How Perceptions of Influence Tactic Effectiveness and Relationship Norms Predict Agents’ Decision to Influence their Partner’s Health Behavior

Abstract

It is well established that close relationships, particularly romantic relationships, can have a powerful impact on physical health, and that social influence plays a key role in this association. However, research has focused on the health and relationship outcomes associated with different types of influence use, and not on how influence agents (i.e., the person enacting influence) decide when and how to influence their target (i.e., the person having the influence enacted upon them). The present work addresses this gap in the literature by establishing three key tactic-specific variables (influence type, perceived tactic effectiveness, and tactic normativeness) that play a role in an agent’s decision of whether or not to use a certain influence tactic. Additionally, two key context variables (health threat severity and relationship stability) were included to examine whether the associations among the tactic-specific variables shift in different health and relational contexts. Three experimental studies were conducted using an iterative experimental vignette methodology in which the health and relational context was initially fixed (Study 1), then the health context was manipulated (Study 2), and finally the health and relational context was manipulated (Study 3). Throughout all three studies, the three tactic-specific variables were manipulated to demonstrate how each variable affected perceived likelihood that the agent would enact a specific influence tactic. In each study, participants first indicated the likelihood of the agent enacting a given influence tactic and then, having been told the tactic had been enacted, rated the relational and health motivations behind why the agent had chosen to enact the tactic. Across all three studies, the tactic-specific variables emerged as consistent predictors of perceptions of likelihood of influence use, with more normative, effective, and supportive tactics being associated with greater likelihood of use. However, the predictive patterns of the tactic-specific variables did not shift as expected with the inclusion of the context variables. Overall, health motivation was more impacted by the context variables, and relational motivation was more impacted by tactic-specific variables.