A Side View of Social Influence

Although the lament "what ever happened to the group in social psychology?" is probably less relevant today than it was 10 years ago, it might still be appropriate to the domain of social influence. Reintroducing the group not only focuses our attention on an important dimension of the influence process, but also extends influence beyond the head and brings it into the social world. Once we do this it probably is legitimate to ask ourselves, "what ever happened to the social context in the study of social influence?" Focusing on group influence opens the door to assessing the influence of the social text in which group influence is embedded. Considering the context of group influence also addresses the key themes of this volume, namely the direct and indirect forms that influence can take. The group might be considered a direct source of influence whereas, as we will try to show, the impact of context can often be indirect, and even counterintuitive. The question of how social context can moderate group influence is the subject of the present chapter.