, people tend to use the most

accessible pieces of information when they need to analyze a situation.

And thus, it is unavoidable for people to use stereotypes because these

are indeed highly accessible pieces of information. Of course, excessive

use of stereotypes can lead to gross errors.

For example, if you believe that only men can be great trial lawyers, you

may become slack jawed to see female trial lawyers on the forefront of

highly controversial criminal trials.

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Exploring Stereotypes & Social Categories

At present, we have been able to discuss the importance of social

categorization and we have briefly touched upon why people can easily

recall prototypes or stereotypes of different social categories. According to

social scientists, people cannot help but learn about stereotypes because

these prototypes are in the very culture of every country.

Every country has its own set of simple and complex stereotypes and

gradually, these stereotypes are passed on to the next generation

through institutions like the press and the family. Social exposure is a

key factor when it comes to learning stereotypes.

A person would only be able to use a stereotype when processing

information if he has learned about the stereotype. If not, he will create

his own stereotypes based on subjective experience.

Social class also plays a role in the learning and propagation of

stereotypes. While there will be similarities in some broad social

categories, there will be differences in the stereotypes used by people

from low-income earning families and people who have been brought up

in the wealthiest parts of the city.

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Social groups propagate stereotypes and different social groups will

propagate different stereotypes. And this is when it can get messy.

Because of the variations of stereotypes spread across an uneven

national population, a bias called the illusory correlation emerges.

Illusory correlation is actually a kind of belief that two or more factors or

variables are connected when in objective reality, the variables in

question have no real association or connection. What is the implication

of illusory correlations?

Well, according to some foundational studies, it appears that people were

more likely to assign negative attributes to minority groups. By minority

groups we refer to social groups or categories that are rarely visible and

therefore, are almost never in the consciousness of people.

Visibility of a social category is equivalent to immediate informational

availability and if a social category is not clearly visible unless there is a

cue, then people would more likely assign negative traits to the group if

they were given a chance to assign positive traits and negative traits to a

majority group (a social category that was highly recognizable) and a

minority group (a little known social category).

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It is important to note that illusory correlations rarely produce accurate

representations or inferences.

For example, if you were invited to attend two book launches, you would

most likely attend the book launch of your favorite author and you will

just discard the other author‟s invitation and regard him as being „one of

the lesser authors of this century‟ even if the author has no real

connection to other authors in the past one hundred years.

In this situation, hard facts are rarely sought out by people. When a

person has already made an illusory correlation, there is no further

motivation to verify the illusory correlation. Illusory correlations usually

come about when a person uses representativeness heuristics to analyze

a situation.

Because highly available information is used, people will use prototypes

and whatever doesn‟t fit in with majority group will be relegated to a

minor group and will be assigned traits that seem to be incongruent with

the majority group.

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Minority groups and majority groups are almost always binary opposites.

If one group of is good, the other has to be bad, one way or another.

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The Motivation Behind Social Categorization

We now know that stereotypes emerge because these are the most readily

available pieces of information and to conserve cognitive resources, we

use these stereotypes or prototypes to process information with

heuristics. But the real question here is: why do we engage in social

categorization at all? Why don‟t people use other ways to make sense of

the world?

The answer is actually convenience. Social categorization is a process

that is intimately associated with heuristics. We use social categories

because we don‟t want to expend all our cognitive resources in analyzing

one or two situations.

From the perspective of self-conservation, this makes a lot of sense, too.

Who would want to spend hours thinking of something when a thin slice

of the situation can be used to create a valid inference? No one – because

everyone is preoccupied with more important issues and activities and

there has to be prioritization.

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Conservation of cognitive resources is just one good reason to stick to

social categories. The second reason is that when a person has a mastery

of many social categories, he is able to organize and process information

more succinctly and more efficiently than folks who do not make use of

social categories more frequently.

Social categories allow us to assign internal traits to specific classes of

objects, events, people, behavior, etc.

Though the use of stereotypes can sometimes be misleading, it still

remains that we are rational individuals who can refine our own

perspective of the world. We can always choose to ignore stereotypes if

we want to; however, this does not mean that everyone else is interested

in discarding stereotypes.

Social categories are so convenient to use that we actually engage in

categorization even if we consciously don‟t want to use categories. For

example, if we meet a foreign student from a faraway country, we try to

suspend our social categories because we know full well that these may

not apply to the foreign student.

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However, because we have to acknowledge the social categories first

before we can suspend them from conscious thought, we cannot avoid

using these categories even for a few seconds.

Social scientists have been able to identify three unique triggers that

actually encourage a person to use social categories unconsciously:

- Temporal primacy (social categories are triggered when we see

recognizable features in the situation)

- Perceptual salience (when there is something unique in the event or

situation)

- Chronic accessibility (when features or traits are too common to

ignore; for example, race or sex)

The ease at which inferences can be created with the help of social

categorization also means that people have a tendency to refer to social

categories whenever appropriate situations present themselves (i.e. when

a new person is introduced).

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Since we refer to social categories often, we also have a tendency to

utilize stereotypical information even when we are simply evaluating an

event or a person. There is a tendency for a person to develop selective

memory, too.

For example, if we met someone new and someone told you that this

person was a truck driver; specific traits of this person would be more

accessible than others. For example, if the person was talking on his

cellphone and smoking at the same time, the most striking trait (and

therefore, the most information ally accessible one) would be the smoking

trait since there is a stereotypical association between smoking and

truck drivers (the same way that thick rimmed glasses are associated

with academically inspired individual).

As you can see, social categorization actually affects a person‟s ability to

focus on certain things. If we learned that a person belong to Social

Category A, we would no longer pay attention to traits that belong to

Social Categories B, C & D.

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So in essence, when a person makes use of social categories, he is

actually making use of different „lenses‟ that modify his perspective of

things. Social categories also have a profound effect on people‟s

impression and assimilation of information as well as their behavior.

Simply put: if a social category is used on a person long enough and if

there is no resistance from the other person, then the social category

would be eventually used as a basis for a new self-schema.

So if a student was always tagged as a “slow learner” and there were

always zero expectations about the student, then eventually, the student

would find no reason to improve himself and he will adapt the traits of

the social category that was being used to classify him.

Inversely, a person who has always been regarded as a successful worker

would find ways to live up to people‟s expectations as this would also

have a positive impact on his self-concept.

There is also neurological proof that social categories/social impressions

and actual actions have a big connection – according to research, one

region of the premotor cortex is activated when a person is regarding

something (i.e. evaluating something) and when he is finally doing what

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he was simply observing before. Behavioral assimilation, which can result

from a person‟s exposure to social categories and prototypes, can have

an adverse effect on a person‟s academic performance, too.

Negative stereotyping can lead to underperformance as evidence by many

studies that proved that when a person conforms to social categories that

relate to sex, race, etc., they would unconsciously underperform to

conform to the stereotype.

For example, it has been discovered in one study that women tend to

underperform in Mathematics exams because the general stereotype is

that women are better at language than men, but men are better at

mathematics than women.

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From Categorization to Individuation

Social categorizaton invokes groups and general classes of traits, which

explains why people are able to use social categories very easily because

they can move from one social category to another as they try to match

what they see in front of them with their own collection of social

categories.

However, we note that the process of impression formation is not limited

to social categorization. One theory of social impressions argues that a

person can choose either social categorzation or individuation to when

making impressions about people and situations.

A person can also start off with social categorization (general/category-

based) and later move on attribution (individuated). It is also possible for

a person to use an approach that combines heuristics and systematic

individuated analysis. To illustrate the peculiarity of the dual process

theory, refer to the graphic below:

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The graphic that you have just seen represents a timeline of cognitive

processing that illustrates the progressive movement from broad social

categorization (i.e. stereotyping) to individuation.

If a person thinks of another person‟s personal traits, he leaves the ambit

of pure social categories and he begins to seek peculiar internal traits.

Why do people shift their own cognitive processes? It all boils down to a

person‟s satisfaction with the inferences they have created.

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If a social category does not provide a satisfactory explanation of

something, he will shift his mindset to accommodate a more cognitively-

taxing process (i.e. attribution). According to social scientists, the use of

more individuated approaches to creating impressions of people usually

produce fairer and more accurate social representations compared to

impressions created with purely social categories and prototypes.

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PART 5: HUMAN ATTITUDES

Attitudes

When a person behaves or reacts in a negative way to an event, we say

that the person has a „bad attitude‟ or „negative attitude‟ to that event.

The concept of attitude has been in common usage for so long but few

people actually know what goes into the creation of a person‟s attitude.

If you want to understand how attitudes are born and how these evolve

over time, we have to go to into an in-depth exploration of social

attitudes and how attitudes related to individuals and to society itself.

But first off, what is attitude?

Social psychology defines attitude as a collection of beliefs that a person

associates with a specific object.

By object, we mean anything and everything that a person can focus on,

including other people, events, himself or even the behavior of other

people. Each person has a distinct attitude when it comes to specific

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stimuli and events. Attitudes, like other personal structures of belief, are

held dearly by individuals.

How Attitudes Are Formed

Social psychology has identified four key avenues of attitude formation in

people. These avenues are:

- Mere exposure

- Associative learning

- Self-perception

- Functional reasons

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The Key Avenues of Attitude Formation

Each key avenue is distinct because the formational coordinates are also

distinct/different from each other. In mere exposure, it is believed that in

order for a person to develop a more positive attitude toward a particular

object (remember, an „object‟ can be anything that a person can focus

on), that person must be exposed continually to the said object.

