Annotated Bibliography on Social Influence and Persuasion Research

This annotated bibliography examines nine articles focused on social influence and persuasion. The studies explore various aspects, including the impact of peer communication on adolescent perceptions of social media advertising, the role of second screens in political persuasion, and the effectiveness of personalized persuasive systems in workplaces. Other articles delve into the neuroscience of persuasion, the unification of existing research in different sectors, and the development of persuasive systems to promote student engagement in online learning. The bibliography also covers the influence of social identity on theories of followership and social influence, and the application of persuasive systems in promoting environmental sustainability. Overall, the collection provides a comprehensive overview of current research and future directions in the field of social influence and persuasion, offering valuable insights into how these concepts affect behavior, attitudes, and decision-making across diverse contexts. The studies use various methodologies, including experiments, surveys, and literature reviews, to investigate the complexities of persuasion in different settings.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Annotated Bibliography
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1ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Topic: Social Influence and Persuasion
Article 1
Zarouali, B., Poels, K., Walrave, M., & Ponnet, K. (2018). ‘You talking to me?’The
influence of peer communication on adolescents’ persuasion knowledge and
attitude towards social advertisements. Behaviour & Information
Technology, 37(5), 502-516.
Introduction
Understanding adolescent knowledge of persuasion in social media platform is
essential as they spend much time in those platforms and advertisers create target messages to
increase their views.
Aims and research method
The aim of the research is to analyze the influence of social media peer
communication on perceptions of online advertising, specifically the influence online
chatting over social media influences people’s perception, attitude and knowledge towards a
particular advertisement. The research methodology that has been adopted in the study are
two between-subjects experiments where subjects chosen for the experiments chatted through
a pseudo social networking site where they encountered a social ad. Their responses and
behavior were recorded for analysis.
Scope
The research contributes to Persuasion Knowledge Model as the study shows negative
relation between online peer chat and cognitive understanding of persuasive advertising. The
research also contributes to online peer influence theory, knowledge on persuasion heuristics.

2ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Usefulness
The usefulness of the study is towards advertisement as the research can be used to
increase advertisement effectiveness over social media as well as social caretakers like
parents and teachers, as they can use the study to increase cognitive persuasion knowledge
among adolescent.
Limitations
The experiments of the study were conducted through computers in a computer
classroom which is a highly familiar environment for them. Adolescents these days are more
engaged in smartphones and the result might vary.
Conclusion
The study concludes a negative correlation between peer communication and
perception and knowledge of persuasive advertisements and are likely to evaluate
advertisements more favorably.
Reflection.
The study is essential in understanding persuasion and social influence as peer
influence, moderation effect and social media, all are important deciding factors for
adolescents.

3ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Article 2
Barnidge, M., Gil de Zúñiga, H., & Diehl, T. (2017). Second screening and political
persuasion on social media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(2),
309-331.
Introduction
People have become increasingly less dependent on political parties and news media
as authentic source of political information and have grown dependent on information from
other citizens gathered through second screen.
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to explain persuasion on political issues that are related to
people’s use of second screens like laptop and smartphone while they are watching television
in order to retrieve detailed information on political shows or to discuss programs shown on
television. The research has been conducted through a two-wave-panel survey in USA.
Scope
The study has scope in broader scholarly conversations regarding the autonomous
behavior of individuals and groups when it comes to politics. There is also scope for social
media behavior and its relationship with people’s opinion on political matters.
Usefulness
The elite media organizations play major role in shaping people’s opinion regarding
political issues. The emerging power of social media in shaping public opinion and

4ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
persuasion is also becoming obvious. The interplay between these two creates an interesting
middle way where people also play a significant role.
Limitations
The study does not account for all the alternative persuasion explanations. It only
includes adults while result might vary with young subjects. It does not include the concept of
opinion change.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that second screening is more to affect people in using social
media to form and change political opinion. People using second screen are more persuadable
through social media.
Reflection
The study has large implications in understanding of hybrid media experience and
shaping of public narratives as well as on the persuasive nature of people in hybrid media.
Article 3
Nkwo, M., & Orji, R. (2019). Personalized Persuasion to Promote Positive Work
Attitudes in Public Workplaces. In Adjunct Publication of the 27th Conference on
User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 185-190).
Introduction
Persuasion can be used to promote positive work culture in public organizations.
Aims and research method

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The aim of the study is to find out the effectiveness of PAULApp, a mobile
persuasive system, in increasing the commitment of African employees in public workplace
towards organizational vision mission and ideals through a qualitative research.
Scope
Persuasive technology has positive result in changing behavior. Thus understanding
the impact of the same on public workers were necessary and a system needed to be
developed.
Usefulness
The research is useful in creating positive intervention among the public workers in
Africa. The research provides a personalized application to improve positive commitment
among the workers through persuasive techniques.
Limitations
The research is in early stage and needs results on larger audience to be called
universal.
Conclusion
The study finds positive correlation between persuasive systems to positive work
attitudes of the workers in Nigeria and contributes to social integration among workers.
Reflection
The study is important in many regards. It creates a practical application that
positively influences workers to show positive attitude in workplaces thus improving their
productivity and increasing profit. This kind of similar system can be used by other sectors to
increase engagement of people.

6ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Article 4
Falk, E., & Scholz, C. (2018). Persuasion, influence, and value: Perspectives from
communication and social neuroscience. Annual review of psychology, 69, 329-
356.
Introduction
Social influence and persuasion can change people’s behavior but the longevity of it
needs to be considered.
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to determine the impact and longevity of persuasion in social
context through neuroscience. The paper is an evidence review paper thus an empirical study.
Scope
The research has immense scope as it includes all the neuro-scientific research
conducted in this arena and suggests that non-western subjects needs to be included in order
to establish the universality of persuasion and social influence for behavioral change.
Usefulness
The study’s usefulness lies on the fact that it accounts for all the available findings in
the topic and finds the future research scopes for aspiring scientists.
Limitations

7ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Most of the studies in this regard only takes isolated and averagely active individuals
and needs more diverse subjects to be called universal. Links between individual brain
response and idea sharing needs to be considered.
Conclusion
The study concludes that successful communication as well as social influence has the
ability to form positive valuation both for the communicators and receivers.
Reflection
The research can be useful for specific outcome based system formation as the
framework created here can be used for positive reinforcements in medical situations.
Article 5
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., & Petty, R. E. (2018). The neuroscience of persuasion: A
review with an emphasis on issues and opportunities. Social neuroscience, 13(2),
129-172.
Introduction
Persuasion is an attempt for changing the belief, behavior or attitude of an individual.
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to provide a critical review of the existing research in order to
identify the potential problems and issues that surface from them and help move the research
on neurological perspective of persuasion ahead.
Scope

8ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Research focus has increased in neural aspects of persuasion and thus, needs critical
review of the existing research in the genre.
Usefulness
The research can contribute to understand the neurological behavior of individuals as
well as the aspects and issues related to persuasion and social influence.
Limitations
The study’s limitation lies in the assumption that the technological terminologies are
understandable for all the readers. Limitation also lies in lack of explanations for
neuroscience terminologies which makes it difficult for common readers to understand.
Conclusion
The study concludes with several recommendations to improve the extant research
and provides several future research directions.
Reflection
The study can be used to trace the extant research in neurological connections of
persuasion and social exchange.
Article 6
O'Keefe, D. J. (2016). Persuasion and social influence. The international encyclopedia of
communication theory and philosophy, 1-19.
Introduction
Persuasion pervades all aspects of life and needs an unifying efforts for better
understanding of existing research.

9ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to unify the existing research on persuasion in various field
and creates an empirical collection.
Scope
The scope of this research is in almost all the sectors including marketing,
advertisement, motivation, business and politics.
Usefulness
The research provides recommendations for controlling susceptibility of persuasion
using the existing research evidence which marketers, politicians and any other sector can
use.
Limitations
The limitation of the study is that it does not include the neurological research that has
been conducted into account. The study also has no definite conclusion.
Conclusion
The study concludes without proper conclusion but the general direction seemed to be
the implication of the study on enhancing susceptibility to persuasion.
Reflection
The study can be used to understand the different approaches of persuasion and social
influence used in different sectors.

10ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Article 7
Orji, F. A., Vassileva, J., & Greer, J. E. (2018). Personalized Persuasion for Promoting
Students' Engagement and Learning. In PPT@ PERSUASIVE (pp. 77-87).
Introduction
Persuasive technology is becoming increasingly popular in influencing change in
behavior, attitude and thoughts.
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to develop a persuasive system to motivate the students to
engage in online learning activities so that their learning enhances. The methodology is
experiment through the application use and result analysis.
Scope
The scope of the research lies both in persuasive systems development and
educational field.
Usefulness
The research can provide important insight into the effectiveness of persuasive
systems in increasing student motivation and student’s opinion towards this kind of system.
Limitations
The paper only includes only partial input from students as the paper was written mid
study and thus provides incomplete information.

11ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Conclusion
The study concludes with the implication of persuasive system on education,
healthcare and physical activity.
Reflection
The study can contribute to the understanding of persuasion and social influence
through the light of student behavior and their interaction with the three factors that the study
takes into account, social comparison, competition and social learning.
Article 8
Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., & Mols, F. (2018). Our followers are lions,
theirs are sheep: how social identity shapes theories about followership and
social influence. Political Psychology, 39(1), 23-42.
Introduction
Leadership attributes of leaders shape people’s behavior as does the generic
characteristics of followers.
Aims and research method
The aim of the study is to examine the implication of self-categorization theory on
people’s perception on social influence and followership. The research follows survey
method by recruitment of participants through MTurk.
Scope
The study has scope in business, politics and any other areas where leadership and
followership is relevant.