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We have all allowed others to influence our decisions, consciously or unconsciously. Groups, direct requests, and authority figures can change the way we think, feel, and act.
This article explains three major forms of social influence: conformity, compliance, and obedience. It also shows how certain personality dimensions, particularly Interpersonal Sensitivity and Prudence, measured by Hogan Assessments’ HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory), can influence our tendency to accept or resist social influence.
For executives, HR leaders, and Talent Management professionals, understanding social influence is essential. Team decisions, organizational culture, buy-in to change, and the courage to challenge a poor decision often depend on how individuals respond to social pressure.
We have all allowed other people to influence our decisions, whether consciously or unconsciously. But what underlying psychological factors are at work? How do social forces change the way we think, feel, and behave?
Recently, on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, and Blake Loepp discussed how social interaction can lead people to change their behaviors.
According to Ryne Sherman, the influence of our environment and of other people has a significant impact on our lives. The question is twofold: how do others influence us, and how do we influence others?
Let us explore the three main types of social influence and how personality affects social influence.
Short definition — Social influence: Social influence refers to the way the presence, expectations, requests, or authority of others modify our thoughts, emotions, decisions, or behaviors.
According to Ryne Sherman, influences reach us in all kinds of ways.
From product placement on supermarket shelves to the default option offered for contributing to a 401(k) retirement savings plan, many factors influence our behavior, often without us being aware of it.
The three major categories of social influence are:
Conformity: changing behavior in response to a group.
Compliance: changing behavior in response to a request.
Obedience: changing behavior in response to an authority figure.
We will first examine each category separately, then analyze why we tend to be so sensitive to social influence.
Conformity is a subtle form of influence.
Ryne Sherman gives the example of a person standing in a public space, staring at the sky. Even if there is nothing to see, passersby will stop and look up. The more people gather to look at the sky, the more passersby will stop as well.
The implicit reasoning is simple: if everyone is looking over there, there must be something important. Conformity consists in trying to align one’s responses with those of others.
But conforming to the crowd is not always positive. Researcher Solomon Asch demonstrated that people can knowingly give an incorrect answer to a simple question if other people confidently give the wrong answer first.Âą
According to Ryne Sherman, many people are willing to follow the group: if the group says something, they think they should probably say it too.
Short definition — Conformity: Conformity is a form of social influence in which a person changes their behavior, opinion, or response to align with a group.
In concrete business terms, conformity can help create cohesion. But it can also lead people to silence disagreement, validate a poor decision, or reinforce groupthink.
People tend to act consistently with their past behaviors.
A sales technique called the foot-in-the-door technique demonstrates the effectiveness of compliance. According to Ryne Sherman, obtaining compliance through small requests is extremely powerful.
Researchers Freedman and Fraser called homeowners and asked to enter their homes in order to classify all the products inside. Most homeowners refused.
In another version of the experiment, the researchers first called homeowners to ask what brand of soap they used. The next day, they called them again with the classification request. This time, more than 50% of homeowners accepted.²
Agreeing first to a small request led many people to change their behavior significantly when they were later asked to accept a larger request.
Short definition — Compliance: Compliance is a form of social influence in which a person changes their behavior in response to a direct request, without necessarily being under pressure from a group or under orders from an authority figure.
In practice, compliance shows that small commitments can pave the way for larger commitments. In organizations, this can be useful for supporting change, but it must be used ethically and transparently.
In psychology, obedience means responding to a direct request or order from an authority figure.
Stanley Milgram’s experiments are the classic demonstration of this form of social influence. Stanley Milgram studied how far a person would go in administering electric shocks to another person when asked to continue, even when the person receiving the shocks appeared to be in extreme pain.³
Part of what inspired Milgram’s experiments was the desire to explain how officers in Nazi Germany had been able to commit horrific acts under orders from their hierarchy.
How far would people follow orders? Who would resist? Around 40% of participants stopped administering the electric shocks despite the pressure exerted by an authority figure perceived as legitimate.
Short definition — Obedience: Obedience is a form of social influence in which a person changes their behavior to respond to an order or request from a perceived authority.
For organizations, this concept is essential. Obedience can support execution and coordination, but it can become dangerous when it prevents people from questioning decisions that go against ethics, safety, or the collective interest.
People conform, accept requests, and obey for three major reasons:
Choosing correctly
Gaining social approval
Managing their self-image and reputation
We are influenced by others because it often helps us make the right choice.
Social influence can serve as a shortcut for making correct decisions. Following common wisdom, medical advice from a doctor, or even a real crowd can offer advantages when decisions need to be made.
In practice, social influence is not always irrational. It can help us save time, reduce uncertainty, and benefit from collective experience.