So if you can increase the exposure of another person to an object (i.e. a

product, service or business offer), the more positive that person‟s

attitude will be toward that particular object. This is illustrated in a

study made some years ago; test subjects were exposed to characters

that resembled Chinese characters.

The test subjects were told later on that the characters were actually

adjectives. The subjects were then asked if they can guess which

characters represented positive traits.

The study showed that the longer a person was exposed to a character,

the more he associated the said character to a positive trait. A linear (or

consistent upward) trend was noted in the study – which proves that

repetition and continual exposure does have an impact in the way people

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viewed the world. This key avenue shows that people can assimilate new

objects if they are exposed to the said objects long enough. So remember:

the longer a person sees something, more likely he will like the said

object after a time.

Another interesting study worth noting here is a joint study by Mita,

Dermer and Knight. These three researchers showed test subjects two

photographic prints. One print was a regular photograph of themselves

while the other photograph showed mirror images of themselves.

So one image would be a regular photo while the other one represented

what people saw when they looked into a mirror. After exposing the test

subjects to the different prints, they were asked to choose which print

they liked best.

A majority of the test respondents states that they like the mirror prints

best. There was no other explanation for this trend other than the mirror

prints represented what the test subjects saw more frequently in their

daily life.

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Though the images were almost indistinguishable from each other, the

test subjects were still able to correctly identify which prints contained

the mirror images.

Implicit Conditioning & Operant Conditioning

The second key avenue is associative learning. Human learning, at its

very core, is really a process of association. Though this is not the only

step in the process, association forms the bedrock for critical thinking

and creates even more space for learning.

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Due to the fertile groundwork that association produces, social

psychologists have turned their attention to the role of associate learning

in the formation of attitudes. Researchers believe that an attitude toward

an object can be established either through classical/implicit

conditioning or explicit/operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning refers to the process of associating emotionally-

neutral stimuli with stimuli that would most likely invoke an emotional

response in people. For example, the word “American” does not really

invoke any emotional response from people.

However, if we associate the word “hardworking” with the first concept

(i.e. “the hardworking American”), an emotional response would be

invoked.

Researchers have discovered that to some extent, classical/implicit

conditioning may influence a person to form a negative or positive

attitude toward an object to a certain, limited degree. However, it should

be noted that people do not always operate within the bounds of implicit

conditioning.

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A person can still reject notions about a particular object if he wants to.

If implicit conditioning does not have a large impact on people (especially

people who are knowledgeable about a particular object), why does it still

matter in our own exploration of attitude formation?

The answer lies in the role of implicit conditioning when a person does

not have a significant amount of knowledge about a particular object.

When a person does not know much about an object (i.e. other racial

groups) and someone comes along and tells that person about a negative

„fact‟ about that object, it is possible that the first person will become

implicitly conditioned by the negative information being given by the

second person.

Though there is really no familiarity about the object in question, a

person will begin creating conditioned associations based on whatever

available information there is about the object.

Unless there is a significant need to delve beyond the available

information (i.e. negative attributions about the object), a person with

little or no existing knowledge about the object will continue to use the

available information, which may explain why some folks with prejudiced

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views about an issue or social group will continue being prejudiced

unless an active agent comes along to change their mind again.

The second type of conditioning that falls under the associative learning

is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning utilizes rewards and

punishment to strengthen or weaken a particular behavior in a person.

In contrast with implicit conditioning, explicit conditioning is active

conditioning because the agent of change must do something to

encourage the adaptation of a belief. In implicit conditioning, the agent of

change does not have to do something.

For example, if you heard that your favorite football team was not going

to do well in the coming season, you may be implicitly adapting this

belief about your favorite team.

The sources of the information (i.e. sports analysts on television) do not

have to do anything else other than give the information once through

the television show. In operant conditioning or explicit conditioning, a

person must receive additional input from agents so that there would be

a reinforcement of beliefs.

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During operant conditioning, things like praise are likely to boost a

person‟s confidence about himself in relation to a specific situation or

object (i.e. learning a new hobby). Things like ridicule on the other hand,

reduce a person‟s confidence and also discourage a person from

pursuing the activity again.

The Power of Self-Perception

The second key avenue we discussed is reliant on other people. That is,

there has to be an agent involved before any attitude formation can take

place. The theory of self-perception on the other hand, totally changes

the landscape of attitude formation.

Instead of championing operant conditioning and implicit conditioning,

the theory of self-perception champions the ability of people to form their

own attitudes based on the observation of their own behaviors. When

people examine their own opinions about specific objects (such as

issues), attributions are made as to why such opinions exist.

As we have discussed earlier in the book, there are two kinds of

attributions – internal attributions and external attributions. People are

more likely to make internal attributions about their behaviors if the

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behaviors are performed freely, without coercion or interference from

other people. Inferences are likely to be created when people do not have

readily available information about a particular object.

The Functional Theory

Utilitarian function
• Knowledge function
Ego-defensive function
• Value-expressive function

So far we have explored three key avenues of attitude formation: mere

exposure, the power of self-perception and associative learning. What did

you notice about these three avenues or theories?

That‟s right – these avenues of attitude formation are mostly unconscious

avenues. People don‟t have to think hard in order to adapt a new attitude

about an object through the first three avenues.

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Most of the cognitive processes needed in the first three avenues don‟t

need a person‟s critical faculties. This commonality between the three

prior theories is a point of contention among social psychologists.

As you can imagine, it is hard to accept that something as important as

attitude formation is just the result of unconscious thought processes –

and so another theory was created. This time, social scientists turned

their attention to attitude formation that results from introspection,

critical thinking and other conscious thought processes.

Do you remember our earlier discussion about people being cognitive

misers and „naïve scientists‟? Well, this theory makes use of the „naïve

scientist‟ approach to analyzing how attitudes are formed.

The first three theories all espoused the basic principle of the cognitive

miser: people generally have limited cognitive resources, which is the

reason why we use „thin slices‟ to understand the world around us.

The „naïve scientist‟ approach to attributions and attitude formation is

the direct opposite. According to the basic principle of the naïve scientist

approach, people like thinking about events and situations. According to

the theory of the naïve scientist, humans have an intrinsic drive to

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analyze situations and test out their theories about the world around

them.

Of course, this requires a lot of cognitive resources which is why many

social scientists believe that if people can be naïve scientists, people

cannot be naïve scientists all the time because being in this state all the

time will most likely deplete a person‟s limited cognitive resources.

The functional theory of attitude formation presents an angle that is very

different from the key avenues that we have discussed earlier. This

theory showcases four different possible functions for attitude formation,

which is to say that people form attitudes for a particular function or use,

not just because they can. These four potential functions are:

- Utilitarian function

- Knowledge function

- Ego defensive function

- Value-expressive function

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Let‟s talk about the utilitarian function. Let‟s face it – we live in a tough

world. We have to look out after ourselves, because in the end, we are

the most dependable people around. This may be the core of the

utilitarian function of attitude formation.

We develop an attitude toward an object because the resulting

relationship with that object (which also results from the attitude that we

espouse) will help make our lives more satisfactory and happy. Here are

some examples of how the utilitarian function can be used by people:

1. Person A chooses to like his degree in the University because he‟s

done worse in other degrees and he is not about to let go of the

opportunity to graduate from college.

2. Person B chooses to keep his private life private so his colleagues

at work will not talk about his family problems.

3. Person C chooses to have a positive attitude when it comes to his

parents because they have been completely supportive and

dependable since his childhood.

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4. Person D chooses to avoid saying certain things in public (in the

presence of other people) even if he feels strongly that he wants to

say those things because he doesn‟t want to be challenged or

ridiculed by other people.

Next is in line is the knowledge function. The knowledge function is really

quite practical. This function states that people have different attitudes

toward objects of interest because people are interested in creating

meaning in their lives.

Simply put: people want to make sense of the world that they live in.

People are almost always uneasy when they do not understand

something; developing an appropriate attitude toward a specific object

gives a person some degree of control over the reality that they are trying

to understand. A good example would be how people use stereotypes to

form attitudes toward sub-groups in society.

If subgroup A has been stereotyped as being rowdy and almost always

involved in crime, people would most likely have a negative attitude

toward subgroup A, even if people have not really interacted with

subgroup A at all.

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The attitude of avoidance, which results from the stereotyping, gives

people a measure of control over their reality (i.e. if subgroup A is really a

threat to people, people would be able to avoid contact with them).

The third function is the ego-defensive function. The ego-defensive

function acknowledges that people have different psychological needs

and these needs have to be satisfied to keep people happy (or at least, as

far away as possible from emotional instability, depression and chronic

anxiety).

The ego-defensive function acts as a barrier against self-truths that can

threaten a person‟s ego. For example, Person A may not acknowledge the

fact that Person B (who was hired around the same time that Person A

was hired) was promoted to a much higher position within a few months

in Person A‟s company.

Person A will choose to have this peculiar attitude toward the promotion

of Person B because the promotion represents failure once upward social

comparison takes place.

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The fourth and final function is the value-expressive function. With the

value-expressive function, a person chooses to develop personal attitudes

that reflect his/her personal values in life.

The value-expression function can express both personal beliefs and

general beliefs (that may reflect societal values and mores). Here are

some examples:

1. Person A does not buy software from stores because he prefers

open source software (which is free). He does this because he

believes that technology is democratizing and should be available

to everyone.

