The social psychology concept being researched in this paper is social influence. Social influence usually takes place when the attitudes, emotions, character and actions of an individual are shaped by others. There are various aspects of social influence, which are all quite important. This concept of social influence is important because it is through it that people get to understand reasons for existence of conforming behaviors, factors that affect conformity and the psychological perspectives of social influence. It is important to study and understand social influence in the contemporary world because its knowledge in controlling the bad and undesirable characters within the society. Today, the habit of drug abuse has grown to become a major menace. In questioning the way this behavior of abusing drugs spreads, one realizes that social influence through peer-pressure is the force behind the increased engagement in the use of drugs among youths.
Review of article I
The authors of the first article under review are Jan Lorenz, Heiko Rauhut, Frank Schweitzer and Dirk Helbing. The title of this article is How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect . It is an article that was written in the year 2011. The purpose of this article was to show that even mild social influence has the ability of undermining the wisdom of crowd effect in the tasks of simple estimation (Lorenz, Rauhut, Schweitzer & Helbing, 2011). Therefore, this research sought to oppose the commonly held position in the existing literature that the median estimate given by a group may be more accurate than the approximations from the experts. The findings of this research are based on experimental evidence, with a sample size of 144. The main hypothesis for this study was that mild social influence undermines the very wisdom of crowd effect in tasks of approximation, which are just simple. This statement is the one that guided the whole research with main goal being proving or disapproving it.
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The methodology of this experiment, involved subjects reconsidering their answers to the factual questions given to them. This reconsideration was done by participants after being furnished with full information regarding the responses of the other subjects in the same study. Moreover, this research also entailed comparison of the level of convergence of the estimates made as well as enhancements in accuracy. This comparison was carried out over periods of five consecutive estimations, where a control term was also included. For the control condition, no information regarding the responses of others was given.
In this particular research, it was established that although groups are originally wise, the knowledge of information regarding the estimates of others lowers the diversity of the opinions given. This narrowing down of the diversity of the opinions given usually undermines the wisdom of crowd effect. Firstly, there is the social influence effect, which normally narrows down the diversity of the crowd without any significant improvement in the group error. The crowd also becomes unreliable for offering expertise to the external observers. The reason for this position is that range reduction effect usually shifts the truth position to peripheral areas of estimates range. This article also mentions the confidence effect, which usually enhances the confidence level of a person after the similarity realized in his or her estimates with others. However, despite this enhanced confidence level, there is always no improved accuracy in the estimates given.
Equally, people tend to take on a given character just because there is a convergence over it within a specific social group. The assimilated character or behavior may even be bad and harmful, but the level of confidence over it is boosted just by the fact of its convergence within a large social group (Aronson, Wilson, Akert & Sommers, 2016). Therefore, this article is quite relevant in terms of analyzing the nature of the social influence with respect to psychology.
Review of article I
This particular article is specific in terms of the topic on which it is focused. The article is about social influence and obesity. It was written by Ross A. Hammond in the year 2010. It is vital to observe the fact that the purpose of this article was to present a review of the studies published regarding the role of social influence in whole issue of obesity (Hammond, 2010). Therefore, it is a secondary research article, which was based on simply collecting a number of primary study reports and reviewing them. The number of studies considered in the review published in this article is 12. It is vital to note that this article is holistic in terms of its analysis on the way social influence impacts the society.
According to the article, the recently done studies add fresh evidence to the one already in existence regarding the significant connection between the social influence and obesity. Social influence is premised on the network structures that exist within a given society. Social influence has its way of affecting the issue of obesity. Social influence comes into play through the eating and body image norms within the society. There is also social capital and stress, which also have great impact on the issue of obesity within the society. The papers reviewed in this article show that social influence is a factor affecting obesity through the societal network structures.
Obesity has been on the rise and is now a major problem all over the world. People now die of the diseases exacerbated by the obese condition. Therefore, research into this issue has also heightened in the recent past. Many researchers want to establish some of the significant factors that cause obesity. In this regard, focus has been put on social influence as a possible intervention mechanism for reducing obesity problem.
Through social norms like eating and body type, it is possible to have a society that does all it takes to avoid obesity. The overriding perception regarding obesity is negative. People, therefore, want to eat in styles that resemble those of others who aim at avoiding obesity. Therefore, the eating norm in the society is geared towards fighting obesity. It is clear that social influence through the network structures can significantly help in reducing obesity. This paper simply explains the psychological effect of social influence.
Biblical integration
Various verses talk about the concept of social influence. Hebrews 10:24 states, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” This particular Scripture refers to the importance of social influence in the society. It encourages collective working so that people have common practices and norms underpinned by good works and love. Through social influence, these two virtues can be achieved. It only takes the majority of the society embracing them and then people join in with enhanced confidence considering the convergence of deeds.
The second verse is Matthew 5:13, which states, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” As the salt of the world, people are encouraged to socially influence others with positive things and deeds. Through interaction and mingling one is able to give others the reason for behaving well and subscribing to constructive virtues in life.
Social influence is the reason for the many bad group behaviors within the society. Individuals tend to change their feelings, thoughts and behavior after having interaction with others. Individuals usually adjust their behavior to make similar to that of others, in accordance with the principles of psychology such as balance. Moreover, social influence is the cause of the rise of popular culture all over the world since people are influenced to abandon their traditional beliefs and practices and adopt the new trending way of life copied from others.
It is believable that this article does a clear demonstration of the way social influence psychologically works. Social influence affects the psychological status of a person in relation to the others with whom he or she interacts. For instance, it has been established that by viewing information regarding the estimates of others, one gains improved confidence regardless of whether their answer is wrong or right.
Conclusion
Social influence is a very important factor in the society. It is both advantageous when used correctly and disadvantageous when it is misused. For instance, the second article has demonstrated that social influence can be used as an effective intervention for obesity. Through the proper eating norms and body image perceptions, people are forced to pick lifestyles that minimize chances of becoming obese. However, it is also possible to have negative social influence such as in the case of drug abuse. Many youths are becoming drug abusers because of social influence exerted through peer pressure. Although people know using drugs is a wrong habit, one gets the enhanced confidence of abusing substances after seeing others in the society consume it. Therefore, a person finds himself or herself using drugs just because others do it too.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., & Sommers, S. R. (2016). Social psychology (9 th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson pp 3-18.
Hammond, R. A. (2010). Social influence and obesity. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity, 17 (5), 467.
Lorenz, J., Rauhut, H., Schweitzer, F., & Helbing, D. (2011). How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (22), 9020-9025. doi:10.1073/pnas.1008636108
Hebrews 10:24. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” English Standard Version .
Matthew 5:13. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” English Standard Version .
