The DOI matches its Crossref record; 21 of the 21 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The psychology of social impact
Abstract
The author proposes a theory of social im- pact specifying the effect of other persons on an in- dividual. According to the theory, when other people are the source of impact and the individual is the target, impact should be a multiplicative function of the strength, immediacy, and number of other people. Fur- thermore, impact should take the form of a power func- tion, with the marginal effect of the Nth other person being less than that of the (N — l)th. Finally, when other people stand with the individual as the target of forces from outside the group, impact should be divided such that the resultant is an inverse power function of the strength, immediacy, and number of persons stand- ing together. The author reviews relevant evidence from research on conformity and imitation, stage fright and embarrassment, news interest, bystander interven- tion, tipping, inquiring for Christ, productivity in groups, and crowding in rats. He also discusses the unresolved issues and desirable characteristics of the theory.
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“While this has typically been explained in terms of social cognitive processes (Bond, 2005;Latane, 1981;MacCoun, 2012), it can also be explained by dynamic regulation of the response threshold (Cracco & Brass, 2018d).”
From Automatic imitation of multiple agents: A computational model (2019) · cites this paper as Latane, 1981
Citations
Cites
Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority
Asch, S. E. (1956) · Psychological Monographs: General and Applied · doi:10.1037/h0093718 · Cited by 4,267
Stevens, S. S. (1957) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0046162 · Cited by 3,388
Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.
Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025589 · Cited by 3,083 · cited 1×
“In fact, the results of the original Darley and Latane (1968) experiment bear out this expectation.”
BackgroundEffects of Group Pressure Upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgments
Asch, S. E. (1961) · Documents of Gestalt Psychology · doi:10.1525/9780520313514-017 · Cited by 2,644
(1970) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 2,372
Many Hands Make Light the Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing
Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.6.822 · Cited by 2,216
Group process and productivity
Steiner, I. D. (1972) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 2,106
Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies.
Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0026570 · Cited by 1,252
Ten years of research on group size and helping.
Latané, B., & Nida, S. (1981) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.89.2.308 · Cited by 749
Self-citationNote on the drawing power of crowds of different size
Milgram, S., Bickman, L., & Berkowitz, L. (1969) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0028070 · Cited by 479
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity
Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015 · Cited by 6,077
Statistical physics of social dynamics
Castellano, C., Fortunato, S., & Loreto, V. (2009) · Reviews of Modern Physics · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.81.591 · Cited by 4,119
The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks
Boccaletti, S., Bianconi, G., Criado, R., del Genio, C. I., Gómez-Gardeñes, J., Romance, M., Sendiña-Nadal, I., Wang, Z., & Zanin, M. (2014) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2014.07.001 · Cited by 3,125
A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia
Rapee, R. M., & Heimberg, R. G. (1997) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(97)00022-3 · Cited by 2,987
The structure and dynamics of multilayer networksPreprint
Wangk, Z., & Zaninm, M. (2016) · Cited by 3,001
Metadata
- Authors
- Latané, B.
- Affiliations
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Latané, Bibb
- Venue
- American Psychologist
- Published
- 1981-04
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 343-356
- ISSN
- 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
- 1935-990X
- OpenAlex
- W2098940738
- Cited by
- 2,864
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 97 · 2025: 123 · 2024: 161 · 2023: 125 · 2022: 130 · 2021: 139 · 2020: 150 · 2019: 128 · 2018: 153 · 2017: 133 · 2016: 115 · 2015: 112 · 2014: 103 · 2013: 125 · 2012: 144
- FWCI
- 66.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
- Keywords
- social impact theory, social influence, conformity, imitation, stage fright, embarrassment, news interest, bystander intervention, tipping, team productivity, crowding, power function
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