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Social Information Processing and Social Networks: A Test of Social Influence Mechanisms

Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837.

After identifying the implicit assumptions about social influence mechanisms and the social structural bases reflected in the social information processing literature, social network analysis concepts and structural models are used to clearly specify three alternative influence mechanisms. Simple interaction contact, norm enforcing cohesive groups, and the occupation of structurally equivalent positions or roles in an interaction structure are hypothesized as the structures underlying different social influence processes. The relative efficacy of these various structural configurations in predicting similarity of perception of and attitudes about organizational phenomena are then evaluated. While the evidence seems to indicate that the social influence of norm enforcing groups is most robust, multiple mechanisms appear to operate, sometimes simultaneously, for different kinds of perceptions. The limits of social information processing effects are discussed in light of the findings here of no significant effects on some perceptions.

Key Words: social information processing • social networks • social contagion • social influence

Human Relations, Vol. 47, No. 9, 1013-1047 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679404700901


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