Influence is a broad concept that refers to the capacity or power of persons or things to affect the actions, behaviors, and opinions of others. Influence can occur through overt force or more subtle means, and can stem from a variety of sources including knowledge, prestige, relationships, resources, and skills. Understanding the concept of influence is important in analyzing how individuals, groups, and institutions shape society and human interactions.
What are the main sources of influence?
There are several key sources that can give a person or entity influence over others:
Authority
Formal authority that comes with a title or position of power. Examples include political leaders, law enforcement, judges, CEOs, managers in a workplace hierarchy. This authority allows giving orders, making rules, administering rewards and punishments.
Expertise
Deep knowledge, skills, and expertise on a subject. For example, doctors have influence on medical decisions, lawyers provide influential counsel on legal matters, scientists shape beliefs through research.
Relationships
Strong social ties and interpersonal bonds. Family members, friends, mentors, trusted advisors can exert influence through trust, loyalty, and shared experiences. Relationship-based influence often works through subtle persuasion.
Rewards
Material resources and the ability to confer incentives. Money and access to services, promotions, desirable opportunities or experiences. Carrots more than sticks.
Reputation
Widespread respect, admiration, prestige that engenders deference. Historical figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. had enormous influence through the force of their reputation.
Charisma
Personal charm, magnetism, and powers of persuasion. The ability to inspire enthusiasm, devotion, and passion in others for a vision, goal, or course of action.
What are the major types of influence?
Looking across these sources, there are a few overarching types of influence:
Coercive Influence
This influence is based on the ability to issue threats, enact punishment, inflict harm. Ordering military action, arresting criminals, firing employees. It forces compliance and obedience through danger or negative consequences.
Legitimate Influence
Stems from formal authority roles. Police officers issuing tickets, bosses mandating work tasks, politicians passing laws. This influence leverages established social power structures and hierarchies.
Reward Influence
The ability to provide positive incentives, tangible benefits, desired opportunities. Offering a bonus, promotion, access, favors in exchange for compliance or support.
Referent Influence
Based on charisma, likability, and strong relationships that inspire trust and loyalty. A popular politician may hold influence with voters who identify with and feel connected to them.
Expert Influence
Influence accrued from acknowledged experience, elite skills, deep knowledge. Doctors, scientists, academics considered subject matter experts.
Informational Influence
Influence through educating, teaching, communicating valuable insights and information. Thought leaders, authors, public intellectuals shaping opinions.
How do individuals gain influence?
There are several key strategies individuals use to build and exert influence:
Cultivate Expertise
Develop deep knowledge and elite skills in a valued domain. Becoming a top scholar, specialist, technician whose expertise is sought by others.
Build Networks
Develop strong personal relationships and social capital based on trust and reciprocity. Having influence through big social networks and loyal friends in high places.
Communicate Selectively
Be selective in expressing views and offering advice, speaking when it’s most impactful. Avoid overexposure that dilutes influence.
Establish Reputation
Build influence through consistent displays of good judgement, character and achievements over time. A stellar reputation commands respect.
Use Persuasion Tactics
Master rhetorical tactics like framing issues favorably, appealing to self-interest, using reason, emotion, personal stories. Hone persuasion skills.
Negotiate Incentives
Decode motivations and negotiate mutually beneficial arrangements to elicit support and cooperation from others. Offer incentives.
Obtain Positions
Seek roles and jobs that confer authority, decision rights, power over resources. Leadership roles in companies, politics, community organizations, etc.
What are examples of influence in society?
Here are some examples of how influence shapes outcomes in society:
Advertising and Marketing
Ads and marketing campaigns use informational and persuasive influence to impact consumer attitudes, build brand loyalty, and drive purchases. A hugely influential multi-billion dollar industry.
Lobbyists and Special Interest Groups
Lobbyists leverage relationships, incentives, and persuasive tactics to influence legislators to support beneficial policies and contracts for their clients. A major political force.
Grassroots Activism
Activist groups like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street leverage social networks and media to rapidly disseminate ideas and exert political influence without traditional resources.
Opinion Leaders
Influencers, pundits, celebrities, and thought leaders shape mass opinion through written works, commentary, social media and grassroots followings.
Research and Scientific Consensus
Cutting edge research and scientific consensus wields enormous expert influence on public opinion and policy decisions from climate change to biomedicine.
Public Protests and Demonstrations
Large public protests can exert significant coercive influence through sheer scale, threats of disruption, civil disobedience, mass boycotts.
How do social institutions gain and exert influence?