But this shortcut also carries a risk: when the group is wrong, we can be wrong with it.
We are also intrinsically motivated to seek social approval.
Getting along with others is a universal human motivation. According to Ryne Sherman, being excluded is dangerous from a historical and evolutionary point of view. If you are alone on the savanna, you do not survive for very long.
Exclusion makes us feel unsafe, while acceptance makes us feel safe.
Short definition — Social approval: Social approval is the feeling of being accepted, recognized, or validated by others, which reinforces a sense of safety and belonging.
In a team, this need for approval can encourage cooperation. But it can also lead a person to avoid necessary disagreement in order to preserve their place in the group.
In the same spirit, we allow others to influence us in order to appear likable.
We reciprocate gifts, conform to others’ preferences, and do what we are told: all of this contributes to managing our reputation — that is, the way others perceive us.
Short definition — Reputation: Reputation refers to how others perceive our behaviors, reliability, intentions, and impact in social interactions.
For a leader, reputation management is particularly important. But it can become problematic if the desire to be liked or perceived as reliable prevents them from making a courageous or unpopular decision.
From a personality perspective, two broad characteristics are linked to individual sensitivity to social influence.
In the five-factor model, these characteristics are called agreeableness and conscientiousness. In the HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory), they correspond to the Interpersonal Sensitivity and Prudence scales.
High Interpersonal Sensitivity is linked to the desire to be liked. High Prudence concerns respect for authority and obedience to instructions.
According to Ryne Sherman, in personality psychology, there is an idea that being more conscientious and more agreeable is always preferable. But Hogan frequently discusses the downsides of high Prudence and high Interpersonal Sensitivity.
For example, a recent replication of Milgram’s experiments showed that conscientiousness predicted the administration of more shocks and longer obedience to the experimenter’s orders.
Short definition — HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory): The HPI is the Hogan Assessments personality inventory that measures the bright side of personality, meaning the observable characteristics expressed in everyday functioning at work.
Short definition — Interpersonal Sensitivity: In the HPI, Interpersonal Sensitivity describes the tendency to be warm, diplomatic, attentive to others, and motivated by harmonious relationships.
Short definition — Prudence: In the HPI, Prudence describes the tendency to be organized, reliable, conscientious, respectful of rules, and attentive to the expectations of authority.
In practice, these traits can be highly useful. Interpersonal Sensitivity supports cooperation. Prudence supports reliability and respect for processes. But when they are very high or poorly contextualized, they can also increase the likelihood of yielding to social pressure, avoiding disagreement, or following authority without sufficient questioning.
Deciding whether to resist or accept social influence can be very difficult, depending on the consequences associated with the available choices.
Resisting a group is not easy, and it is not necessarily beneficial either. As Ryne Sherman points out, if everyone says “do not eat poison ivy” and someone replies “I am a nonconformist, so I am going to eat it,” there will be consequences.
In other words, the goal is not to resist every form of social influence. The goal is to develop enough discernment to know when the influence of a group, a request, or an authority is useful — and when it becomes risky.
Short definition — Social discernment: Social discernment is the ability to evaluate when following others, accepting a request, or obeying an authority is appropriate, and when it is necessary to question or resist.
For leaders, social influence is not an abstract topic. It appears in meetings, strategic decisions, change processes, hierarchical relationships, and team cultures.
A team may conform to a bad idea because no one wants to oppose the group. An employee may accept an excessive request because they have already said yes to a smaller one. A manager may obey a problematic instruction because it comes from an authority perceived as legitimate.
Understanding personality helps anticipate these dynamics. People with high Interpersonal Sensitivity may need a safe framework to express disagreement. People with high Prudence may need explicit permission to question a rule or instruction.
In concrete business terms, leaders must create a culture in which social influence does not suppress individual judgment. This requires valuing psychological safety, constructive debate, ethical responsibility, and the courage to ask questions.
Conformity, compliance, and obedience are three powerful forms of social influence. They often help us choose, cooperate, coordinate, and belong to a group. But they can also lead us to silence our doubts, accept inappropriate requests, or follow authority without critical reflection.
Personality plays an important role in this dynamic. The Interpersonal Sensitivity and Prudence scales of Hogan Assessments’ HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory) help us better understand why some people are more sensitive to social approval, respect for rules, or the expectations of authority.
For executives, HR leaders, and Talent Management professionals, this understanding is essential. It helps build teams capable of cooperating without falling into groupthink, respecting authority without abandoning discernment, and maintaining cohesion without sacrificing decision quality.
Sustainable performance depends on balance: knowing how to listen to others, but also knowing how to think for oneself. Social influence is inevitable. The role of leadership is to make it conscious, ethical, and constructive.
