title: Predicting social influence with faction sizes and relative status.
abstract: Building on a recent theoretical development in the field of sociological social psychology, we develop a formal mathematical model of social influence processes. The extant theoretical literature implies that factions and status should have non-linear effects on social influence, and yet these theories have been evaluated using standard linear statistical models. Our formal model of influence includes these non-linearities, as specified by the theories. We evaluate the fit of the formal model using experimental data. Our results indicate that a one-parameter mathematical model fits the experimental data. We conclude with the implications of our research and a discussion of how it may be used as an impetus for further work on social influence processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, United States. Electronic address: melamed@mailbox.sc.edu.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Melamed
authors.forename: Scott V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Savage
keywords: Factions; Group processes; Mathematical sociology; Social influence; Status