On the Concept of Influence

Many of the fundamental ideas underlying studies of the effect of communications, persuasion, the shaping of attitudes, and the formation of voting intentions can be generalized in terms of a common idea: the concept of influence. The development of effective concepts of wide applicability, like establishing a formal garden in the wilderness, necessarily involves a great struggle to bring order out of obscurity and chaos, and a great deal of systematic planting and cultivation after the initial clearing and pruning have been done. This article is not light reading and some readers will find it easier at least to skim the comments by James Coleman and Ray Bauer before they proceed very far into the main article. Talcott Parsons is Professor of Sociology and formerly Chairman of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University. He has long been a foremost leader in development of sociological theory. Many of the outstanding social researchers today were at one time his students. Raymond A. Bauer is Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. James S. Coleman is Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the Department of Social Relations at The Johns Hopkins University. This article and the comments on it are based upon a paper presented at the meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research at Lake George, New York, on May 19, 1962, and the invited discussion of that paper.