I am generally a pretty autonomous person and I don’t
like other people having any power over my decisions or actions. However, I
must admit that I am not impervious to social influence as hard as I may try to
be. Social influence is defined as
the ways that people are affected by pressure from others (whether real or
perceived) (Cialdini et al., 2010). Most
of us deal with social influence on a daily basis. We are influenced by our
family members, friends, coworkers, bosses, professors, and other authority
figures.
One of the main forms of social influence is compliance, which is the act of acquiescing
to a request made by a peer of equal or lower status (Cialdini et al., 2004).
There are many techniques that are used to induce compliance, one of which is
called the norm of reciprocity, which
states that we should do unto others as they have done to us (Gouldner,
1960). This belief is commonly known as the
golden rule. The norm of reciprocity
sets the standard that if we receive something from someone else without
earning it, then we should repay them in some way (Gouldner, 1960); therefore,
salespeople can take advantage of this social norm and use it to influence
people.
I know that I have fallen prey to this sales
technique many times in my life. For
example, the free sample gets me every
time. Specifically, whenever I go to my hairdresser to get my hair cut and
colored she always gives me little samples of hair products. The next time I come in, she will ask me if I liked the
product and if I would like to purchase some. I always feel obligated to buy
it, even though I rarely ever use hair products. Indeed I have a bathroom full
of things that I never use, but purchased because I felt guilty about receiving
the free sample. The caveat is that if I try to decline the free samples then
she seems offended, which induces an even worse feeling. So, in order to avoid
both of these awkward situations I just continue to accept the samples and buy
the products. I guess I could just change hairdressers, but I really do like
her and the way she does my hair. I guess complying with her sales technique is
a small price to pay for not ending up with green hair.
Word count = 485
References
Cialdini,
R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and
conformity. Annual Review Of Psychology, 55591-621.
doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015
Cialdini,
R. B., & Griskevicius, V. (2010). Social influence. In R. F. Baumeister, E.
J. Finkel (Eds.) , Advanced social psychology: The state of the science
(pp. 385-417). New York, NY US: Oxford University Press.
Gouldner, A. W. (1960). ‘The norm of
reciprocity’. American Sociological Review,
25, 161–78.
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