The effects of social pressure on group recall

I report the results of an experiment designed to investigate the influence of noncredible communications and group affiliation on auditors' formation of self-serving bias. I find that manager-subjects use noncredible communications to induce auditors to develop an unwarranted trust of managers (i.e., a biased judgment). However, the bias is neutralized when auditor-subjects belong to groups that create social pressure to conform to group norms. Thus, my finding calls into question the Bazerman et al. (1997) conclusion that auditors cannot conduct impartial audits due to self-serving biases resulting from repeated interactions between auditors and their clients.

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Social Pressure in Networks Induces Public Good Provision

Games ◽

10.3390/g12010004 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 4

Author(s):

David Jimenez-Gomez

Keyword(s):

Public Good ◽

Small Group ◽

Dynamic Model ◽

Network Topology ◽

Social Pressure ◽

Public Good Provision ◽

Public Good Game ◽

The Public ◽

Best Response ◽

Good Provision

I develop a dynamic model with forward looking agents, and show that social pressure is effective in generating provision in a public good game: after a small group of agents start contributing to the public good, other agents decide to contribute as well due to a fear of being punished, and this generates contagion in the network. In contrast to earlier models in the literature, contagion happens fast, as part of the best response of fully rational individuals. The network topology has implications for whether contagion starts and the extent to which it spreads. I find conditions under which an agent decides to be the first to contribute in order to generate contagion in the network, as well as conditions for contribution due to a self-fulfilling fear of social pressure.

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Peer Effects in the Workplace

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.20141300 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 107 (2) ◽

pp. 425-456 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Thomas Cornelissen ◽

Christian Dustmann ◽

Uta Schönberg

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Real World ◽

Peer Effects ◽

Laboratory Experiments ◽

Peer Groups ◽

Knowledge Spillover ◽

Social Pressure ◽

Local Labor Market ◽

Estimation Strategy

Existing evidence on peer effects in the productivity of coworkers stems from either laboratory experiments or real-world studies referring to a specific firm or occupation. In this paper, we aim at providing more generalizable results by investigating a large local labor market, with a focus on peer effects in wages rather than productivity. Our estimation strategy—which links the average permanent productivity of workers' peers to their wages—circumvents the reflection problem and accounts for endogenous sorting of workers into peer groups and firms. On average over all occupations, and in the type of high-skilled occupations investigated in studies on knowledge spillover, we find only small peer effects in wages. In the type of low-skilled occupations analyzed in extant studies on social pressure, in contrast, we find larger peer effects, about one-half the size of those identified in similar studies on productivity. (JEL J24, J31, J41, M12, M54)

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Salience and the emergence of international norms: Napalm and cluster munitions in the inhumane weapons convention

Review of International Studies ◽

10.1017/s0260210518000232 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 77-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Elvira Rosert

Keyword(s):

Original Data ◽

Social Pressure ◽

International Norms ◽

Secondary Sources ◽

Cluster Munitions ◽

Conventional Weapons

AbstractThis article theorises salience – defined as the amount of attention granted to an issue – as an explanatory factor for the emergence and non-emergence of norms, and shows how salience affects existing explanations such as issue adoption by norm entrepreneurs, mobilisation, social pressure, and framing. The relevance of salience is demonstrated by exploring the question of why the norm against incendiary weapons was adopted in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1980, and why the norm against cluster munitions was not, even though both weapons were deemed particularly inhumane and thus, put on the agenda when the CCW negotiations started in 1978. Drawing on secondary sources and on original data from public and institutional discourses, I study the influence of salience on the emergence of the anti-napalm norm and the non-emergence of the anti-cluster munitions norm in the period of 1945–80. The results demonstrate that and how the discrepancy in salience of the napalm and the cluster munitions issues mattered for the outcomes of the two norm-setting processes.

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The Distribution of Revealed Preferences Under Social Pressure

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2061537 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Moti Michaeli ◽

Daniel Spiro

Keyword(s):

Social Pressure ◽

Revealed Preferences

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Acceptance of Change Behaviour among Middle Managers: The Importance of Subjective Norms and Social Influence as Environmental Predictors

Asian Social Science ◽

10.5539/ass.v14n2p155 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 155

Author(s):

Safuwan Samah

Keyword(s):

Social Influence ◽

Public Service ◽

Middle Managers ◽

Cognitive Theory ◽

Social Pressure ◽

Subjective Norms ◽

Service Organizations ◽

Related Factors ◽

Private Service ◽

Public Service Organizations

The study seeks to examine the influence of environmental-related factors among middle managers in Malaysian government organization. Specifically, this study seeks to determine the influence of subjective norms and social influence in public organizations on acceptance of change. Present study employed cross-sectional survey involving a sample of 400 Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADO) in Malaysian Public Service organizations. The findings highlighted that middle managers’ subjective norms in this study were significant in influencing acceptance of change but are not affected by their social pressure when changes are implemented. Practically, this investigation proffers essential effort in understanding the acceptance of change of middle managers in public service organizations. This study suggests ADO as change agents should be well informed and consulted to create social pressure among them to act in supportive ways of implementing planned change Theoretically, the results of this study append to the literature and to a certain extent provide better explanation of Theory of Reasoned Action and Social Cognitive Theory in the context of acceptance of change. The population of this study involved ADO as middle managers in Malaysian Public Service organizations thus the results cannot be generalized to other level of employees in public sector as well as private service organizations. A comparative study involving both public and private service organizations would be worth studying in future.

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