2. Person B does not socialize as much than his friends. He does this

because he feels that people are only out to influence you when

you socialize.

3. Person C only buys organic food because he believes that organic

foods are not only good for the health but are also good for the

environment because these agricultural products have not been

produced with the help of harmful chemicals.

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Why Attitudes Matter

Why are we even spending time talking about people‟s attitudes? Why are

we focusing on this particular facet of the human personality? Well, the

answer is simple: if you want to understand how a person thinks and

acts in a particular way, you have to be familiar with the deeper

processes involved in the formation of attitudes.

Attitudes are the foundation of self-schemas, the source of our personal

conceptualization of the self. Without attitude, people would have no way

of creating fixed coordinates in their lives when they are analyzing their

relationship with people, social groups and society itself.

If you want to predict the behavior of a person and plan ahead, you need

to understand the motivation behind attitude formation. If you are aware

of the motivations behind people‟s behaviors, you would be able to

carefully analyze the various tendencies of people as they interact with

other people.

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Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Connection

Does attitude truly direct and predict human behavior? If an attitude is a

significant component of a person‟s self-schema, then why is it that

sometimes, it is an inconsistent predictor of behavior?

This part of the book explores the various determinants between a

persons‟ attitudes and his actual behavior (speech, actions, decision-

making, etc.) when he actually needs to interact with a particular object.

Specificity

The specificity determinant states that if an attitude were to predict a

particular behavior, then the two have to be on the exact same level. This

equivalence between the two components will ensure a higher possibility

of someone actually behaving in accordance with his known attitude

toward an object.

For example, if Person A is known to have a preference for Brand Y black

coffee, this does not mean that he will buy Brand XYZ or Brand ABC.

There is a common factor between the objects (the objects are all ground,

black coffee) but it remains that the two other brands are not Brand Y

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black coffee and therefore, the person is not likely to buy Brand XYZ or

Brand ABC because the specificity of the present condition is different.

But if the conditions were completely identical, we can expect a more

positive outcome. For example, if Person B was offering Person A a

discounted box of Brand Y black coffee, Person A‟s current attitude can

be a predictor of his possible behavior toward the current offer.

Self-Awareness

Remember our earlier discussion of self-awareness? People can either be

privately self-aware or publicly self-aware. Let‟s do a quick review of

these two concepts. When a person is privately self-aware, he is more

likely to judge himself based on his personal standards of conduct and

behavior.

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Inversely, when a person is publicly self-aware, he will be more

concerned with society’s take on what is acceptable/desirable or

unacceptable/undesirable. What does this have to do with attitudes,

anyway?

Well, if you think about it, a person who is privately self-aware will be

more likely to follow his own attitude toward an object. For example, if

Person B is privately self-aware at the moment and he notices that

Person D was around (a person that he disliked because of the way

Person D talks to other people) then he would probably show signs of

disinterest and complete avoidance.

However, if Person A, D and E were also in the situation and someone

greeted Person D from the distance, Person B would not show his

attitude because others would frown upon such an attitude. “Wearing

one‟s heart on the sleeve” is not an acceptable attitude (at least,

according to society‟s own take on personal relations between people,

because civility is always preferred to hostility or non-tolerance).

The presence of an audience will most likely affect a person‟s behavior –

there can either be suspension or activation of a particular attitude

depending on the kind of attitude that a person has toward an object.

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If the attitude is generally socially acceptable, then a person would have

no reason to suspend his attitude. Inversely, if his attitude toward

something is not socially acceptable, then he would choose to suspend

the attitude at the moment so that he would be able to exhibit a more

acceptable behavior to the audience (i.e. friends, family, co-workers, etc.)

Attitude Accessibility

Self-awareness also a plays a role in making an attitude (and

consequently, a behavior) more accessible to a person as he interacts

with different objects in society.

A good example of this intimate association between self-awareness and

attitude accessibility is the way social categorization trains a person to

think and react in a particular manner when it comes to common

stereotypes. If a person learns of a negative stereotype that is associated

with a subgroup, then he is actually being implicitly primed to have a

specific attitude toward that subgroup.

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This attitude will result in a corresponding behavior that will be exhibited

when the conditions are right. If we expand this a bit, you can imagine

how large groups of people react to a single message.

If a message that was communicated to a large audience does not trigger

a common positive response in people, then it will not become an

effective message because people will draw upon the most readily

available attitude toward that message.

If you communicate a message that requires a lot of critical thinking then

it is possible that you will only effectively communicate with a limited

segment of your target group. Inversely, if your message contains all the

components needed to draw a common, positive response, then you are

set to communicate everything persuasively.

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Attitude Strength

Strong Weak
attitudes attitudes

Behavior is not dictated by availability (or heuristics) alone. Attitude

strength is another factor that should be considered if you want to

predict the attitude, and consequently, the behavior of another person.

Here‟s a good example: we all know that the environment should be

cared for.

Ask any second grader what should be done to protect the environment

and you will get a pretty clear answer. Ask an adult how the environment

can be saved and you will get a longer and perhaps more controversial

answer since the adult has access to materials from local and

international pro-environment movements.

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But is the availability of all this information sufficient to predict that

everyone who has been taught (either implicitly or explicitly) how to care

for the environment will actually practice what they know on a regular

basis? Not likely – because people evaluate their attitudes based on their

conviction to hold on to specific attitudes.

If a person has a strong conviction about something, he will have a

strong attitude toward the object and it won‟t matter if the attitude is

very accessible or not. If there is conviction, the person will dig deep into

his cognitive reserves to bring this strong attitude to the fore.

There may be more readily available attitudes, but it won‟t matter if the

person has this one strong attitude – he will choose to follow this attitude

than other readily available attitudes from the surface of his

consciousness. Note that attitude strength and attitude accessibility are

independent predictors and have unique implications for a person.

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Attitude, Intention & Behavior

We know now that attitudes and behaviors have a very complex

relationship indeed – and that attitude alone is not enough to predict the

actual behavior of another person. There is a need to always expand our

thinking when it comes to predicting the attitude or behavior of another

person (or a group of people).

One such theory that sheds light on attitude change and behavioral

prediction is the theory of planned behavior. According to the theory of

planned behavior, evaluating potential intentions is the best way to

understand future behavior. Intention is determined by the complex

interaction of attitudes, subjective norms and behavioral controls.

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Intention on the other hand, gives rise to the actual behavior. So in

essence, you have a three-step process for determining the future

behavior of a person:

Step # 1: Determine the person‟s current attitude toward the object, the

subjective norms that the person believes in and the behavioral control

that the person perceives from his own point of view. Behavioral control

refers to the difficulty that a person perceives as he analyzes an activity.

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Step # 2: Determine the intention

Step # 3: Test your theory by comparing the actual behavior with the

behavior that you have been able to map out.

In this regard, a person who wishes to predict the behavior of another

person must be aware of the various tendencies and attitudes of the

other person. In addition, the person must also know where the other

person is coming from.

For example, if you are trying to persuade someone to try your pork dish

and you were not aware that the other person comes from a country that

does not eat pork due to religious reasons, would you be able to handle

the situation adequately, without offending the other person? Would you

be able to handle the refusal properly, without showing signs of distress

or any other negative reaction?

We should always remember that norms, intentions and behavioral

controls interact in a complex manner. This means that you can‟t just

„add up‟ the intentions, norms and behavioral controls and expect a solid

behavioral prediction. Also, you have to remember that each component

of the model is not enough to determine a future behavior.

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Each component has to be taken into account before the behavioral

intention is determined. Once this is determined, there is a larger

percentage of being able to predict a behavior but a person can still

choose to avoid a behavior if the intention is already present, because

people have free will and we exercise this free will over ourselves and our

decisions every single day.

Difficult

Easy

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Now among the three components that make up a person‟s behavioral

intention, one component stands out as a powerful predictor in terms of

whether or not a person would actually go ahead and perform something

– and this behavioral component is the perceived behavioral control. You

see, this component precedes behavioral intention but it also has a direct

impact on a person‟s perception of behavioral possibility.

For example, a person who has been drinking alcohol for thirty years will

evaluate first if the act of alcohol cessation would be easy or not. If he

thinks that it is impossible and there is no way that he would survive

such a drastic move, then that perception alone of the end-behavior can

reduce the possibility of ever carrying out the behavior (i.e. stopping the

alcohol habit).

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Understanding Attitude Changes

The theory of planned behavior is extremely useful in predicting rational

behavior – but it is almost helpless when it comes to sudden attitude

changes. What happens when a person starts exhibiting behavior that

defies the logic of the theory of planned behavior?

Well, we have to think out of the box yet again – and we have to use

other tools to understand why spontaneous changes in behavior are

taking place. We also have to take into account that there are many

human behaviors that take place without conscious thinking.

For example, a person who sees a suspicious individual in his

neighborhood would „automatically‟ lock his doors and windows and if

the suspicious individual shows a negative intention, he might call 911

just in case something happens.

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All of this is done almost without conscious thinking –and again, the

person is being a cognitive miser instead of being a naïve scientist. In

this type of situation, he is not expending his cognitive resources to come

up with an appropriate response/behavior to the situation.

Attitude Change & Cognitive Dissonance

Now let us turn our attention to the phenomenon of attitude change.

