What is symbolic social influence? Describe the classic study done to examine such influence. Name and describe the process by which symbolic social influence may take place

Question

Explain the study in which people were asked to think about a friend or a coworker. What happened relevant to symbolic social influence?

Answer 1

Symbolic social influence occurs when other people influence us without necessarily knowing or wanting to influence us. We may not be conscious of these influences on our thoughts or behaviors.
Researchers subliminally exposed graduate students to the scowling face of their department chair (or did not), and then asked them to objectively evaluate their own research ideas. Students who got the subliminal scowl downrated their research ideas (compared to those who didn't get the subliminal scowl).
Relational schemas, cognitive representations of people we care about, may have an effect on our thoughts and behaviors. That is, if we are cued to think about a parent, meaningful values and goals related to that parent will be activated.
People were asked to think of a good friend or a coworker, then were asked some questions about the friend or coworker. But then they were asked to answer even more questions. People who had been asked to think about a friend were more willing to take time out to answer more questions (than people in the coworker group). That is, a key value of having a friend is the notion of helping one another out. Therefore, that value was cued, and so the participant was more willing to help out.