Social influence is ubiquitous in our daily lives, influencing our opinions, beliefs, and behaviors. Individual differences may determine who is most likely to conform to the opinions of others. More ...specifically, individual differences in interdependent and independent self-construal determine an individual's sensitivity to and focus on their social surroundings. Relatedly, society traditionally ascribes and prescribes different levels of agency (independence) and communion (interdependence) to men and women. Here, we examined how individual differences in self-construal, and their congruence with gender expectations, influence how people process and respond to social feedback. Results from independent behavioral and neuroimaging samples show that a stronger interdependent self-construal was associated with increased likelihood of conformity, whereas an independent self-construal was not. Further, neuroimaging data suggests that the relationship between brain activity and conformity is moderated by the congruence of gender stereotypes and self-construal. Specifically, stereotypically congruent women (with stronger interdependence) and men (with stronger independence) showed increased activity in mentalizing regions (and value regions in men) when conforming. Stereotypically incongruent women (with stronger independence) and men (with stronger interdependence) showed decreased mentalizing activity when conforming. These results shed light on underlying (neuro)psychological mechanisms that are associated with conformity among different groups.
•Congruence between self-construal and gender expectations influence conformity.•Stronger interdependent self-construal is associated with increased conformity.•Congruent self-construal and gender is associated with increased mentalizing.•Incongruent self-construal and gender is associated with decreased mentalizing.•Results shed light on underlying neural mechanisms associated with conformity.
This study examines two types of information commonly used by group-buying sites to induce purchasing. The first study indicates the number of people who have bought a deal ("buy" information). The ...second one indicates Facebook friends who "like" a deal ("like" information). The effects of the group-buying information on opinions (attitude and intention) and emotions were examined using a controlled experiment. Our results show that positive and negative "buy" information has an asymmetric influence on attitude and intention, whereas "like" information has a positive influence on intention. The presence of "buy" information is associated with EEG activity that is generally linked to negative emotions. However, the addition of "like" information is associated with EEG activity that is generally linked to positive emotions. The different effects of the two types of group-buying information can be explained by the different social influences exerted by the information.
There is inadequate understanding of how social media can shape fear and consumer responses in the manner of consumer panic buying while Covid-19 is spreading across the world. Through taking a ...social constructionism position this research focused on what people think and feel at an individual and collective level on the role of social media to create panic behaviour. Data have been collected from thirty-four consumers who have minimum one active social media account. These participants are contacted through telephonic interview due to maintaining the social distancing. Findings reveal that uncertainties and insecurities proof, buying as persuasion, product unavailability proof, authorities' communication, global logic, and expert opinion are some of the causes on social media platforms that developed the situation of consumer panic buying during Covid-19 crises. Furthermore, the unprecedented level of real-time information on Covid-19 at users' fingertips can give them the tools they need to make smart decisions, but also make them more anxious about what is to come; experts say that may lead to panic buying or stockpiling of products. The study has tried to develop understanding about how social media generates social proof and offers a window into people's collective response to the coronavirus outbreak and shapes panic buying reaction. The study has provided a consumer panic buying theory based on the results of this study and on existing theories, such as global capitalism/information society risk society, social influence, and social proof. These theories help to understand how global logic is built due to the use of social media and how different social proofs are generated which developed the behaviour of consumer panic buying due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The adoption of gamification in learning and instruction is perceived to have mass appeal among the learners in stimulating motivation, learner engagement and social influence. This study is an ...attempt to present a summary of the empirical findings of state-of-the-art literature in the emerging field of gamification within the educational domain of learning and instruction. It reveals the latest scientific research evidence on the emerging trends of learning technologies and gamification plugins along with extending the possibilities for future research directions in revolutionizing learning and instruction through gamification. A systematic literature review examined the thematic and content analysis of 46 empirical research papers published in the Web of Science database between 2016 and 2019. The review critically appraised and evaluated the various contradictions found in the literature along with setting the stage for the significance of future research studies to re-examine the theoretical foundations of gamification, its methodological approaches, theoretical models, gaming platforms and apps, game mechanics and learning outcomes. This study not only attempts to shed light on the novelty of gamified learning perceived as a game-changer and key enabler of motivation, engagement, and user experience but also sought to outline the key challenges and barriers of gamification.
•The study aims to evaluate, synthesise, and present state-of-the-art literature on gamification in educational domains.•The review critically appraised and evaluated the various contradictions found in the literature.•Gamification research in the academic field reveals that the majority of the studies have no theoretical establishments.•A gamification concept may provide an effective strategy to intensifying learning, including eliciting friendly competition.•The study reveals three positive themes; students' engagement and motivation, academic achievement, and social connectivity.
The pursuit of social rank is a recurrent and pervasive challenge faced by individuals in all human societies. Yet, the precise means through which individuals compete for social standing remains ...unclear. In 2 studies, we investigated the impact of 2 fundamental strategies-Dominance (the use of force and intimidation to induce fear) and Prestige (the sharing of expertise or know-how to gain respect)-on the attainment of social rank, which we conceptualized as the acquisition of (a) perceived influence over others (Study 1), (b) actual influence over others' behaviors (Study 1), and (c) others' visual attention (Study 2). Study 1 examined the process of hierarchy formation among a group of previously unacquainted individuals, who provided round-robin judgments of each other after completing a group task. Results indicated that the adoption of either a Dominance or Prestige strategy promoted perceptions of greater influence, by both group members and outside observers, and higher levels of actual influence, based on a behavioral measure. These effects were not driven by popularity; in fact, those who adopted a Prestige strategy were viewed as likable, whereas those who adopted a Dominance strategy were not well liked. In Study 2, participants viewed brief video clips of group interactions from Study 1 while their gaze was monitored with an eye tracker. Dominant and Prestigious targets each received greater visual attention than targets low on either dimension. Together, these findings demonstrate that Dominance and Prestige are distinct yet viable strategies for ascending the social hierarchy, consistent with evolutionary theory.
