Chapter 9

Personal Influence:
The Two-Step Flow of Communication
Historical background
 Status of media effects research and theory in
1940s and 1950s
 Controversies increased regarding the effects of
the media on both society and the human
condition.
 Researchers were forced to reassess the
problem that the effects of the media—both
good and bad—simply did not seem to be there.
 The research community believed that a
hypothesis of minimal effects was closer to
reality and paid attention to the more subtle and
indirect influences of mass communication.
Historical background (con’t)
 The two-step flow theory presumed a movement
of information through interpersonal networks,
from the media to people and from there to other
people, rather than directly from media to mass.
 The Role of People in Mass Communication
Effects
 Small-groups research
Primary groups
Nature vs. nurture
“Social reality” and meaning theory
“Reference group”
Overview of the Decatur Study
 This study was actually a follow-up of the
research in chapter 4.
 The research was actually planned in 1944, and
its field work was started in Decatur in 1945.
 Its findings were published in 1955 by Elihu
Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld in their book
Personal Influence: The Part Played by People
in the Flow of Mass Communication.
Overview of the Decatur Study (con’t)
 The research was conducted under the
auspices of the Bureau of Applied Social
Research of Columbia University. Financial
support for the project was supplied by
Mcfadden Publications, Inc. and the Roper
polling organizations.
Decatur Study Design
 Purpose
--the researchers wanted to study opinion
leaders who were in actual contact with
recipients of their influence on a day-to-
day basis (informal personal influence).
 Four areas of influence
 Marketing (food & household items)
 Fashion (clothing, hair style, cosmetics)
 Public affairs (political and social issues)
 Movies
 Examining Personal Influence
 Four strategies to identify “influentials”
 generally influential
 specific influentials
 everyday contacts
 self-designation
 Other influences?
 Although people were affected by other sources of
influences such as media advertising and salesmen,
the opinion leaders were one of the more powerful
influences on people’s decision in the marketplace of
either consumer products and services or of ideas.
The characteristics of opinion leaders
 Framework for describing opinion leaders
 Position on the life cycle
 Position on the community’s socioeconomic ladder (S
 The extent of the individual’s social contacts (gregari
Who were the most influential
opinion leaders?

In marketing
In fashion
In public affairs
For movies
Conclusions and implications
 In spite of limitations, the Decatur study
represents a pivotal point of redirection. It
tried to explore “the part played by people” in
the social flow of information and influence
from media to mass.
 It represented the first clear and intensive
focus on social relationship and their role in
the mass communication process.
 It identified the meaning functions of primary
groups, an idea that is important part of the
meaning theory of mass media portrayals.
Conclusions and implications
 The Decatur study, and the two-step flow idea
generally, set off significant new directions of
research in the adoption of innovation, the
diffusion of the news, and the study of
distortions in interpersonal communication.
 The study not only failed to confirm the validity
of the idea that mass communications should be
feared, it went a long way toward making the
idea look unrealistic.
Marketing leaders

 Personal influence in marketing appears to

take place horizontally, in other words,
between people at the same general status
level.
 Large-family wives would be most thought
for advice.
 The women with more social contacts were
the most influential in marketing.
Exit
Fashion leaders

 It was the “girls” who provided the greatest

amount of influence.
 The socially active have more opportunities to
offer advice to a broader range of recipients.
 Status made some difference, if one was low
in this factor.
 In general, it was the young, socially active
women with middle or high status that had the
most influence.
Exit
Public affairs leaders

 The public affairs arena is one in which men play

an important role in influencing opinion and
attitudes. Those women who were opinion leaders
tended to be concentrated in the high status level.
 The women with more social contacts were
influential than those who are less gregarious.
 There was a rather weak association between life-
cycle stage and public opinion affairs leadership.
 Generally, the most influential women were the
better educated and more affluent, who had many
social contacts. Exit
Movie selection leaders

 It is dependent most of all on life-cycle position.

 Gregariousness and socioeconomic status
made little difference.
 In summary, moviegoing in Decatur was an
important part of the youth culture. At all status
levels and among shy as well as socially active
people, it was the young single individuals who
gave the most advice.
Exit
 The life cycle
 Position in the life cycle raises the probability of being
knowledgeable about some topics but not others.

Exit
SES

 Personal influence may travel up, down, or

laterally among the community social strata.
 Three categories-high, middle, and low
status-were determined on the basis of years
of education and amount of rent paid.

Exit
social contacts

 The one who regularly interacts with many people

will have more opportunities to serve as an
opinion leader.
 Index of gregariousness

Exit
Group category
 Primary groups
- group of limited size, whose members know
and have direct relationships with each other.
 Secondary group
- group of large size, whose members interact
on a less personal level than in a primary
group, and their relationships are temporary
rather than long lasting.
Exit
Nature vs. nurture
 The famous nature versus nurture debates
sought to settle whether personality was
mainly a product of inherited factors or was
heavily influenced by learning in social
settings.
 The influence of learning from social and
cultural sources became correspondingly
more predominant in theories of human
socialization.
 Primary social relationships were a
significant factor in the way people behaved
(the Hawthorne studies). Exit