What drives a person to change his attitude and potentially, his intention

to follow through with a specific behavior? One theory called the

cognitive dissonance theory argues that when a person does something

that is not in line with his existing attitude toward the object in question,

a negative experience results.

Now this negative experience is quite relevant because negative

experiences bring a concatenation of negative emotions. As human beings

we have a natural aversion to negative emotions because naturally, we

want to feel whole, happy and positive all the time.

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Positive feelings lead to positive actions, which in turn satisfy our

psychological, social and physical needs. Negative feelings on the other

hand usually lead to inaction or negative actions, which directly

contradict our various individual needs.

Here‟s a good example of how cognitive dissonance can work in a

person‟s life. Let‟s say that Person W has been a vegetarian for a few

years now. Now because of a special event, this person was forced to eat

chicken meat in the presence of many other friends who were not

vegetarians at all.

The vegetarian eats the food, but later on, he feels guilty and unhappy

because he went against his own beliefs regarding the consumption of

meat. Here‟s another example: let‟s say that Person X is an avowed

supporter of Person C, a candidate for mayor. Person C is actually

Person X‟s good friend for over twenty years.

However, Person X decides to vote for Person Y because Person Y had a

better plan for the city. Though Person X‟s friend was not aware of who

Person X actually voted for, Person X felt terrible because Person C was a

very good friend in the past and has been very helpful on many

occasions.

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It is normal for human beings to sometimes engage in behavior that is

not completely in line or congruent to our attitudes. This happens for a

variety of reasons. As we have discussed before, people have to take into

consideration the things that they discover or learn as they become

either privately self-aware or publicly self-aware.

There are always expectations, norms, mores and standards that we

have to think about because in the end, humans are social beings that

want to be part of a winning social group. Unless a conscious choice is

made to exclude oneself from any social group, we can safely assume

that people behave in accordance to the standards of the group that they

belong to.

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So if you want predict the behavior and attitudes of a person, being fully

aware of his social group would help immensely in the process of

analyzing what you have to do to communicate with the other person

effectively. What do we do when our behavior does not satisfy our present

attitudes?

Do we just ignore the negative experience associated with dissonant

behaviors? Or do we do something about it? According to the theory of

cognitive dissonance, people care deeply when their actions do not reflect

their attitudes. Now we know for a fact that attitude strength is a strong

determinant when it comes to the actual implementation or execution of

a behavior.

We can infer from this other theory that negative experiences associated

with dissonant behavior also has varying degrees. If you have a weak

conviction about a certain attitude, then you won‟t care as much when

your behavior does not really reflect the attitude.

But when you do something that completely ignores an attitude that you

hold with strong conviction, then you can be sure that you will feel quite

awful afterward.

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Naturally, if a person feels negatively about a behavior because of the

discrepancy between the behavior and the actual attitude, then that

person will mostly likely be motivated to remedy the discrepancy or

difference. This can be done in two ways:

Through rationalization or explaining to themselves why it was necessary

to act that way in that specific situation.

Changing the behavior partially or completely so that it will now be

congruent with the existing attitude toward the target object.

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When Does Dissonance Occur?

Justification

Freedom of
choice

Investment

The first pre-requisite of cognitive dissonance is that a person must feel

very strongly about the discrepancy between the attitude and the

behavior.

This experience is rooted in attitude strength. If the person does not feel

strongly at all about a particular attitude, then it is possible that no

negative emotional experience will occur even if there is a marked

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discrepancy between the behavior or action and the subjective attitude

that the person has.

There are other factors that should be taken into consideration when you

are trying to figure if a person will experience cognitive dissonance when

he performs a particular action. These three factors are:

 Justification

 Choice

 Investment

With justification, a person tries to rationalize why he/she performed the

behavior in the first place. If the person cannot find a single good reason

why he actually went against his own attitude in the first place, then

dissonance would most likely occur.

If they can explain why they had to go against their own attitude, then

the behavior will be relegated to the box of the past and the behavior will

no longer be a cause of any emotional upheaval. The second factor that

may predict whether or not a person would experience cognitive

dissonance is choice.

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If a person was forced to do something against his attitudes or principles,

then this is sufficient justification for the actual behavior. The impetus to

do something is external to the person and therefore, it does not really

spring forth from any self-schema. If this is the case, then no cognitive

dissonance will occur.

However, if the person had a choice to do or not do something and he still

chose to go against his present attitude, then of course, dissonance will

result because he had a choice. The third factor is investment.

Investment is a person‟s level of involvement with a particular attitude.

For example, if a person was completely enamored with one brand of

clothing (he has been buying from the same brand for fifteen years) and

he chose to buy a similar product from another brand, then dissonance

may occur. If the attachment or investment in the attitude is smaller,

then the lower the chance of developing cognitive dissonance.

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PART 6: PERSUASION

The Ivory Throne: Human Persuasion

Persuasion can be considered as one of the great ivory thrones of

influence because with persuasion, you can convince a person to change

his mind and adapt your view.

Persuasion generally comes from without than from within.

Understanding how persuasion works is like finding the key to the

human mind. To understand what goes on in the human mind when you

are trying to persuade someone is like discovering the roadmap to

mastering persuasion.

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There are many theories regarding persuasion but at the very root of

these theories is the fact that people generally have two ways of

processing information from the outside world: the central route and the

peripheral route.

With the central route, a person who is receiving the stimulus or

information will act like a naïve scientist. He will carefully think about

the input and he will make a decision based on his theories.

With the peripheral route, the person receiving the information or

stimulus will not pursue the critical path. Instead, he will choose to take

a thin slice of the stimulus so he can compare it with whatever readily

available information he has in his memory. In this regard, a person

becomes a cognitive miser yet again.

What‟s the difference between the naïve scientist and the cognitive miser

when it comes to persuasion? There is a big difference!

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The naïve scientist will pay close attention not only to the message itself

but also to the way it was delivered, etc. The naïve scientist is also

interested in the why and how of the message.

The cognitive miser on the other hand, will do the direct opposite.

Instead of paying close attention to the actual message, cognitive misers

will be more interested in receiving small cues that will tell them whether

or not the message is worth considering or not.

Figuring Out Which Route a Person Will Take

We now know that there are two possible routes when it comes

processing persuasive information – the peripheral route and the central

route.

Earlier in our exploration of heuristics, we discovered that there are

common factors that affect a person‟s decision to become a cognitive

miser instead of being naïve scientist.

While these factors (like lack of time) can be used to determine whether a

person will use heuristics or critical analysis, there are other factors that

come into play. These factors are:

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- Speech rate

- Mood

- Involvement

- Individual difference

- Humor

Speech rate has a major effect on how a person processes persuasive

information. You know why?

Because if a person cannot follow what you are saying, he will not become

a naïve scientist and in the process, he will choose to ignore most of the

content of your message in favor of cues that will allow him to analyze

only „thin slices‟ of the whole message.

Usually, a person who is unable to follow a speedy persuasive message

will only take note of the number of arguments present and make a

decision based on this number.

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Happy Persuasive Peripheral

Unhappy Persuasive Central

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Mood, surprisingly, also has a determining role in persuasion. Let us zero

in on two important moods – the happy mood and the unhappy mood.

When you‟re happy, you feel light, carefree and you feel like you are on

top of the world. You will feel like there is nothing in this world (or the

Universe) that can bring you down because you are so happy at the

moment.

Now take this mindset and imagine yourself in a situation where another

person is trying to persuade you to do something.

Will you stop and analyze what the other person is saying to you? Or will

you just barely follow what the other person is saying and just say yes?

The answer of course, is usually the latter.

Happy people tend to choose the peripheral route in processing

persuasive messages. Inversely, unhappy people are more critical. By

„unhappy‟ we refer to individuals who feel sad, depressed, worried,

scared, angry, anxious, etc. A person who is presently experiencing any

negative emotion should be considered an unhappy person.

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I am placing emphasis on this important distinction because unhappy

people tend to become critical of persuasive messages because deep

down, they are aware that something is not right with their lives.

Deep down, unhappy people are on the alert because something is not

balanced and this incongruence between their reality and their needs

and expectations will awaken the naïve scientist in unhappy people.

I am not saying that you need to make your audience unhappy before

you can convince them to do something.

What I am saying here is that if you find yourself in the presence of a

happy person, there is a bigger chance of being able to persuade that

person because he will most likely take the peripheral route.

That means all you have to worry about at that point in time would be to

relay your message well and provide sound arguments so the other

person will agree more quickly (since he is a cognitive miser at the

moment and he is using heuristics instead of critical processing).

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Now when you are looking at the involvement factor you are actually

looking at the impact of the persuasive message to the other person‟s

self-concept. To illustrate this point, evaluate the two statements below:

Statement # 1: I have something that might improve your business in two

to three years.

Statement # 2: Do you want to retire a millionaire? How about mansion

in Beverly Hills? An island getaway all to yourself and that special

someone? I have the key – and I can give it to you right now if you want it.

After reading the two statements, which statement do you think has a

more palpable impact to another person‟s self-concept?

Let‟s analyze the two statements. The first statement has a forward-

thinking angle that emphasizes that a business will become stable with

whatever is being offered in a few years.

The second statement opens with a question (this creates instant interest

in the audience because it relates directly to one of basic needs, which is

financial stability and of course, the survival needs) and also offers

tantalizing potential realities to the audience.

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After presenting all of the goodies, the statement ends with an open-

ended sentence that creates a two-fold impression on the other person.

