An experiment was conducted to clarify the nature of the influence active
in most prior marketing research on the social influence process. Experimental
subjects were exposed to evaluations of coffee which were attributed
to either a similar or dissimilar source. These evaluations were
high in uniformity, low in uniformity or of unknown uniformity. Subjects
then tasted and evaluated the coffee. The subjects' evaluations were
made either under a visible (identifiable) condition or an anonymous
condition. The data supported a hypothesis of informational social influence.
One of the most pervasive determinants of an individual's
behavior is the influence of those around
him. This social influence has generally been referred
to as conformity and looked upon as the relatively
simple act of going along with or agreeing with a visible
majority (Jahoda, 1959).
Much of the work in social influence has followed
theoretically from the conformity studies of Asch and
his associates (Asch, 1953) and Sherif's (1936) work
in social judgment. In a study following from this research,
Venkatesan (1966) found that naive subjects
were influenced in their public evaluation of men's
suits by the prior public evaluations of three confederates
of the experimenter who were unanimously and
confidently in agreement on their evaluations. He concluded
that "group pressure was effective and that individuals
tended to conform to the group norm"
(Venkatesan, 1966, p. 386). A more recent modified
replication of this study achieved similar results (Sims,
1971).
Evidence for this phenomenon has also been found
in sociometrically selected social groups. Stafford
(1966) examined the influence of social group members
on brand choice and found that group members
tended to conform (in their choice of bread) to the
brand selected by the group leader.'