An example of one of the social influence techniques used in the media is a a Pepsi Max commercial from a couple of years ago that I found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGM4ZCwemo
As you can see, the yawn sets off a chain reaction, which influences everyone else in the commercial to yawn. They are thinking about yawning until they see someone else do it, and this triggers an yawn in them. The examples of social influence in the commercial was mirroring and conformity. Mirroring is mimicking the gestures, facial expressions, words, and behaviors of a person they are interacting with. In the commercial, everyone is mirroring each other because they are influenced to do so.
Another reason that the people in the video are influenced to yawn could be because of social empathy. When the people around us feel a certain way, we tend to feel the same way as well. Their mood rubs off on us. In this case the people are feeling tired because the people around them are too. The tiredness rubs off on them and they end up yawning because they feel the same way the other people feel.
This is an effective commercial because it uses 'priming' of the audience. When watching the commercial you are also likely to yawn. You then feel tired just like everyone else in the commercial. Then when the Pepsi Max comes on, the viewer of the commercial is more likely to go purchase it because they feel tired and need energy. The commercial primes the viewer to be tired so they need energy. This is a every effective social psychology technique and is the reason this commercial was such a success.
Source of video:
“Diet Pepsi Max “Yawn”.” YouTube. YouTube, 9 Mar 2012. Web. 21 January 2014
Cesario, Professor J. "Social Psychology (PSY 235)." Course Lecture. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Fall 2013. Lecture.
I really enjoy learning about what ads actually do to influence the audience. I never really understood how it works, but a ton of money is spent on ads so they must be effective. And I also got to learn about yawns, which is a really weird social phenomenon. I was wondering if you knew any other social behaviors that have a similar social effect (the whole chain reaction) as yawning?
ReplyDeleteYeah there are a ton! Since we tend to mirror other peoples facial expressions and feelings, whenever someone is smiling, it influences us to mirror their face and smile back to feel their happiness. Even the same goes for laughing, that can be contagious from person to person.
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