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Social authority

Social authority comes from informal group settings, such as a group of friends, alumni of a certain university, or even co-workers. In groups, people are easily influenced by the actions taken by other members of the group. This is best described as mob psychology where people will want to do what the majority is doing. The group will have a certain authoritative figure where a particular person has more control of the group due to other factors, such as physique, wealth, or eloquence. There are many other things that can make a group member stand out and have some implied control over the group where other members would follow all he or she says. Social engineers are able to get this implied authority by being more pronounced ...