applications of social information theory

Social Information(psychology)

by: Malcolm Jackson, Kyongho Kim, Kenny Rosenberg, & Erin Stratos

Asch 1956

● Even obviously incorrect judgments from the majority influenced individuals

● This effect was strong and hard to counteract

Group Influence on Individual Judgment

● Normative Influence: Information about what the expectations are in a given situation

● Informational Influence: Counting others' opinions as evidence in making a judgment

-Deutsch and Gerard

Using Normative and Informational Influence

What use can be made of this effect?Getting a desired behavior performed

How can we induce it to get that?

Design Application: Ranking

- Expose other purchasers' decisions.

Ranking helps users make decisions when purchasing products but at the same time, it influences on the distortion of users' own decision if they have their own.

Design Application: Customer Reviews

Most e-commerce website shows the customer reviews showing how many people and how much they like it. It can influence customers' choices even when they already made their decisions before reading the reviews. The worse reviews, the less sales.

Design Application: Group opinions

- Show other members' opinions

Facebook - Event Going

Design Application: Group opinions

- Show other members' opinions

How to increase normative social influence?

Facebook - Event Going

Design Application: Group opinions

- Show other members' opinions

How to increase normative social influence?

- automatically opt users into events

Facebook - Event Going

The Majority Opinion Effect:

● Increases error

● Is persistent

● Creates self-doubt and fear

Asch's Post-Study Interviews

"... at first I thought I was right, then I became convinced that the other seven couldn't be wrong."

"They might feel I was just trying to be out of the ordinary ... they might think it was stubborn of me."

"I was standing out as a sore thumb."

"Unless groups encourage their members toexpress their own, independent judgments,group consensus is likely to be an empty

achievement."

- Deutsch & Gerard

What to do?

Management Application:Brainstorming

● Traditional meetings○ Agenda Items○ Experts○ Stakeholders

● Issues○ Lack of participation○ Difficult for minority opinion to be heard

Management Application:Brainstorming

● Brainstorming instead of meetings○ Many creative ideas○ Build on ideas

● Risks○ Free riding○ Early consensus on an idea○ Evaluation apprehension○ Difficulty generating new ideas

Management Application:Brainstorming

Recommendations:

● Hold brainstorm without experts and managers● If not, ask them to be observers● Ask participants to prepare ideas independently● Break out into groups● Be flexible and choose methods wisely

What We've Learned:

Pressure from the majority is strong.

We can take advantage of this, for good or evil.

Or we can work against it!

We have to be creative in our solutions.

fin.