15.2 Persuasion, Conformity, and Obedience

Peripheral markers of credibility are external factors, such as a communicator’s physical appearance, social status, and communication style, that influence the persuasiveness of a message. Due to the presence of peripheral markers of credibility, the trustworthiness of a message may not be tied to the quality or credibility of the message itself. According to the elaboration likelihood model, when people have high motivation and ability to process information, they engage in high elaboration, which means they will carefully consider the information they are presented with and focus on the strength and quality of the argument. In contrast, when people are not motivated or do not have the ability to process information, they will focus on peripheral markers (Cacioppo et al., 1986).

Peripheral markers of credibility can be weaponized to attack and discredit vulnerable populations in different ways. Petty et al. (1999) investigated how prejudice influences the processing of persuasive messages from stigmatized versus nonstigmatized sources. It was found that individuals with low levels of prejudice consider arguments more thoroughly for stigmatized sources than nonstigmatized sources. For example, White people with low levels of prejudice were more likely to be influenced by the quality of the argument when the argument was presented by Black people than by White people. They tried to evaluate the quality of arguments more thoroughly because they wanted to avoid potential bias. This is consistent with the watchdog hypothesis that less-prejudiced individuals will evaluate information from stigmatized sources more carefully because they are aware of societal negativity and discrimination toward these groups and want to guard against exhibiting prejudice themselves or observing it in others.

However, highly prejudiced White participants showed the opposite pattern. If someone is highly prejudiced, they will often ignore the content and quality of a message being delivered by a stigmatized person and will instead evaluate the information based on the person saying it. This unfair judgment makes it easy to dismiss or attack vulnerable groups, and it prevents truthful information from being spread.

Conformity is deeply embedded in our everyday lives and serves important functions in social situations. For example, during the time of COVID-19, conformity played a large role in mask-wearing behaviors. People’s mask-wearing behaviors were affected by both someone they were physically close to and someone who was distant from them (Woodcock & Schultz, 2021).

The strength of social norms differs in different countries. The concept of “tight” versus “loose” cultures describes the extent to which societies use norms to regulate behaviors and enforce conformity. Gelfand et al. (2011) discussed that tight cultures have strong social norms and a low tolerance for deviant behaviors. Some examples of tight cultures include Singapore, South Korea, and Pakistan. In contrast, loose cultures have weak social norms and a high tolerance for deviant behaviors. Some examples of loose cultures include the United States and New Zealand. Tight societies tend to have higher population density, lack resources, and face more natural disasters and territorial threats than loose societies. In addition, tight cultures with stronger conformity pressures adopt collaborative norms faster than loose cultures (Pan et al., 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, cultural tightness, in addition to general social conformity as previously mentioned, helped explain mask-wearing behaviors. In tight cultures, such as China, people were more likely to wear masks. This effect was more robust in close-proximity situations, such as public transportation, than in more distanced situations, such as parks (Wei et al., 2023). In addition, a study examining 45 U.S. states also found that people in tighter states were more likely to trust the government and viewed mask wearing as a civic duty (Kemmelmeier & Jami, 2021). This consistent evidence reinforces the idea that the level of cultural tightness present in a society is a strong predictor of the extent to which people will conform to social norms.

Video 15.2. “The Secret Life of Social Norms: Michele Gelfand, PhD | TEDxPaloAltoSalon” by TEDx Talks.