Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The relationship between materially based or "hard" power and international influence has been understudied and misunderstood. Contemporary realist scholars have tended to underestimate the importance of influence, choosing to focus almost entirely on hard power considerations as drivers of state behavior. At the same time, liberal scholars have tended to misunderstand influence (often termed soft power) as something divorced from material capabilities. This study addresses this gap in understanding by examining the relationship between hard power and influence from a dynamic, realist perspective. By combining an understanding of states' shifting long-term relative power fortunes and a conceptualization of international influence informed by classical realist notions of prestige and status, the author is able to show that hard power resources play a major role in generating international influence. Increases materially-based power produce influence, but lags and various cultural/societal factors complicate the relationship so that there is not a one-to-one relationship between the two. The evidence also suggests that international influence plays a distinct, yet complimentary (rather than substitutive) role to hard power in shaping the behavior of other states, and this has implications for alliance formation and security. Great Britain, the United States and China are examined as case studies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study examines the Influence of Presumed Influence (IOPI) paradigm or indirect “two-step flow of mass media communication” which incorporates a “social context” into media effect studies. Data collected from 401 female respondents aged 16 to 19 were used to test six different hypothesized Path Models using path analysis. As opposed to merely revalidating male-female differences (Park, 2005), six IOPI pathways were separately constructed to examine the plausible role that family (mother) and female peers play in propagating the thin ideal among girls. This study highlights the potential role that mothers, female peers, educators, female health campaign planners and policy makers can play to prevent girls from heading towards “dangerous curves” during adolescence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study examined social influence within computer-mediated groups, and how members' geographic dispersion and argument consistency affect individual and group decisions. Competing predictions were derived from several theories which were applicable but untested in the domain of online interaction: double minority effects, the black sheep effect, congruity theory applied to groups, and the minority leniency contract framework. On-line groups were created that had 4 collocated members, or 4 geographically-distributed members, or 2 collocated and 2 isolated members. Groups were provided a biased distribution, or “hidden profile” of information, and individuals submitted decision preferences prior to discussion resulting in 24 groups with a minority opinion holder geographically isolated or in proximity with one or more other members. The patterns of minority members’ influence on majority members’ decisions lent greatest support to the black sheep effect, congruity, and minority leniency approaches, depending on the respective location of the minority opinion holders and the consistency with which they argued their positions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: According to the influence of presumed media influence hypothesis, people estimate the potential effects of media on other people and change their attitudes or behavior as a consequence. In recent years many studies offered some support for this idea. However, a central limitation of these studies is that all of them utilized correlational methodology and thus do not offer a valid way to infer causal direction. The current research examined the causal direction in the influence of presumed media influence using experimental methodology. We manipulated the perceived influence of watching pornography in order to ascertain its causal relationship with support for censorship. As expected, we found that that providing information about positive effects of pornography indeed weakened the support for censorship, though this result was true only for women.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A widely held principle of social networks is the assertion that structural centrality is associated with interpersonal influence (Freeman, 1979; Friedkin, 1998; Mizruchi & Potts, 1998; Rogers, 1995). Academic networks are used to test this association, employing a multilevel model that includes communication network data and psychometric measurements of influence from one hundred fifteen faculty who represent thirteen academic departments. Although the centrality-influence link is partially supported, centrality did not predict behavioral intentions. Implications for the centrality-influence link and related multilevel theories of social influence are addressed.