Human behavior is hardly determined in a vacuum. People are impacted by the existence, views, anticipations, and behaviors of other people even in instances where they consider themselves to be making absolutely unbiased decisions. The concept of social influence can be defined as the psychological processes by which individuals modify their thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or actions, due to other people. Persuasion is the intentional or unintentional trying to influence a person to a certain belief or course of action. When combined, these forces determine friendships, families, work places, cultures and even whole societies. The concept of how social influence and persuasion operates can be used to understand the reason people tend to think and act in certain ways and why some ideas go viral and others die out.

Human brain also developed in the context where membership to a group was a key to survival. The primitive humans relied on mutualism to provide food, shelter, and procreation. Not to belong to a group may mean great peril or fatalities. Due to this fact, the brain has come up with powerful mechanisms of checking social approval and disapproval. This biological basis is the reason behind the tremendous influence of social influence.

Conformity is one of the prevalent types of social influence. The conformity takes place when people alter their behavior or opinions to align with the other people. In some cases individuals follow the group because they think that the group is informed. This is referred to as informational influence. Indicatively, when many individuals seem certain about a decision then others can take the decision to be right. In other situations, individuals conform due to desires to be liked or accepted, both forms are in effect at all times in our day-to-day lives influencing our clothing styles, language, views, and actions.

The other significant role of authority in persuasion is the role of power. Human beings are likely to trust and follow those that seem to be knowledgeable, experienced or powerful. All titles, uniforms, professional qualifications, and social status are perceived to boost authority. Such a tendency is triggered by the fact that it is usually helpful to trust experts. It can however also cause individuals to act on orders blindly. Whenever power figures utter words they are taken seriously even when the information they provide is incomplete or incorrect.

Conformity is closely associated with social proof. The social proof is when individuals believe that the activities undertaken by the majority of people should be right. When a product is famous, it makes the people think that it must be good. When a belief is popular, then human beings assume that it must be true. This is also a shortcut that helps save mental effort but may result in herd behavior. Social proof describes the phenomenon of the rapidness of trends and the popularity of viral content as it becomes more popular being already popular.

Influence is also enhanced by repetition. When individuals receive the same idea several times, it becomes a familiar one. The ideas that people are used to are less dangerous and more acceptable. This is despite the fact that individuals may not be able to recall the initial point of hearing the idea. In the long run, the repetition may turn into familiar things.

Humans are social beings. Influence is unavoidable. However, when people know the dynamics of influence, they have more freedom in their minds.