Social institutions like governments, religions, corporations, and the media use many tactics to institutionalize their influence in society:
Write and Enforce Laws
Governments directly codify their authority and rules of acceptable behavior into law backed by police power. Making and enforcing laws is foundational.
Shape Ideology and Worldview
School systems, organized religions, political thought leaders mold how adherents perceive the world, right and wrong, sacred and profane. Institutional worldviews can exert broad influence.
Control Information Flows
Media networks, tech platforms, and publishers control information flows to millions, filtering, highlighting, suppressing, and interpreting data to influence opinions.
Provide Desirable Services
Corporations can leverage people’s dependence on their services, networks, and technologies to shape behaviors. Providers of essential services like healthcare gain substantial leverage.
Confer Status and Privileges
Institutions like elite university networks, exclusive country clubs, and esteemed awards bodies confer coveted social status and privileges on select groups, influencing how members self-identify, behave, and associate.
Establish Monopolies
Monopolistic companies that dominate markets can set prices, determine wages, and unilaterally impose favorable terms by virtue of their sheer scale and control over resources and distribution networks.
Capture Regulators
Lobbyists and special interests collaborate with sympathetic regulators to influence rule making and lax enforcement in their favor. A tactic of “regulatory capture” providing huge but opaque leverage.
What are some positive examples of using influence?
Influence can produce positive outcomes when applied ethically:
Mentoring
Sharing hard-won experience, expertise and networks to help mentorees develop skills, judgment, and careers. An influential win-win relationship.
Responsive Leadership
Business leaders using expertise and authority over incentives to responsibly guide their company, creating value for shareholders, employees, and communities.
Negotiated Compromise
Opposing sides finding mutually acceptable solutions through back-and-forth negotiation and deal making. Influence used to find a middle ground.
Skillful Diplomacy
Diplomats and envoys using interpersonal skills, relationship building, and deep knowledge to deescalate conflict and forge cooperation between distrustful parties.
Persuasive Advocacy
Lawyers, nonprofits, and activists making rational, emotional, and creative arguments to influence legislators and the public on issues like civil rights, public health, and conservation.
Responsible Celebrity
Celebrities using publicity for positive influence, including raising awareness for charities and modeling behaviors like sustainability or civic participation for young fans.
What are some negative examples of influence abuse?
There are risks when influence is applied unethically or irresponsibly:
Regulatory Capture
When regulated companies excessively influence their own oversight bodies to reduce enforcement and oversight for safety, environment, quality, accounting, etc. Undermines the public good.
Predatory Loans
Banks or lenders influencing financially vulnerable people into accepting overpriced or punitive loan terms that benefit the lender through opaque fees and conditions.
Addiction Industries
Companies using influence techniques to promote addictive behaviors around gambling, drugs, social media, and gaming that may harm public health and wellbeing.
Disinformation Campaigns
State actors, special interests, and politicians knowingly spreading disinformation through media channels and bot networks in order to manipulate public opinion.
Abusive Relationships
Predatory individuals psychologically manipulating a victim’s emotions to damage self-esteem, incite fear, confusion, dependence. A troubling interpersonal abuse of influence.
Sexual Coercion
Using threats, physical force, status, or promises of rewards to pressure vulnerable individuals into unwanted sexual activity. A grievous abuse of asymmetric power.
How can influence be exerted ethically and responsibly?
There are several guidelines for exercising influence ethically:
Transparency
Openly communicate interests, methods, motives rather than masking influence attempts or using covert tactics.
Truthfulness
Provide truthful information to those you seek to influence. Do not intentionally mislead or deceive.
Empathy
Consider the position and interests of those you seek to influence. How would you want to be influenced if roles were reversed?
Proportionality
Apply the minimum influence needed to accomplish the purpose. Do not exert excessive coercive force.
Accountability
Be accountable for the means used and outcomes achieved. Periodically re-evaluate methods and ethics.
Autonomy
Respect others’ fundamental freedoms and capacities to make voluntary, informed choices. Do not override individual wills.
Mutual Benefit
Seek influence that provides fair benefits to all sides rather than narrow zero-sum advantages. Find ethical win-wins.
Conclusion
Influence is a pillar of human society exhibited across countless contexts and situations. It can be wielded ethically or abused. Self-awareness, empathy, honesty, and accountability are key to ensuring influence is applied responsibly. At its best, influence allows us to cooperate, learn, create, compromise, and thrive together through mutual understanding and collective effort. Like any power, influence must be guided by wisdom, ethics, and benevolence to produce the greatest good.