The most powerful person in the world.

This post follows on a little from the one I wrote a week or so ago about how the circumstances can at times be more of an influence to a result than the person. (Here is that post, if you can't remember it.) Similarly, this post will be talking about influence, but more about how different people can/do influence each other.

Peer pressure, of course, leaps straight to mind. And it's definitely a big influence in the society of today, and probably one of the more recognised. Chances are, if everyone in your group is suddenly listening to rock band A, you'll probably check them out too. If everyone else is saying how bad the government is at the time (and let's face it; whatever government is in at the time, it pretty much will always get bagged out), you'll probably agree.
But there are other influences that are common as well. There's two in particular that I'm going to have a look at: the influence of authority, and the influence of innocence.

The influence of authority is one that's used in ads all the time. "9/10 experts prefer product X." It's a standard. Basically, the idea is, you get someone in who's considered smart, and get them to say whatever - and because they're smart, people will believe them. Of course, this isn't only smart, it's also experienced - getting a Vietnam veteran in an ad against conscription, for example. It's the idea that people will go, "Oh, well they know a heck of a lot better than me, so I'll just go with what they say." It's very common, though it works less and less these days (though that depends on the culture; but again, look at the Australian attitude to politicians and you get what I mean).

The influence of innocence is another one exploited often by ads. Get the cute looking thing in, and they can't say no. It goes back to the title I've got for this post, which is a bit of a personal joke of mine. Most people - I'm guessing - would probably say that the most powerful person in the world is the President of the United States, which is currently Barack Obama. You might disagree, but I'd guess that many people would think that. I'd argue that the most powerful person would actually be his daughter. Because of the influence of innocence - it's very difficult to say no to a little kid. (Depending on how they ask, of course.) And this can of course result, in many cases, with absolutely spoilt kids. Not a good thing. (In the long run.)

So what's the point of this post? Well, I guess that by knowing things like this, you can be more aware, more alert - and so you can be wary of them the next time the ad companies - or whoever else - serve them up to you.