Archive:Social impact theory

Social Impact Theory

Social impact theory-a thoery that states the likelihood that you will respond to social influence depending upon three variables:
1. Strength: How important the influncing group is to you.
2. Immediacy: How close the group is to you (whether in space or time) during the attempt to influence you.
3. Number: How many people are in the group.

Inroduction

The social impact theory predicts that as strength and immediacy increase within a group comformity will also increase. The more improtant a group is and the more one is in its presence the more likely it is for one to conform to the groups normative pressures.
As the size of a group increases a single person has less of an effect. Thus, if one feels pressure from a group to conform, adding another person to the minority makes a much greater difference to a small group as opposed to a large group.

History

Bibb Latane, an accomplished professor at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published the social impact theory in 1981.