The other person has two choices. His first choice is he can take the „key‟

and live the millionaire‟s lifestyle, as promised by the statement. The

second choice is he can choose not to take the key and he will gain

nothing.

Notice that all of the components of the second statement focus on

genuine needs and desires of people.

With a touch of extravagance, a persuasive fantasy is created and the

audience is presented with a tantalizing opportunity to rise above the

rest in terms of financial security. And yet, we should remember, the

statement isn‟t even real to begin with.

What‟s real to the audience is the fantasy and emotions that it invokes

instantly – and so the audience will automatically focus on the second

statement more than the first statement because there is much more at

stake in the second statement than the first statement.

Now let us talk about the fourth factor, which are individual differences.

This factor is fairly straightforward: people are different, right?

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Some people prefer taking the central route (critical thinking) while some

people are more likely to stick with the „default‟ route, which is the

peripheral (auto-pilot) route.

So in essence, some people are naïve scientists most of the time while

some feel that they are better off being cognitive misers because they can

save their cognitive resources for more important times. Naïve scientists

have a higher need for cognition while cognitive misers have a lower

cognition requirement to get through their days.

Cognitive need
of cognitive
misers

Cognitive need
of naive
scientists

It is also worthwhile to note that people who self-monitor more frequently

are more likely to take the critical route in processing persuasive

messages.

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Self-monitoring is simply the degree at which a person is concerned with

what other people are think about himself. If you are the kind who

doesn‟t really care about what other people think, then you are most

likely a cognitive miser most of the time.

And finally, we have the humor factor. The Merriam-Webster dictionary

defines “humor” as: something that is or is designed to be comical or

amusing. Let‟s face it – we like dropping jokes every now and then.

Laughing makes people feel good and we know for a fact that humor can

be a powerful tool when you are trying to communicate to critical

individuals. So be careful when you are trying to influence people with

your words because the wrong kind of humor can elicit the wrong type of

response from people.

If you want your audience to have critical response to your message (i.e.

you want them to really think about the benefits that you are offering to

them) you have to craft related humorous items so a more critical

response is triggered.

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If you simply want to put your audience at ease, then you are better off

with non-related humor. That is, you need to drop jokes and humorous

anecdotes that do not relate to the topic/s that you are presently

tackling. Non-related humor does not trigger the usage of the central

route.

Exploring the Peripheral Route

To people like marketers and advertisers, there is a hidden wish for

people to just stick to their “gut feel” (or peripheral route). The reason for

this is quite simple. With the peripheral route, a person is more likely to

respond to cues or signals.

These signals can be given out or expressed in such a manner that the

other person will be led to believe in something or the other person can

be convinced to do something after the persuasive message has been

conveyed.

One of the most powerful peripheral cues that you can use is similarity.

Similarity to your audience can be expressed in many, many ways. I‟ll

leave you to figure out how to create the similarities, but I‟m going to give

you some major clues:

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- Appearance

- Values

- Attitudes

- Social group

- Social categories

If you can utilize some or all of these forms of similarity, you can be sure

that your persuasive message would have a much larger impact on

people because you are showing them that you are not only persuasive

but you share direct similarities with them.

By expressing similarities to your audience, you are giving them a direct

message that you are not foreign/alien and therefore, you should be

trusted because you share a commonality with each and every one of

them.

Though this approach may sound old (and I‟m not going to hide the fact

that it is one of foundational principles in disciplines like marketing) it

does work and it will continue to work because you are tapping into the

primordial region of someone‟s mind when you use a peripheral cue like

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similarity. People are hardwired to accept similarity as a sign that the

other person can be trusted.

The second peripheral cue that you should pay attention is

attractiveness. Now don‟t get me wrong: I know that everyone is unique

and there is no real standard of beauty that can be followed each and

every time.

However, it is also true that people who come close to standards of

attractiveness tend to be more persuasive than those who do not make

an effort to make themselves look good.

So if you are always out in the field, you have to do something about the

way you look. You have to exert effort to look really good so people would

be drawn to your message and they would respond more readily to you

because you are attractive. Attractiveness, though it is a physical trait, is

reflected not only by your bone structure but also how you dress

yourself, how you carry yourself in public, etc.

The third peripheral cue that you should never forget is credibility. To be

a credible person, you have to show people that you are unbiased in your

views and you are some that should be trusted by others.

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One easy way of appearing to be a credible person is by showcasing your

knowledge of a particular topic. So if you are trying to sell a water

filtration system to a company, you will appear more credible if you can

answer all of the client‟s questions and you also have the initiative to

volunteer information to your client.

Now, I know that for some of you, it is very difficult to appear as an

expert because there will always be older and more seasoned competition

around you. Don‟t worry about them.

Just do your homework and do your best to present information the way

an expert would – with no hesitation and with utmost conviction. Even if

the other person is not persuaded by your arguments right now it is

possible that you will be able to persuade that person at a later date.

Why am I saying this? Well, social psychologists have identified a

peculiar tendency in people when it comes to so-called credible sources.

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It appears that over time, a person‟s conviction that he should only listen

to one source alone decays and eventually, that person will choose to

listen to other sources as long as the other sources are providing clear

information and sound arguments.

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PART 7: GROUPS

Groups

So far we have been focusing on the individual – as he becomes self-

aware and as he develops the faculties needed to communicate with

others and grow as human being. We now turn our attention to groups –

simple (yet often complex) collections of people that make up the entirety

of the population.

When we view society from the perspective of cultural, political or even

racial sub-groups, the complexity of society intensifies because we have

been used to the idea that there is a binary opposition between the

individual and society itself, but in reality, there was always something in

between in the individual and the larger region of society itself, and that

was the social group.

One of the main characteristics of social group is cohesiveness. We can

say that there is cohesiveness in a social group when members of the

group think, talk and act alike. Cohesiveness can be used as a

measurement of influence, as well.

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A cohesive social group is a strong and influential group because it can

multiply the individual powers of each member of the group. Inversely, a

group that is loose and does not show any cohesiveness at all, either

formally or informally, can be considered a weak group and it will most

likely never exert any substantial influence over other groups or over

society itself.

It has also been noted that the cohesiveness of a group is very dependent

on its size. As a group becomes larger and larger, its general

cohesiveness weakens.

Group size

Cohesiveness

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How can one identify groups in the first place? A simple way of

identifying groups is by observing people for entitativity.

Entitativity refers to the degree at which a collection of people show that

they are interconnected to each other and they have similarities to each

other in terms of appearance, beliefs, etc.

One can also look at the goals of the people belonging to a potential

social group; if a majority of people show that they are after the same

end-goal, then they can be classified as a social group.

You can also observe if the purported members of a social group are

actually interacting with one another. Interaction and communication

through various means is a hallmark group trait and behavior. There are

generally three kinds of social groups:

- Loose social groups (i.e. people who listen to rock music)

- Social categories (i.e. racial groups)

- Task groups (i.e. people in the office)

- Intimate groups (i.e. close friends)

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The Impact of Groups on Performance

Social Social
facilitation inhibition

We are going to do a little detour to loose social groups (i.e. people in an

auditorium or in an examination room) to find out if the presence of other

people have an impact on how efficiently a person can act or behave in a

particular setting.

Social psychologists have long been fascinated with the varied responses

of people to the presence of other people. Out of the academic woodwork,

two strong concepts have emerged: social facilitation and social inhibition.

Social facilitation occurs when a person is able to increase the efficiency

at which he is able perform an activity with the presence of other people.

Social facilitation is considered a positive effect because there is

increased productivity.

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Social inhibition is the direct opposite of social facilitation. A socially

inhibited person will not be able perform better with a group of people

around.

A good example of this would be when a student has to take an exam

along with many other students. The setup (i.e. a large examination hall

or examination room) will affect the way the student is able answer his

test paper.

Social psychologists have discovered that social facilitation is most

common when a person only has to perform basic tasks like running or

swimming, or even shouting in tandem with others (as in a sports game).

But when a person has to perform more difficult tasks such as solving

physics questions, the presence of others can inhibit a person from

performing the task easily.

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The Three Theories of Social Facilitation & Social Inhibition

Why do some people become socially inhibited in the presence of others?

Why are other people more likely to excel if they have at least the

presence of other people.

Three theories have been used to explain the complex workings of the

social mind with regard to facilitation and inhibition. These three

theories are:

- Drive theory

- Evaluation apprehension theory

- Distraction conflict theory

The drive theory states that a person who has a well-learned response to

a situation will perform better with the presence of an audience (i.e.

teammates) because the presence of the loose group heightens the

physiological response to the task at hand.

A person with a high drive has the capacity to perform the task at hand

and that is the reason why the presence of a loose social group can help

increase his performance.

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Generally, people thrive with simpler tasks but that does not mean that

everyone will fail more difficult tasks just because of the nature of the

tasks. What is difficult to me may not be difficult for you – it‟s that

simple.

The second theory, evaluative apprehension theory, argues that although

that the presence of an audience can have an immediate impact on a

person who is about to perform a task, we must not overlook the

possibility that this person is also apprehensive about being evaluated by

the audience. This apprehension of being „graded‟ by the loose group can

have an instant impact on an individual‟s efficiency and productivity.

The third and last theory, distraction conflict theory, centers on the fact

that people can become easily distracted by the presence of others.

