Peer Influence: Mechanisms and Motivations

ABSTRACT

This research addresses a question that has not been previously – why do youths try to influence their friends’ behavior? Analysis of written accounts of peer influence toward both deviance and conformity reveals clear differences in motives for peer influence toward prosocial and deviant behavior. Influence toward deviant behavior is much more likely to be motivated by selfish concerns, and influence toward prosocial behavior is more likely to be motivated by altruistic concerns. These findings are consistent with the control theory view that crime and deviance is asocial behavior, and not the result of strong social ties to others.

Notes

¹ Students who completed the extra credit were asked to submit a consent form with their name on it, at the same time that they submitted their narratives, which did not have any identifying information included. Students who submitted consent forms were given extra credit. The number of consent forms matched the number of submitted papers. Two students, a man and a woman, submitted papers that did not answer the questions asked, so those papers were excluded.

² Although it seems to be used for research on sexual health and education (see Allen and Brooks 2012; Allen, Kaestle, and Goldberg 2010).

³ Percentages throughout this article are rounded to the nearest whole number, and may not total 100%.

⁴ Persistent offers could arguably also be considered coercive. We considered them separately. Perhaps the simplest way to state the difference is through an example: a respondent offering someone alcohol multiple times is a persistent offer, but a respondent offering someone alcohol and telling him/her to “stop being a baby and let’s drink” is coercion.

⁵ “Wants someone to be deviant with them” is different from “wants to spend time with person.” Again, an example: The former would be motivating someone to sneak out of the house and go to a party because the respondent did not want to go alone; the latter would be motivating someone to sneak out and attend a party because they want to see their friend.

⁶ “Wants someone to be deviant with them” is different from “wants to spend time with person.” Again, an example: The former would be motivating someone to sneak out of the house and go to a party because the respondent did not want to go alone and the latter would be motivating someone to sneak out and attend a party because they want to see their friend.

⁷ Of the 17 cases that reported they were motivated by a desire to spend time with someone, three were related to alcohol and five were related to marijuana. Of those who reported that they influenced someone to do something because they wanted to have fun, almost half (8/17) said that they influenced friend to drink alcohol, and 3/17 motivated friend to smoke marijuana.

⁸ Some of the “unclear” motives remained unclear upon coding for selfish/altruistic/neutral.

⁹ A purely selfish motivation may be illustrated by a respondent’s narrative about driving his father’s van without his father’s permission. The respondent broke a mirror on the van, and then bribed a friend to help him steal a mirror to replace the broken one. The student wrote: “I was afraid of how my father would react if he found out my friends and I damaged the company van without even having our licenses. … I guess I thought that I could avoid the consequences by committing a crime.”A respondent’s description of her and her friends intervening to stop a friend from dropping out of school illustrates a purely altruistic influence attempt. The writer describes that she and her friends offered their support, “so that our friend did not throw away her future and drop out of school,” and personally because “I really wanted to make sure that things started to work out for her.” Other influence attempts had neither a selfish nor altruistic motivation. For instance, a female respondent tried to influence her friend to sneak into a movie with unused tickets because, “the tickets were already paid for, and I didn’t want to waste two perfectly good tickets.” In some cases an incident was coded as both selfishly and altruistically motivated. One respondent reported trying to get her roommates to eat more healthfully and to go to the gym regularly. She wrote, “… I, myself did not want to gain the freshmen fifteen and I knew if I was living with people who did not have any motivation to eat healthy or work out then I would fall into the similar path and not do that. I guess you could say I did it for my own personal gain, but I helped out two of my friends in the process.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barbara J. Costello

BARBARA J. COSTELLO is Professor of Sociology at the University of Rhode Island. Her research centers on testing and extending control theories of crime, and on peer influence toward and away from deviance.

Christine Zozula

CHRISTINE ZOZULA is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focuses on practical and cultural processes of deviance and punishment.