The study outlines a model for how the COVID‐19 pandemic has uniquely exacerbated the propagation of conspiracy beliefs and subsequent harmful behaviors. The pandemic has led to widespread disruption ...of cognitive and social structures. As people face these disruptions they turn online seeking alternative cognitive and social structures. Once there, social media radicalizes beliefs, increasing contagion (rapid spread) and stickiness (resistance to change) of conspiracy theories. As conspiracy theories are reinforced in online communities, social norms develop, translating conspiracy beliefs into real‐world action. These real‐world exchanges are then posted back on social media, where they are further reinforced and amplified, and the cycle continues. In the broader population, this process draws attention to conspiracy theories and those who confidently espouse them. This attention can drive perceptions that conspiracy beliefs are less fringe and more popular, potentially normalizing such beliefs for the mainstream. We conclude by considering interventions and future research to address this seemingly intractable problem.
Review helpfulness is receiving increasing attention by academics and practitioners along with the growing problem of information overload in the Internet age. Prior studies on online review ...helpfulness mainly focus on the direct influences of review- and reviewer-specific characteristics. An implicit underlying assumption of these studies is that reviews for a given product are independent of each other. As such, the existence of social influence among reviewers is much overlooked in the literature on review helpfulness. To fill this gap, this study as a first attempt to explore the order effect on review helpfulness, aims to investigate whether, how, and why the order of a review will affect review helpfulness from a social influence perspective. With an analysis of 70,610 restaurant reviews collected from Yelp.com, this study finds that the order of a review negatively relates to review helpfulness. Moreover, the negative effect of review order on review helpfulness is weakened when the reviewer has more social connectedness or a higher level of expertise, or when the review is more negative in content or more recently posted.
•We examine social influence effects on review helpfulness through effect of review order.•We identify boundary conditions for the effect of review order.•Review order has a negative effect on review helpfulness.•The order effect is weaker for more connected or expert reviewers.•The order effect is weaker for more negative or recently posted reviews.
When customers journey from a need to a purchase decision and beyond, they rarely do so alone. This article introduces the social customer journey, which extends prior perspectives on the path to ...purchase by explicitly integrating the important role that social others play throughout the journey. The authors highlight the importance of “traveling companions,” who interact with the decision maker through one or more phases of the journey, and they argue that the social distance between the companion(s) and the decision maker is an important factor in how social influence affects that journey. They also consider customer journeys made by decision-making units consisting of multiple individuals and increasingly including artificial intelligence agents that can serve as surrogates for social others. The social customer journey concept integrates prior findings on social influences and customer journeys and highlights opportunities for new research within and across the various stages. Finally, the authors discuss several actionable marketing implications relevant to organizations’ engagement in the social customer journey, including managing influencers, shaping social interactions, and deploying technologies.
•We study the relationship between social factors, continued use and exercise.•Network effects, subjective norms, recognition, and reciprocal benefits are studied.•The study employs survey data from ...an exercise gamification application.•We investigate the model structure, direct and mediated effects on use and exercise.•Social factors are found to be associated with continued use and exercise.
Today, people use a variety of social and gameful (mobile) applications in order to motivate themselves and others to maintain difficult habits such as exercise, sustainable consumption and healthy eating. However, we have yet lacked understanding of how social influence affects willingness to maintain these difficult habits with the help of gamification services. In order to investigate this phenomenon, we measured how social influence predicts attitudes, use and further exercise in the context of gamification of exercise. Our results show that people indeed do “work out for likes”, or in other words, social influence, positive recognition and reciprocity have a positive impact on how much people are willing to exercise as well as their attitudes and willingness to use gamification services. Moreover, we found that the more friends a user has in the service, the larger the effects are. Furthermore, the findings of the empirical study further provide new understanding on the phenomenon of social influence in technology adoption/use continuance in general by showing, in addition to subjective norms, how getting recognized, receiving reciprocal benefits and network effects contribute to use continuance.
People are influenced by members of high-status groups and members of their ingroup. These principles of “status orientation” and “ingroup orientation” can imply opposing forces for people of lower ...status. Are lower-status individuals more influenced by members of higher-status outgroups or by members of their lower-status ingroup? Engaging status characteristics theory and self-categorization theory, we predict that status orientation is relatively stronger on questions about facts, which have an objectively correct answer, whereas ingroup orientation is stronger when it comes to ‘opinion questions’ that have no objectively correct answer. Results of an online survey experiment confirm that on factual questions, less-educated individuals are more strongly influenced by highly-educated outgroup individuals than by less-educated ingroup individuals. On opinion questions, we observe relatively weaker status orientation, with status orientation and ingroup orientation being about equally strong. These findings suggest that it is harder to reach societal consensus on opinion questions than on factual questions.
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