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Posts tagged with Social Influence


In April 2004 the manageress of a McDonalds restaurant in the US received a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer, ‘Officer Scott’, telling her that one of her employees had been accused of stealing a purse. He said the girl could be searched at the store or taken to jail and searched there. The manageress agreed to perform the search in her locked office, directed at every step by Officer Scott. The ‘thief’ was stripped naked and her clothes removed from the office. The manageress asked why it was taking the police so long to turn up but Officer Scott said they were very busy. The ‘thief’ later said she was scared to leave because she felt she had to obey a higher authority.

When the manageress said she had to get back to work, Officer Scott asked if she had a boyfriend who could come in and take over. The manageress called her fiancé who came in and continued to obey Officer Scott’s instructions over the next two hours. The instructions included making the ‘thief’ do knee bends and stand on a desk, and slapping her backside if she refused. The series of humiliating ‘tasks’ culminated in forcing the girl to behave in a sexually indecent manner, all of which was recorded on CCTV.

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Ok, let’s put social influence research to the test:

If psychological theories in this area can explain anything, surely they must be able to explain advertising… This is, after all, a field in which ‘experts’ get paid ridiculous amounts of cash to influence the buying behaviour of us folk out here in society…

So can psychological concepts help us explain how adverts work? Let’s have a go with one of the original classics: ‘Happiness is Egg-Shaped’ with Tony Hancock (He was the Russell Brand of his day – only less hairy… ask your Grandad)


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