Page 150 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

6. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY OF MASS COMMUNICATION 139

on the high regard in which they are held. The best social sellers depend
on what happens to be popular at the moment. Drawing on evidence that
similarity to the model enhances modeling, some advertisements portray
common folk achieving wonders with the wares advertised. Because vi-
carious influence increases with multiplicity of modeling (Perry & Bussey,
1979), the beers, soft drinks, and snacks are being consumed with gusto in
the advertised world by groups of wholesome, handsome, fun-loving
models. Eroticism is another stimulant that never goes out of style. There-
fore, erotic modeling does heavy duty in efforts to command attention
and to make advertised products more attractive to potential buyers
(Kanungo & Pang, 1973; Peterson & Kerin, 1979).
In sum, modeling influences serve diverse functions—as tutors, moti-
vators, inhibitors, disinhibitors, social prompters, emotion arousers, and
shapers of values and conceptions of reality. Although the different mod-
eling functions can operate separately, in nature they often work in con-
cert. Thus, for example, in the spread of new styles of aggression, models
serve as both teachers and disinhibitors. When novel conduct is punished,
observers learn the conduct that was punished as well as the restraints. A
novel example can both teach and prompt similar acts.

DUAL-LINK VERSUS MULTIPATTERN FLOW OF INFLUENCE

It has been commonly assumed in theories of mass communication that
modeling influences operate through a two-step diffusion process. Influ-
ential persons pick up new ideas from the media and pass them on to
their followers through personal influence. Some communication re-
searchers have claimed that the media can only reinforce preexisting
styles of behavior but cannot create new ones (Klapper, 1960). Such a view
is at variance with a vast body of evidence. Media influences create per-
sonal attributes as well as alter preexisting ones (Bandura, 1986; Williams,
1986).
The different modes of human influence are too diverse in nature to
have a fixed path of influence or strengths. Most behavior is the product of
multiple determinants operating in concert. Hence, the relative contribu-
tion of any given factor in a pattern of influences can change depending on
the nature and strength of coexisting determinants. Even the same deter-
minant operating within the same causal structure of factors can change in
its causal contribution with further experience (Wood & Bandura, 1989). In
the case of atypical behavior, it is usually produced by a unique constella-
tion of the determinants, such that if any one of them were absent the
behavior would not have occurred. Depending on their quality and coexis-
tence of other determinants, media influences may be subordinate to,