Commissioned Book Review: Gordon Sammut and Martin Bauer, The Psychology of Social Influence: Modes and Modalities of Shifting Common Sense
| Author | Lisa Basil |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221077613 |
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(2) NP7 –NP8
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1077613PSW0010.1177/14789299221077613Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2022
Commissioned Book Review
The Psychology of Social Influence:
Modes and Modalities of Shifting
Common Sense by Gordon Sammut
and Martin Bauer. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2021, 300 pp., £21.49,
ISBN 9781108402897.
The Psychology of Social Influence: Modes
and Modalities of Shifting Common Sense by
Sammut and Bauer highlights the many com-
peting facets of ideological influence that sway
public political opinion. Doing so, Sammut and
Bauer pull back the curtains on the foundations
of populism, conspiracism and political group-
think. A timely look into influences on the
political public, The Psychology of Social
Influence is an e xamination of what drives
modern political phenomena like Trumpism,
Brexit and the far reach of fake news. The
authors argue that regardless of specific mecha-
nisms – whether leadership or conformity –
these influences serve to shift a prevailing
common sense. Through what they call ‘nor-
malization, assimilation, and accommodation’
of new ideas and perspectives, fringe beliefs
become the. As the discussion of political
psychology often finds itself fixated on sin-
gular explanations for political trends – from
authoritarian personality types to unconven-
tional leadership – The Psychology of Social
Influence offers a refres hingly nuanced take on
how social influence takes shape in the political
sphere. Sammut and Bauer reframe the conver-
sation into one not of a single facet of social
influence, but the ‘whirling cyclone’ of ongoing
and interacting modes of influence.
An explorative look into the different facets
of social influence, the authors cultivate what
often reads as comprehensive literature review.
They delve into the historical and modern
scholarship of eight major social psychological
influences. As most of the book remains at a
relatively high level of abstraction, the authors
do not so much offer a novel explanation for
the trends of modern politics, as break down
decades worth of social psychology research
into eight digestible pieces. They do well to
highlight the prevailing research surrounding
each of the topics. They tie common theories
into understandable real-world examples. As a
result, the work avoids being altogether too pre-
scriptive or overly simplistic. Those who may
be unfamiliar with the field of social psych are
given an effective rundown in the manner of
just about a 100 pages.
In addition to elucidating an extensive body
of research, the book does well to reframe an
existing scholarly conversation under the lens
of a changing mass media. The rise of technol-
ogy and social media has had no small impact
on modern democratic interactions. The authors
bring about new considerations to an existing
body of social psychological theory to highlight
how a recent technological boom is able to
bring these trends to a much larger scale. The
effectiveness of their ‘cyclone model’ of influ-
ence is reflected in its vivid imagery. There is an
inherent volatility – and they argue often almost
violence – to the many factors of social influ-
ence at play. Many of these factors exist in a
morally dubious grey area between force and
persuasion, truth and pandering.
While the Psychology of Social Influence is
not void of novel interpretations of the social
psychology of the political sphere, much of the
author’s original argument is relegated to the
third and final section. The breadth and objectiv-
ity that make it such an effective rundown of the
many facets of social influence also preclude it
from building a novel theory or approach to the
study of socia l influence in politics. The periodi c
table of social influence is a contemporary and
interesting way to amalgamate and categorize a
myriad of modalities into their three unique
phases: normalization, assimilation and accom-
modation. However, much like the book as a
whole, benefits of summary are lost on the
sheer size and scope of what is included. The
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