ABSTRACT
Aggregate actions are the main topic of sociology. Sociological concepts such as status, role, group, institution, class, culture, and so forth represent complexes of aggregate actions. The Postulate of Ego-Needs and Theorem one describe rewards in the form of self-attitudes and other people's attitudes. Some such rewards seem essential for effective operation of the processes of social influence described in the Postulate of Evaluative Compliance. The maximization of favorable attitudes from others would thus be the counterpart in sociological theory to the maximization of profit in economic theory. The most dramatic account of compliance available in the social science literature is Professor Robert K. Merton's study Mass Persuasion. It deals with a war bond drive presented by the Columbia Broadcasting System on September 21, 1943. The amazing incident of social influence is described in detail in Merton's monograph and it provides an acid test for any theory of compliant actions.
