Course description
This course explores the many modes and modalities of social influence which social psychology has studied and developed concepts for. Modalities of social influence cover processes by which social groups and actors normalise, assimilate and accommodate private and public opinion, attitudes, social stereotypes, institute normative expectations and ways of life, and achieve recognition and social change. We will discuss the social psychological traditions such as rhetoric, crowd behaviour, public opinion, leadership, norms, opinion and attitude formation, majority and minority influence, resistance and obedience to authority, dual-processes of persuasion, mass media effect models; fait-accompli, inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity.
The course will discuss current ideas and models in comparison with canonical paradigms in order to assess 'real progress' of what often seems 'old wine in new bottles'. The course builds a theoretical integration of modalities of influence in the 'cycle of normativity and common sense' including the normalisation, assimilation and accommodation of social diversity (Sammut& Bauer, 2011). The moral ambiguity of social influence treads a fine line between promoting wellbeing and social recognition, and manipulating beliefs, opinion and attitudes. This raises ethical issues involved in the study and exercise of social influence in the modern public spheres.
Course Content
- Introduction to the study of
Persuasion
- Constitutes Persuasion
- Attitudes and Consistency
- Credibility
- Sequential persuasion
- Motivational Appeals
- Structuring and ordering messages
- Deception
- Conformity and group influence
- Esoteric Forms of Persuasion
Learning Outcome
- After completing this course, you
will be able to:
- Describe & recognize key ideas
and theories in the social influence literature
- Detect and analyze techniques of
influence
- Apply these theories to a design
problem
- Apply these theories to a management
problem
- Exposure to some key differences
between how economists and psychologists think about human behavior
- Exposure to experimental methods in psychology and economics
Compulsory Reading Materials
- Billig M (1987) Arguing and thinking
– a rhetorical approach to social psychology, Cambridge, CUP;
- Influence: Science and Practice(5thedition) by Robert Cialdini, PearsonEducationInc
Optional Reading Materials
- Gigerenzer G (2007) Gut feelings,
New York: Viking;
- Habermas J (1989) The structural
transformation of the public sphere, Cambridge, Polity Press;
- Kahnemann D (2011) Thinking, fast
and slow; London: Penguin Books.
- Paicheler G (1988) The psychology of
social influence, Cambridge, CUP;
- Pratkanis AR (2007) The Science of
Social Influence, NY, Psychology Press;
- Sammut G and MW Bauer (2011) Social influence: modes and modalities, in: D W Hook, B Franks & M W Bauer (Eds) The Social Psychology of Communication, London, Palgrave, pp87 106