Peer Pressure, Social Media, Russian Hackers – How Easily Are you Influenced?
How easily are you influenced?
Kim Kardashian, Cristiano Ronaldo, Branden Hampton or Bryan Kramer. These people have influence.
A social media influencer is defined as someone who has established credibility in a specific industry, has the tools and authenticity to attract many viewers consistently and can motivate others to act based on their recommendations. An influencer could be anyone from a blogger to a celebrity to an online entrepreneur.
Do you think you are susceptible to that kind of influence?
How about stories posted by Russian robots. Some people still believe President Trump only won the election because many voters were "influenced" by messages and misinformation posted to social media by Russian hackers. Are you susceptible to that kind of influence?
Stanford psychologists noted that people respond all different ways to the same type of upsetting situation, and now researchers have figured out why.
It all tracks back to your mental attitude at the time of the influence.
When a person wanted to stay calm, they remained relatively unfazed by angry people, but if they wanted to feel angry, they were highly influenced by angry people. Influence by way of predisposition?
They also found people who wanted to feel angry also got more emotional when they learned that other people were just as upset as they were.
An article on EurekAlerts researchers conclude that people often try to regulate their emotions when they believe that they are unhelpful but now we know that people can also regulate the way they are influenced by others' emotions.
The study sheds some light on the phenomenon of "mob mentality." It would seem people get worked up into a frenzy because...they want to.
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