Page 56 - The Social Animal

38 The Social Animal

if Uncle Charlie moves to a different city and months (or even years)
go by without your seeing him, you will continue to hold beliefs sim-
ilar to his as long as (1) he remains important to you, (2) he still holds
the same beliefs, and (3) these beliefs are not challenged by coun-
teropinions that are more convincing. But, by the same token, these
beliefs can be changed if Uncle Charlie has a change of heart or if
your love for Uncle Charlie begins to fade. They can also change if
a person or a group of people who are more important to you than
Uncle Charlie profess a different set of beliefs. For example, suppose
you are away at college and you find a group of new, exciting friends
who, unlike Uncle Charlie, are strongly in favor of social welfare. If
you admire them as much as (or more than) your uncle, you may
change your beliefs to be more like them. Thus, a more important
identification may supersede a previous identification.
The effect of social influence through identification can also be
dissipated by a person’s desire to be right. If you have taken on a be-
lief through identification and you are subsequently presented with
a convincing counterargument by an expert and trustworthy person,
you will probably change your belief. Internalization is the most per-
manent response to social influence precisely because your motiva-
tion to be right is a powerful and self-sustaining force that does not
depend upon constant surveillance in the form of agents of reward
or punishment, as does compliance, or on your continued esteem for
another person or group, as does identification.
It is important to realize that any specific action may be caused
by compliance, identification, or internalization. For example, let us
look at a simple piece of behavior: obedience to the laws pertain-
ing to fast driving. Society employs highway patrol officers to en-
force these laws, and as we all know, people tend to drive within the
speed limit if they are forewarned that a certain stretch of highway
is being carefully scrutinized by these officers. This is compliance.
It is a clear case of obeying the law to avoid paying a penalty. Sup-
pose you were to remove the highway patrol. As soon as people
found out about it, many would increase their driving speed. But
some people might continue to obey the speed limit; a person
might continue to obey because Dad (or Uncle Charlie) always
obeyed the speed limit or always stressed the importance of obey-
ing traffic laws. This, of course, is identification. Finally, people
might conform to the speed limit because they are convinced that