"These results demonstrate that elitism in insect societies can arise as the extreme of a stable spectrum of individual behavioural activity that allows the colony to respond easily to unexpected needs rather than relying on responses of a rigidly defined subgroup of workers."
Rogers, Everett M. (author), Beal, George M. (author), and Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Ohio State University.
Professor, Department of Economics and Sociology, Iowa State College.
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1958-10
Published:
USA: American Marketing Association
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 164 Document Number: D08230
Authors tested the hypothesis that our influence on others affects how much we are influenced by them. Findings suggested that participants reciprocated influence with their partner by gravitating toward the susceptible (but not insusceptible) partner's opinion. Further experiments revealed that reciprocity is both a dynamic process and is abolished when people believed that they interacted with a computer.
