Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:26:05.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Consensus Formation and Efficiency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Noah E. Friedkin
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Eugene C. Johnsen
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access

Summary

This chapter begins with a formal analysis of the conditions of consensus formation, based on our standard model. We include a formal analysis of the important special case of influence networks with binary susceptibilities in which each group member's susceptibility is strictly either 0, i.e., the person's initial position on an issue is not influenced by other group members, or 1, i.e., the person attaches no weight to his or her own initial position. Our theory and empirical evidence suggest that binary susceptibilities may be the rule, not the exception, in the formation of consensus through interpersonal influences. In the previous chapter, we noted that Milgram (1974) raised the fundamental empirical question of the nature of susceptibility in the context of his studies on obedience. Individuals appeared to be either in the cognitive state of an “agent” whose actions conformed to the preferences of an authority, or not in such a state. Our analysis suggests a broader hypothesis in which reaching consensus in a group, with members who are in initial disagreement on an issue, depends on the existence of members who accord no weight to their own initial positions on an issue. Such members shift their positions on an issue to a personal subjective norm, which is a weighted average of the time-t positions of other group members, at each time t during the influence process, and in so doing become the “agents” of that subjective norm even as the norm changes during the course of the influence process.

Type
Chapter
Information
Social Influence Network Theory
A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics
, pp. 115 - 137
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×