Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T07:31:01.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Formalization: Attitude Change in Influence Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Noah E. Friedkin
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Eugene C. Johnsen
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access

Summary

Persons' attitudes are typically formed in interpersonal environments in which influential positions on issues are in disagreement and liable to change. Our investigation focuses on the formation of attitudes, including shared attitudes and consensus, in groups whose members are communicating their positions on an issue. The communication of an attitude to others may occur in various ways, including spoken or written communication (via an expression of opinion, belief, or preference) and nonverbal communication (via overt behavior, a subtle gesture, or a facial expression). An influential communication, in which one person's attitude affects another's, is an endogenous interpersonal influence, whereas all other effects on attitudes are exogenous influences on the attitudes. The attitudes that are being shaped by these influences may deal with any object about which group members can express a positive or negative evaluation – particular issues, places, persons, events, institutions, symbols, or beliefs. When persons are modifying their attitudes in response to information about the attitudes of other group members, and these other members are doing the same thing, flows of interpersonal influence are generated that permit important indirect effects of members' attitudes on the attitudes of others via intermediaries. In this chapter, we formally present social influence network theory as a mathematical model of endogenous interpersonal influence on attitudes that takes into account the network of such influences.

Type
Chapter
Information
Social Influence Network Theory
A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics
, pp. 28 - 51
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×