By my signature below, I certify that I have not received improper help nor given it to

others in writing this assignment nor have I used any method that would give me an
unfair advantage over others in class. This assignment represents my own work only
and I had no assistance from another persons or any other source.
Karan Mamgain (August 5, 2015)

Karan Mamgain,
Five Bases of Social Power
1. There are five forms of social power French and Raven enumerate in the
article: reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and
expert power.
2. More recently, Raven has included informational power as a source of power
to his existing list of five. Here, an agent of influence uses the information to
bring about a change.
3. An example of reward power would be when you influence someone to excel
at a given sport by promoting the best performer to the captains position. An
example of coercive power is when a robber with a gun influences an
individual to give his wallet and phone in the dark alley. An example of
legitimate power is when a boss influences his employees. An example of
referent power would be an emotionally stirring speech given by a nations
leader (eg. we shall fight on the beaches), evoking a strong sense of national
identity from the individuals in order to influence them. An example of expert
power is when a lawyer or a doctor influences the clients to take certain action.
4. To an extent and in certain groups, I tend to have expert power in certain fields
because Ive read deeply about them. At times, in my capacity as a debating
coach as well, Ive exercised expert power. I would love to, at some point in
time, exercise legitimate power and referent power. In order to gain legitimate
power, of course, I would need to climb to the top an influential institution.
Exercising referent power will require me to influence individuals through
evoking strong sense of loyalty or identity.
Harnessing the Science of Persuasion
1. The six principles of persuasion according to Cialdini are liking, reciprocity,
social proof, consistency, authority, and scarcity.
2. Ive personally found reciprocity and liking to be the most useful. When you
make people feel good and like being around you, they tend to be a lot more
receptive to your advice, and chances of persuading them increase
substantially hence the usefulness of liking. Reciprocity, too, Ive found, is
equally useful; in fact, its interrelated to liking at some level. When you help
other individuals, it generates a feeling of liking. Here comes the first level of
usefulness in persuasion. On the second level its useful because quid pro quo
transactions are deeply ingrained in our psyche. If we do something we tend to
expect things in return, and reciprocity builds on that. One example when Ive

Karan Mamgain,
used reciprocity was when I helped my classmates back in college in the
Economic History course, and in return, those individuals helped me for rest
of the semester whenever I had problems on quantitative aspects of my course.
3. Firstly, in my debating coaching sessions, I can generate liking amongst the
students by engaging them in fun non-related activities in order to capture
their attention, so Im better able to teach them. Secondly, in the similar
context, I can use social norms to show them videos of famous speakers to get
them more interested and therefore receptive. Thirdly, also borrowing from the
same context, I can use the principle of consistency / commitment by getting
students to publish their research on a website, and publish the list of work on
the web, where is publically accessible.