This project integrates psychological and sociological theories of social influence into a single framework. Within psychology, the distribution of opinions in task groups is one of the dominant factors explaining social influence, with people being influenced by the majority in a group. Within sociology, status characteristics, such as educational attainment, general intelligence, and even gender, have been shown to be related to social influence, with higher status people being more influential over group decision making. This project examines how the distribution of opinions and relative status combine to affect social influence. As such, it contributes to research and theory in sociology and psychology, and also contributes to generalizable knowledge regarding how the structure of task groups may shape their outcomes.
Two laboratory studies constitute the empirical component of this project. The first uses highly controlled protocols to isolate the joint effects of status and the distribution of opinions on social influence. The experimental procedures ensure other factors are not explaining variations in social influence. The second study applies the theory to groups of individuals that will be recruited from the broader community. Specifically, groups of three or six people will be invited to the laboratory to participate in an open interaction session. They will be asked to form an opinion about a task, to share that opinion with the group, and then asked for their final opinions. Changes in initial opinions constitutes social influence, and is expected to follow from status processes and the distribution of opinions in predictable ways. These groups will systematically vary in their composition by gender, age, occupation, and race. Statistical modeling will be employed to discern the effects of status and the distribution of opinions on social influence.