This theory points out that humans, as social beings, have a natural

tendency to „tend to everyone‟ even if it‟s just by looking at other people‟s

facial expressions or body language.

There can be physiological arousal but there is also distraction – and we

all know that humans have limited cognitive resources. This explains

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why people who are not very confident and knowledgeable about the task

that they are about to perform will perform more poorly if an audience is

involved.

The Theory of Social Loafing

We are aware now that an individual with an audience may or may not

perform well, depending on his skill level and the actual task at hand.

We also know that some general tasks are easier to perform with an

audience (i.e. shouting and running) compared to more complex tasks

like answering a complicated physics exam.

But what happens when a task group or team is formed? What happens

to the individual‟s performance when he becomes part of a group that is

expected to produce something within a period of time?

Surprisingly, a reverse trend was discovered when people were put into

groups and group productivity was expected. This reverse trend is called

social loafing. It appears that when people were put into groups, social

facilitation does not occur if people expect that every member of the

group was to do something to contribute to an expected outcome.

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Since every member in the group was expected to do something, the

previous factors (i.e. social evaluation) no longer applied to the situation,

because now the group/team would be put under scrutiny (not just

individual members of the team).

Why does social loafing occur? According to social psychologists, this

group effect happens because there is a marked diffusion of tasks and

responsibilities within the group. Because of the diffusion of the

responsibility within the group, people become les driven to perform

extremely well because others are expected to do the same.

People feel less responsible for what has to be done because there are

other people who can do it. Does this mean that placing people in teams

is bad and that people should just work alone, to improve productivity?

Not necessarily – you see, social psychologists have also discovered that

diffusion of responsibility can literally dissolve the apprehension

associated with being evaluated by other people in a group. Since

individuals in the group no longer feel extremely responsible for the

outcome, they can relax and people actually work better knowing that the

pressure has been reduced.

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PART 8: LEADERSHIP

With the birth of the social group came the need for special individuals

who had the talent and the skills to lead. A leader is considered the most

powerful member of a social group. He exerts influence and he is capable

of persuading members of the group to do what he thinks is the best for

the group.

The leaders also determine which direction the social group would take

and how the members of the group will pursue this direction. Now it

should be noted that leadership can take many forms and leaders can

have unique approaches to handling the affairs of a social group.

Some leaders focus on the job at hand while some love communicating

with most of the members of the group. Some like being completely in

control while some leaders prefer delegating work to many other leaders

will be in charge of different facets of the social group.

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How Leaders Are Formed

How do social groups find leaders? The traditional baseline for leaders is

the unique set of personality traits that literally separated the leaders

from the followers. These personality traits make leaders fitter to lead

others in the group‟s drive to survive and grow.

The greatest leaders in the world (i.e. Alexander the Great) are often

touted to have immense powers of influence over other people. It is as if

great leaders have a natural talent to change people so that they would

think and act in accordance to the wishes of the leader.

A person‟s personality, as social psychologists have discovered, has an

intimate relationship with leadership. Here are some personality traits

that have been anchored firmly with leadership:

1. Being confident about one‟s ability to do something and of course,

being confident about leading other people to a certain goal

2. People who talked a lot were also usually chosen as leaders as

opposed to people who have minimal verbal contribution within the

social group. People who made maximum verbal contribution were

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easily recognized by other members of the group. Increased

recognition leads to familiarity and this in turn translates to

leadership further down the line.

3. Persons who exhibited higher intelligence than other members of

the group are also hailed as leaders more frequently. Intelligence is

a key trait of a good leader because genuinely intelligent

individuals would have no trouble responding to the needs of the

group. Intelligent folks are also more likely to respond to group-

related problems adequately.

4. If you want to be a leader, you also have to show that you are open

to communicating with other people and you do not shy away from

new experiences. You must also show that you are a reliable

person in terms of problem-solving, performance and general

productivity within the group.

5. Believe it or not, group members are also more likely to choose a

leader that is generally more attractive than the rest.

Attractiveness, as we have discussed in an earlier section of the

book, is a powerful peripheral cue.

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So always remember that you have to project confidence and

attractiveness anyway possible when you want to convince others

that you are the right leader of the group or team.

Although personality is a powerful tool that can be used to convince

others that you are a fit leader, you must remember that personality is

not the sole criterion for leadership, because even the most charismatic

and attractive leaders can be scrutinized and replaced by people.

Obviously, personality is not the sole determinant of a good leader.

Personality is the first determinant of leadership because it is the group

of traits that people can actually see first in a person. But as I have

already pointed earlier, it is not the sole determinant. There must be

other determinants which would cement the success of a would-be

leader. What about personality?

Doesn‟t personality help a person lead? According to social psychologists,

personality traits can help a leader but only in specific situations. Now,

in addition to the individual traits of a would-be leader, we also have to

analyze the culture that the person comes from.

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If the person comes from a collectivist culture, then his version of good

leadership would be to encourage better cohesion between individual

members of the group. A collectivist leader would focus on reducing the

friction between the working parts of the machine (i.e. the social group).

A leader from an individualist culture on the other hand, would have a

different take of leadership success. To an individualist leader, the goal is

all that matters. The group must achieve the goal no matter what it takes

– even if that means intense competition between the members of the

group.

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The Task-Focused Leader & the Socio-Emotional Leader

There are two popular types of leaders: the task-focused leader and the

socio-emotional leader. The task-focused leader is more concerned with

outcome and good results. If there is a goal in the horizon, the task-

focused leader will do everything in his power to ensure that the goal is

reached by the group.

This type of leader sees little else but the goal and the steps that the

group has to take to achieve the goal. The task-focused leader is usually

very knowledgeable about the task and the landscape surrounding the

group.

He is also an expert in giving instructions to the members of the group;

members will never feel lost when a task-focused leader is in their midst

because this leader will keep a close eye on what each member is doing

and he will ensure that the each member is following the steps needed to

achieve the goal.

The downside to having a task-focused leader is he is almost always

distant from members. He sees members as vital parts of the lager whole

but he finds no reason to interact with members of the group on a much

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deeper level. Everything is formal and distant with the task-focused

leader.

The socio-emotional leader on the other hand, is aware that the group

has its goals but this fact does not stop him from paying close attention

to the way the members are acting as a whole. The socio-emotional

leader ensures first that the members of the group are working

harmoniously with one another and there is little or no conflict in the

group.

A socio-emotional leader also possesses empathy. The Merriam-Webster

dictionary defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware

of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts

and experience of another person (either in the past or the present)

without having the feelings, thoughts and experience fully communicated

in an objective manner”.

So if you were to become a leader of a group, which type of leader would

you like to embody? Some people like the cool confidence and the drive of

the task-focused leader.

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However, the task-focused leader often has a problem dealing with inter-

personal relationships between members of the group; therefore, he is

not the best person to approach if there is conflict between members of

the group.

Some folks would like to be a socio-emotional leader because he

embodies synergy and positivity. The downside of being a purely socio-

emotional leader is that you might not become focused on the actual

goals of the group.

So which type of leadership is better? The answer is actually neither. You

need to be a balanced leader if you want to ensure the success of your

leadership. You need to show empathy as much as the ability to focus on

goals. You need to think deeply about the steps that will lead your group

to success as much as the steps that you need to take to ensure

harmony within the group.

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The Transformational Leader

The transformational leader is quite distinct from the task-focused leader

and the socio-emotional leader.

The transformational leader exerts a high level of influence, compared to

the task-focused leader and the socio-emotional leader. However, it

should also be noted that a task-focused leader can also become a

transformational leader (this applies to socio-emotional leaders as well).

Transformational leaders have the following traits:

 They are charismatic and they are able to inspire people with their

word and actions

 They have the gift of eloquence; they are able to communicate on a

very high level with people. They are able to connect with people

not only through verbal communication but also through body

language like eye contact.

 Transformational leaders also know how to give individualized

consideration. These leaders respect individual members of a

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group and they know how to acknowledge achievements of

individual members.

 And finally, a transformational leader likes it when members think

outside of the box. They love innovative ideas and they prefer “out

of the box” thinking when the group is faced with tough challenges

and hurdles.

Leadership Style

According to one theory, a leader becomes truly effective if he is able to

apply a particular leadership style to the needs of the group at the

present time. According to the contingency theory, leaders can either

become socio-economic leaders or task-focused leaders. Whether a leader

will choose to be the former or latter depends on a few things:

- Leader-member relations

- Group task structures

- Legitimate authority over members of the group

A leader has high situational control if there is little or no conflict

between his leadership and the members of the group and if each

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member of the group is fully aware of should be done to achieve the

group‟s goals. There is also high situational control if the leader is

recognized and acknowledged as the true leader of the group.

As a leader‟s situational control goes up, the need for socio-emotional

intervention is reduced. There is a need to continually shift your

paradigm and approach depending on the needs of the group.

If there is communication breakdown between members of the group,

then you may need to establish harmony between the members of your

group so your power as a leader is also re-established.

Is good leadership truly dependent on just group harmony and the

perceived effectiveness of the leader in handing out directives to each

group member?

One theory called the leader-member exchange theory argues that before

a leader can become efficient in being a socio-emotional leader or task-

focused leader, there has to be a great communication between the leader

and the members first.

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The leader must not only communicate effectively with the members of

the group but he must also learn how to fairly exchange psychological

resources (i.e. respect) and other types of materials (i.e. improved status

within the group) with members of the group.

