10 - Influence of Actors and Social Positions

Summary

Abstract: This chapter concludes my analysis of the influence system. I analyze the relative contributions of actors and their social positions to defining the content of the settled opinions of actors. I also develop and support an argument about the emergence of social dominance in macro-structures.

The equilibrium destinations of actors are a consequence of the system of interpersonal influences. If actors have converged to a region in which a particular subset of social positions is located, it is not necessarily the case that the actors in these positions are the most influential actors in the system and that they have determined this outcome. To be sure, if a particular actor has a dominant influence, then all actors' opinions will converge to the position of this actor. However, it also is possible that actors may converge to the location of an actor who is not an influential actor as a compromise position; in such a case, the actor to whose position other actors have converged represents the equilibrium consensus, but he or she is not an important determiner of the consensus. Moreover, in more complex circumstances (e.g., Columbia Physical Science) the destinations of actors may converge to a region in social space that is not in the vicinity of any occupied social position.

I now analyze the relative contributions of actors (and their social positions) in defining the content of the settled opinions of actors.