ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses legitimacy as a determinant of social influence. It reviews several theories that treat the origins of endorsement accorded a formal leader and that hypothesize consequences of endorsement for social influence. When these theoretical expectations are compared with empirical findings, several interesting discrepancies emerge, and these in turn lead to a reformulation of endorsement's role in social influence processes. The chapter considers normativity as a base of influence. It presents a conceptual framework describing the dimensions of normativity that affect compliance, and also reviews existing empirical literature. The resulting portrait of normativity includes some unanticipated features that explore the differences between normativity and endorsement. In general, empirical evidence substantiates the hypothesis that high-status (HSs) earn endorsement via competence and equitableness. Empirical research demonstrates the effects of consensus on low-status compliance to HS's directives. Several studies have shown that consensus heightens compliance, while dissensus encourages deviance and renitence.
