Social Influence

Rating:
Summary: A state-of-the art book on social influence
Review: Social influence is the very stuff of everyday life; in a million imperceptible, sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious ways, we influence, and are influenced by others. Some of the most exciting findings of psychology come from research on direct forms of social influence such as obedience, conformity, compliance and the like. This book offers and excellent and up-to-date review of social influence phenomena written by an outstandning group of leading international researchers who collaborated on this volume during a recent residential symposium held at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The result is a truly excellent volume. The topics covered include both subtle, unconscious forms of social influence, and more direct, explicit forms of influence strategies. Further, the role of social and cultural factors in the uses of, and responses to social influence is considered. The applications of the topics discussed in this work are innumerable: advertising, marketing, counselling, clinical psychology, health psychology, organizational behavior, interpersonal relationships and group interaction are just some of the many stages where social influence processes are played out in real life. Many of the chapters in the book offer detailed discussion of the uses and applications of influence strategies in everyday encounters. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone interested in finding out more about how people use and react to attempts at social influence, and more generally, to anyone who is fascinated by the way people communicate and interact with each other.