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Summary Article Cialdini principles Compliance / conformity
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A summary of the article Social influence: Compliance and conformity Cialdini (2004)
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Cialdini, R.B. & Goldstein, N.J. (2004). Social influence: compliance and conformity. Annu. Rev.Psychol. 55, 591-621.
Samenvatting
Cialdini and Goldstein provide a literature review on compliance and conformity. Both topics are
divided into three subcategories, all focusing on individual goals. These are: goal of accuracy,
goal of affiliation and goal of maintaining a positive self-concept.
In the last decades researchers have been studying social influence processes that are more
subtle, indirect and non-conscious. This paper provides a literature review while focusing on
implicit and explicit goals(or motivations) that may affect information processing and decision-
making in influence contexts.
Compliance
Compliance: agreeing or accepting a request without protest (acquiescence). The target
is aware that he or she is being urged to respond in a desired way by an implicit or
explicit request.
Goal of Accuracy
People may be motivated by wanting to gain accuracy. In every situation people will attempt to
gain an accurate construal of the situation (in large: reality) and will want to respond accordingly.
Especially when being the target of compliance-gaining, one needs an accurate representation
of the ‘influence-situation’ in order to process information accurately (maw: als je niet genaaid
wilt worden door een sales-mannetje, dan moet je de situatie nauwkeurig in kunnen schatten en
begrijpen wat z’n aanbod echt inhoudt).
Affect and arousal
Affect: have an influence or impression on
Arousal: activation stage of autonomous nerve system (reactiviteit op prikkels)
After receiving a request, targets use their feelings to decide on an effective response.
- Individuals avoid or alleviate feelings of shame or fear via public compliance and feelings
of guilt and pity via private compliance.
- Mere arousal during performing an interesting task enhances the likelihood of
compliance with a request.
- AIM: Affect Infusion Model: in situations that need prior information to be combined with
new information, in order to generate new knowledge, the affective state of the target will
be of influence on the processing of information (Forgas, 1995, 1998)
, - Forgas says: processing of a request will be more sensitive to mood if the request is
unconventional and impervious to mood when conventional.
- Conclusion: mood effects in compliance-situations are mediated by both targets’ and
requesters’ level of information processing.
Fear-then-Relief procedure (Dolinski & Nawrat, 1998
When a target needs to decide on whether to comply to a request, he is more likely to comply
when he first experience fear and then relief. This is because our brain ‘has used its resources’
on cognitions and counterfactuals regarding the fear-provoking event. We don’t have enough
time to think the whole situation through and can’t decide rationally whether or not to comply.
That’s-not-all Technique
A target is presented with an initial request, followed almost immediately a sweetening of the
deal (reducing costs or by increasing the benefit of compliance) before the target is able to
respond.
Possible causes for the TNA technique to work:
1. Targets’ feeling of obligation to reciprocate the generosity
2. The first request may not be too costly or demanding, otherwise the procedure backfires
(the initial request is the anchor point. By elevating the first request, the sweetening of
the deal makes it acceptable. A request that is too costly initially will be regarded as
unacceptable and anything else that comes after will be rejected).
3. Pollock states that targets mindlessly act on counterfactuals that create the appearance
of a bargain.
Resistance – Disrupt-then-reframe technique
The DTR technique is about presenting a request to the target, then disrupting the targets
understanding, followed by an immediate reframing of the initial request. (That’s 300 hundred
pennies…that is 3 dollars…it’s a bargain). The goal is to leave the target more vulnerable to the
proposition.
This technique is thought to work because it disturbs the evaluation stage of Gilbert’s 2-stage
model for message and situation comprehension.
It seems the DTR technique suppresses the feelings of resistance rather than focusing on the
desirability of the request fulfillment. It is still unclear what the effect is of omega (forces drawing
the target away from compliance) and alpha forces (forces pushing targets towards compliance)
in influence settings.
Authority and Obediance
Two distinctive sources of power for authorities:
1. Authority based on expertise – soft tactics – originate from within the influence agent (eg
credibility)
2. Authority based on position in hierarchy – harsh tactics – external origin (eg existing
social structure)
Some facts about authority and obedience:
, - Supervisors using soft tactics are associated more often with higher job satisfaction,
harsh tactics are associated with lower job satisfaction
- Authorities who demonstrate respect for their subordinates’ needs get them to comply
more often than do authorities relying on harsh tactics
- Level of volition associated with compliance is a function of the quality of the treatments
subordinates receive, thus authorities get more out of it when the treat their subordinates
with respect
- The success of an authority’s use of nonforceful measures may actually be augmented
by the additional use of forceful means, so long as the attitudinal compliance brought
about by the nonforceful influence attempt is not undermined
- Supervisors whose compliance-gaining repertoires included both forceful and
nonforceful techniques were most successful in gaining compliance
- Although the Nazi-regime is sometimes compared to the obedience shown in the
Milgram-experiment, some people willingly and sadistically tortured and killed people
during the war, while in the Milgram-experiment the respondent was not only influenced
by legitimate authority, but also expert authority.
- We are also susceptible to those feigning authority on the basics of heuristics (doctor’s
jacket = authority = obedience)
Social Norms
In addition to authority, people are also influenced by norms when gaining an accurate
understanding of and effectively responding to social situations, especially when uncertain.
Two sorts of norms:
1. Injunctive norm: norm that tells us what is typically approved or disapproved of
2. Descriptive norm: norm that tells us what others typically do in the same situation
The influence of these norms on compliance-gaining depends on which of the norms is focal
and the degree to which these norms are in alignment. Relevant norms direct behavior only
when they are in focus. One’s actions are relatively unaffected by normative information, unless
the information is highlighted prominently in one’s consciousness.
When wanting to persuade someone to engage in a particular behavior that is normcongruent,
one must make the norm salient immediately following message reception and again in the
future.
Hypothesis: linking an injunctive normative message to a functional mnemonic cue would
increase norm accessibility later by activation of the norm upon perception of the same or a
similar cue.
Goal of affiliation
Humans want to create and maintain meaningful social relationships with others. Injunctive
norms: if we engage in behavior that others approve, they will approve of ourselves too.
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