Not surprisingly, leaders who have mastered the “skill of exchange” are

better motivators and they are more capable of pushing members to do

their best when it comes to achieving goals for the group.

Effective leadership also has a big impact on the members of the group. If

a member is respected and he is acknowledged within his group in a

positive manner, he will think more often of his social identity as a

member of the group.

For example, if Person A does really well as a web programmer, he will no

longer think of himself as Person A, who lives in ABC Street and has

graduated from University of TUV. He becomes Person A, the genius web

programmer of XYZ Corporation.

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He is able to shift to this social identity because other people will also

begin to acknowledge his newfound identity as a prototypical member of

a group because of his positive performance as a group member.

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PART 9: SOCIAL INFLUENCE

At the very pinnacle of human communication and interaction is social

influence or simply, influence. Influence is defined as the emotional and

cognitive change that people experience when they are in presence of

another person or a group of people.

Influence is an overarching term that takes in any kind of change that

occurs when another person (or group) directly or indirectly produces

change in a person. Social psychologists have identified two main forms

of influence: conformity and obedience.

Conformity can be defined as indirect influence because the change that

results in another person stems from following social norms. Obedience

on the other hand, is a more direct form of influence because it is usually

the outcome of a command or order.

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Social Norms

There are two definitions of “norms” that are usable in our discussion of

social influence. The first definition is that norms are comprised of

“principles of right action that are binding upon members of a social

group and serve to guide, control and regular proper and acceptable

behavior”.

The second definition is that norms are “a patter or trait taken to be

typical in the behavior of a social group”. The first definition emphasizes

that norms are rules to be followed to arrive at an acceptable route or

behavior.

The second definition on the other hand, emphasizes that norms are also

pre-determined patterns of behavior that are followed by specific social

groups. Social groups have different norms. Here are some examples:

1. Rock music enthusiasts are expected to „rock out‟ during concerts.

Fellow enthusiasts expect others to be just as loud and energetic

as the rest of the concert-goers.

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2. Lovers of literature are expected to know the various authors of

different time periods.

3. Entrepreneurs are expected to know how to balance expenditures

and profit.

As you can see, even loose social groups have norms – and people are

expected to follow these norms if they wish to become part of these social

groups. Now here is my question: why do people follow norms when they

are faced with problems?

The answer lies in how people perceive the binary opposition between the

majority and the minority. In most cases, the view of the majority is

considered „the right thing to do‟ while the view of the minority might be

viewed as „questionable‟, „poorly constructed‟ or „completely biased‟.

Notice how adjectives like “neutral”, “constructive” and “positive” are

always attributed to the majority while negative adjectives like

“inscrutable” and “strange” are attributed to the minority.

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So there is always a bias when people are unsure about what to do –

there is always an unconscious drive to follow social norm because social

norms represent what the majority would do in a situation.

Now, what is exactly the nature of group norms? Surprisingly, group

norms are a lot like stereotypes. Remember our discussion of

stereotypes? Stereotypes are highly recognizable representations of a

social group.

Usually, we think of stereotypes when it refers to other social groups.

Group norms are comprised of stereotypes that represent one‟s own

group. For example, the XYZ barbecue club might be known for their

mouth-watering barbecues throughout the city because they use a lot of

chili in their sauces.

This is one group norm that is acknowledged strongly by the public and

the members of the group. It should be noted that before a group norm

can be considered a group norm, there should be consensus between the

members of the group. The group norm must be acknowledged and put

into action first before it can be considered a group norm.

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Conformity: Indirect Influence

Conformity is indirect social influence because no one would be telling

you what to do exactly. But still, behavioral and emotional change can

occur in a person (or in members of a group). Why is this the case with

conformity? The answer lies in two concepts: normative influence and

informational influence.

Informational influence occurs when a person is unable to find any other

way to deal with a situation.

Using heuristics, the person turns to group norms for an answer. If there

is a group norm that directly addresses the person‟s need, then the

person would use the group norm and as he does this, he is able to gain

knowledge and control of the situation through his use of the group

norm.

Normative influence on the other hand, has an intimate association with

a person‟s need to be accepted within a social group. You can‟t be

accepted in a social group if you cannot follow group norms.

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You will not be acknowledged as a member of a social group if group

norms appear bizarre or unacceptable to you. Conformity to group norms

is associated with comfort and acceptance while straying from group

norms may result in ridicule, pain, exclusion and even punishment.

Do these forms of conformity have an effect on a person‟s attitude?

Normative influences can affect a person‟s projection to the public but it

might not affect his privately held attitude toward specific objects.

For example, a person who is studying law might say to people that every

suspected criminal should still be treated innocent until proven

otherwise. However, deep down, this person might think that every

criminal should be punished immediately.

When there is no change in a person‟s private view and attitude, we call

this type of conformity compliance. Informational influence has an

opposite effect on a person. Because people use heuristics to accept and

apply the group norm, there is a change in the person‟s privately held

attitude toward the object. We call this conversion, which is a much more

striking form of conformity.

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Factors That Affect Conformity

The degree of social influence varies from one situation to another. You

cannot expect total conformity each and every time. If you want to

produce a high level of conformity, you have to learn how to control the

factors that affect its impact on people. These factors are:

- Group cohesiveness

- Group size

- Social support

Let‟s talk about the first determining factor of conformity, which is group

cohesiveness. Group cohesiveness is actually the measure of how much

each person in a group is able to connect and harmonize with other

members. Group cohesiveness is a hallmark sign that there is indeed a

group to begin with.

When a group shows a high degree of cohesiveness, conformity within the

group takes place at a much faster rate and at a much deeper level. A

loose group with „rebel sub-groups‟ will have a much lower level of

conformity because the members feel that they are extremely

independent individuals who must not follow norms that easily.

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If you are the leader of a group, you must improve the relationship

between your members and you must also make sure that you are

acknowledged as the group leader.

Group size also has an impact on conformity within a group. Conformity

reaches its peak when the group size reaches three and then it begins to

level off (there is no more significant increase in conformity as the group

size goes beyond three).

If a group is only composed of two people, then conformity is unlikely

because any conflict between the two group members will most likely be

viewed as just personal problems and these troubles will not be viewed

as group issues at all.

The third and last factor is social support. Social support refers to

reinforcement within the group. If a group is composed of a leader, sub-

leaders and members, support from the sub-leaders is crucial in

establishing conformity.

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If the sub-leaders (who effectively control regions of the group) disagree

with the main leadership, then group norms will be broken. To re-

establish leadership in this situation, the sub-leaders must show that

they are once again supporters of the group norm.

Factors that Affect Informational Influence

There are two factors that have a direct impact on the level of

informational influence on a person:

- Perceived self-confidence

- Situation

Let‟s talk about perceived self-confidence. A person with a high level of

confidence when it comes to a particular task or challenge will feel less

obliged to be influenced by a group norm because he already knows what

to do. If this person uses a heuristic method for finding answers to his

questions, then he will make use of his own existing knowledge and

paradigms instead of following norms.

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Folks with low self-confidence on the other hand, will not have readily

available paradigms to work with. The most readily available to these

people would be the group norms, so logically; they would turn to norms

for answers. Lack of familiarity leads to informational influence. High

familiarity coupled with high confidence produces the opposite effect.

The second factor is situation. Normally, a person would only be able to

handle a difficult task to a certain degree.

If the task at hand becomes even more difficult than it was before then

the chances of informational influence would increase. As the situation

becomes more challenging, a person‟s confidence in his own persona

paradigms would decay and a renewed trust in group norms would

surface.

Now you should remember that informational influence and conformity

can both be affected by group polarization. Group polarization occurs

when an initial point or perspective is polarized by members of the group

as the members discuss a plan of action.

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People then resort to identify themselves based on the social identity

generated by their membership in the group. Members of the group may

also begin to identify and express themselves based on the prototypes

within the group itself. To sustain the influence, the leader must

encourage everyone in the group to move toward established group

norms because as people move toward the norms again, members will

experience stability once again.

Now, can the minority actually influence the majority?

Is this even possible, if people are conditioned by society to follow what

the majority thinks is right? The answer is a resounding yes. Minorities

within a group can influence the majority. But there are two basic pre-

requisites before this can become possible: consistency and confidence.

As long as the minority shows that they are consistent with their views

and they are very confident with what they are proposing to the majority,

the majority will view the minority as a credible source.

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Credibility automatically changes the landscape because if someone was

viewed as credible, he is not really part of the excluded minority

anymore. He becomes a part of the majority, because credibility is

attributed to the majority most of the time.

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Understanding Obedience

So far we have been able to pay close attention to the idea of indirect

influence through conformity. But what about influence that centers on a

direct command or order – obedience?

According to social psychologists, obedience would only be possible if the

context or situation cues the other person to obey (i.e. if the person was

in a place of power). If not, then obedience itself may not be possible. If

the context draws the right response from the other person, three other

factors affect the degree of obedience:

- Cultural norms

- Agency

- Period of obedience

The first factor is cultural norms. We live in a society where obedience to

authority is always associated with reward and disobedience produces

the opposite, which is pain, exclusion and of course, punishment. The

second factor is agency.

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When a person is asked to do something and obedience is required of a

person, that person experiences agency. He feels that a new

responsibility has been given to him and he is obliged to do it because an

external authority wants him to do it.

Personal responsibility ends and the responsibility is shifted to the

external source of the command. The final factor is period of obedience.

