What is Informational Social Influence and Normative Social Influence?

Informational Social Influence.

Informational influence is a form of conformity which occurs when an individual turns to another in order to obtain information. Unlike normative conformity, informational social influence results from an individual thinking that someone else has more accurate information then they do. It is theorized that this is more likely to occur when one is unaware of what to do and so turns to someone for insight, when a panic inducing situation occurs and a quick decision needs to be made, and when one perceives that the other is more knowledgeable and therefore, may be right about the information they provide.

As because the Internet is in many respects a database, the information stored is portrayed and interpreted in a different way than by exposure through meetings in person. The influence physical appearance such as clothing has on the perception of authority is a different social psychological phenomenon, yet it is an important factor in informational influence.

Since people do not see how an individual behind a website appears, the web designer can do a number of things to improve the visual aspects of the site, which M.a way replaces the physical appearance of the individual. This in turn gives the impression that the information on the website is more credible.

Subsequent experiments were based on more realistic situations. The mere fact that the Internet is text based is also a form of informational influence in itself. People often feel that information conveyed through text is more reliable than information passed through word of mouth.

Normative Social Influence.

Normative social influence is a type of social influence leading to conformity. It is defined as “the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them.” Normative social influence’s power stems from the human identity as a, social creature, with a need for companionship and association.

This fact often leads to people exhibiting public compliance but not necessarily private acceptance of the group’s social norms in order to be accepted by the group.

The normative social influence involves conforming in order to be accepted or liked by a group, not necessarily because one actually believes the things one is doing or saying. This tendency is due to the fact that one of core instincts is too long to be in a social group of some sort.

This comes into play because when a bunch of people get together and want to stay together there needs to be some degree of agreement as far as rules, morals and behaviors because otherwise there would be issues among the members.

Over time people conform more and more to the ways other people do. things. It becomes a social obligation to fit in and continue to do what others are doing. This does not just happen with friends or loved ones, it can happen with people you have never met.

These results show that when accuracy is not very important, it is better to get the wrong answer than to risk social disapproval. An experiment using procedures similar to Asch’s found that there was significantly less conformity in six-person groups of friends as compared to six-person groups of strangers.