Interpersonal influence

It is well known that relationship concerns are major factors determining compliance with interpersonal influence attempts. This study expands this notion and presents a model of interpersonal influence that incorporates receivers concerns both for their relationships with message sources and for their relationships with third parties affected by the advocated behavior. Specifically, C = Is * Os + It * Ot, where C denotes the likelihood of a receivers compliance, I the subjective importance of the receivers relationship with either source or third party, and O the anticipated relational outcome that complying with the message has for the receiver with either source or third party. An empirical test found strong evidence for the validity of this model. Results further suggested that anticipated changes in the relationship quality with requester and in relationship power with the third party are associated with greater compliance, whereas anticipated changes in the relationship quality with the third party and in the relationship power with the requester are associated with less compliance. Interpersonal influence