People can do increasingly difficult tasks if they obey the authority over a

longer period of time. Things that people would find difficult at first would

become easier and more acceptable over time.

Here are some other things that you should consider when you wish to

draw obedience from other people.

1. You must exude confidence in what you are asking and in what

you are doing.

2. If there are sub-leaders within the group, these sub-leaders must

also be obedient to what you are saying. Otherwise, the target

person may resist.

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3. The location also matters – if you want to close an important deal

in a badly lit and smelly restaurant, you will most likely be met

with resistance. Also, you must pay attention to your physical

appearance and your projection and persona when you ask

someone for obedience with regard to a specific issue.

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PART 10: SOCIAL IDENTITY, AFFILIATION & ATTRACTION

One of the things that truly make people tick is their own social identity.

Social identity, according to one theory, is the result of a person‟s desire

to have a positive self-concept. This positive self-concept is the direct

result (at least according to the social identity theory) of one‟s affiliation

with social groups that are perceived by positively held by the public.

When a person experiences the advantages of belonging to a group that

has a positive value to society, he will most likely engage in behavior that

will increase or at least maintain the positive image of the social group.

Determinants of Helpful Behavior

Helpful behavior or helpfulness is one of the most striking traits found in

social groups. Helpful behavior allows members of a group to harmonize

with each other.

There can be mutually helpful behavior between group members. But

why do we engage in helpful behavior in the first place? Why do we

bother helping others if we have our own troubles and goals in life?

According to social psychologists, there are several factors at work here:

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- Similarity

- Group membership

- Attractiveness

- Responsibility for misfortune

The first factor is similarity. Researchers have discovered that a person

would be more motivated to help another person if the other person

exhibits traits or characteristics that are similar to the characteristics of

the would-be helper.

If we belong to a social group and another member of that social group

was in need of help, that single similarity alone would motivate us to

help the other person. As long as there is similarity, there is a rational

ground for helpful behavior.

The second factor is group membership. Again, humans are naturally

more attracted to offering something to members of the same group. This

doesn‟t mean that humans will abandon other humans that belong to

other groups.

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I am simply pointing out that if a person were given a choice of helping a

person from his own group and a person from another group, the choice

to help one‟s own would be the more logical choice. The third factor is

attractiveness. Attractiveness is a powerful peripheral cue that works in

almost every situation – and apparently, it works when you want to be

helped by someone, too!

The fourth factor is responsibility for misfortune. This simply means that

people are most likely to lend a helping hand if the person who is need is

experiencing circumstances that are beyond his control. Inversely, if a

person is suffering because of his own doing, we would be less motivated

to help that person.

Affiliation

Affiliation is an essential social skill that produces immense benefits.

People who affiliate with other people are happier and they are able to

cope with stress more efficiently than people who do not have the ability

to affiliate regularly.

This social skill is also as natural breathing because it begins to manifest

quite concretely during adolescence and the drive to affiliate continues

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until late adulthood. We affiliate with people because this skill is tied

closely to survival and growth. Affiliation ultimately helps a person join

social groups that would ultimately contribute to his development as a

human being.

Determinants of Affiliation

Different factors affect our desire for affiliation. The theory of privacy

regulation states that a person who has been isolated for a long time

would naturally want to affiliate with other people because there is a

marked lack in affiliation and interaction. A person who has affiliated too

much may feel that he has been crowded in too much by other people

and he may want to dissociate to regain his privacy and his sense of

personal space.

A second theory called the social affiliation model presents a different

angle on affiliation. This theory states that a person does not really

operate on the basis of what he wants at the moment alone but instead,

he operates so that balance can be regained.

Each person has a particular level of need for affiliation and over time,

each person will want to reach that balance. Reaching that balance

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would mean that stability has been finally achieved and naturally, any

person who has achieved this would be happier.

The first two theories assume that people have more or less the same

degree of desire for affiliation. The aforementioned theories do not take

into consideration psychological and cultural differences. We have to

take these two other factors into consideration if we want t understand

peculiar variations in the desire to affiliate.

An introverted person is generally more responsive to affiliation. When an

introvert affiliates, he feels an increased need to affiliate. This goes

against his general nature toward social contact and so the introvert

would most likely pull away from increase affiliation so that his internal

equilibrium or homeostasis will no longer be disturbed.

Extroverts on the other hand, respond different to affiliation and social

contact. Extroverts are not easily physiologically aroused by affiliation.

That‟s why they need to continually reach out to other people and to

different social groups to reach their own internal balance.

Cultural differences affect the nature of affiliation. In individualistic

societies, people reach out and affiliate with other people for self-serving

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reasons. People make friends and other social associations because they

receive advantages and benefits. People who belong to more collectivist

cultures view affiliation in a different manner. In collectivist cultures,

people view affiliation with concepts like obligation and responsibility.

Determinants of Attraction

Time and time again, we encounter attractiveness in our exploration of

persuasion, attribution, etc. Now would be the perfect time to actually

discuss what attraction is and how it can work to increase one‟s

influence.

Social psychologists define attraction as the impetus to approach and

interact with another human being. Without attraction, business

relationships, partnerships, friendships and even romantic relationships

would not be possible at all. Where there is mutual agreement and trust

involved, you need attraction as a stepping stone.

There are several factors that affect attraction:

- Physical traits

- Similarity to the self

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- Complementary characteristics

- Reciprocity

With physical traits, we are drawn to physical characteristics or traits

that are attractive to us. Make no mistake – there are no true universal

marks of beauty. There are variations from country to country and from

culture to culture. Each time period in history also has its own take on

what is beautiful and what is not.

If you are looking for commonalities across cultures, there are a few. One

of the most reliable commonality is the male preference for women who

have a wide hips and small waists. The hourglass shape that is invoked

by this ratio may be attractive to men because the ratio may signify that

the other person is a healthy female.

Another commonality across cultures is that people are more attracted to

people with increased facial symmetry. The more symmetrical the face,

the more attractive the person becomes. Being free from facial

asymmetry may signal that the other person is not only healthy but also

has good genes. Youthfulness, fertility and health are the hallmarks of

attraction when it comes to physical traits.

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The second factor is similarity to the self. Now, similarity is not limited to

physical traits. People are also attracted to people who exhibit similar

thinking and similar attitudes. What does this mean?

Well, at first, similarities to physical characteristics are important in the

initial process of attraction. But once a relationship has already been

established, deeper similarities are needed to sustain the relationship.

There is also a tendency to like people who are alike us at least in some

ways because in this way, we avoid negative social evaluation because

the other person would be more or less equal to us in appearance.

We know for a fact that males are more straightforward when it comes to

attraction and finding the right mate and so forth. But can we say the

same thing for women? Apparently not. One theory called the parental

investment theory states that women are generally more reserved when it

comes to attracting potential mates because:

- They can damage their reputation by attracting the wrong types of

males

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- They can end up investing more into a relationship than may not

continue (i.e. pregnancy, childbirth, parenting)

- Women are generally more reserved with the way they

communicate their interest in potential partners

The third factor is complementary characteristics. Surely, we are attracted

to others with similar traits but we are also attracted to individuals who

have traits that complement our own traits. Complementary traits are

traits that we don‟t have but we value these traits all the same.

The fourth and final factor is reciprocity. The concept of reciprocity is

fairly straightforward. We tend to be more attracted to individuals who

are showing signs that they like us, too. Inversely, if the other person

shows disdain at our interest, we may not be as drawn to the person

anymore.

Friendship & Love

Have you ever thought of how friendships actually work? It starts off with

the process of self-disclosure. After identifying the person that we want to

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be friends with, we start sharing parts of our self to that person (i.e. our

name and where we studied).

When we discover commonalities with the person, we begin to take an

interest in him or her. We begin sharing deeper thoughts and more

intimate information with the other person. This can be considered the

seed of friendships.

It begins with an exchange of information that pertains directly to the

self. The more you share yourself with the other person, the more you

begin to trust the other person, too. If it doesn‟t work out, social

withdrawal takes place.

You begin to dissociate with the person and the amount of information

that you are sharing with that person begins to dwindle until finally, the

information stops and the connection is finally broken.

Gender-Related Differences

Males and females think differently, no doubt about that – and it is

enlightening to know that there are some quaint differences in the way

males and females handle friendship, too:

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1. Women tend to develop more intimate relationships with other

people.

2. Women tend to share their thoughts and details of their lives more

regularly than males.

3. Men typically don‟t share as much information because this type of

personal disclosure is linked with vulnerability.

4. Men, surprisingly, engage in more physical contact with friends

than women.

Types of Love

When attraction to another person progresses to love, you must

understand that love actually has three forms:

- Passionate love

- Game-playing love

- Friendship love

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When people start combining the three primary forms of love, we arrive at

these secondary forms:

- Pragmatic love (friendship love & game-playing love)

- Possessive love (passionate love & game-playing love)

- Altruistic love (passionate love & friendship love)

Passionate love and companionate love have distinct traits, as well:

1. Passionate love is marked by longing for another person. There is

intensity and the longing usually stays with the person for long

periods of time. This is most apparent during the early stages of

romantic love.

There is intensity and certain rawness to the emotions felt by one

or both of the parties involved in the budding relationship. It is

also possible that if a person is drawn to another person via

passionate love, friends and former acquaintances are pushed out

of the picture for the time being.

2. Companionate love is marked by having a somewhat rosy lens