Opinion Leadership

Overview

Opinion leadership occurs when a leader collects information, conducts analysis, and condenses the information for less-informed followers. This method of opinion leadership has been used to sway political opinions, provide medical information, discuss environmental topics, and change consumer behavior. In all of these examples it is important that the followers of the opinion leaders trust that the opinion leader has their best interests in mind and is acting in good faith. This trust may be based on the leader’s education, their status in the community, their religion or some other demographic aspect, or their existing status as popular figure.

The academic study of opinion leading dates back to the 1940s when the theorist Paul Lazarsfield set out to understand the limits of mass media and asked how individuals were working beyond the media to affect human behavior. Lazarsfield worked with a group of students to find local people who were able to change the community’s views. Once identified, he called those individuals “opinion leaders” (Sismondo, 2015). Over time, the term gained traction in many fields, but the goal remained the same: identifying individuals who have the ability to affect and change the opinions of the public.

Some scholars classify opinion leaders into two types: those who are engaged in only one topic (monomorphic), in which they have a more specific and detailed education or background information that is above that possessed by the average member of the public; and opinion leaders who have a global bank of information (polymorphic) and assert that they can speak on any topic. The influence of both types on the public grows when they are able to demonstrate exceptional information access and/or analysis. This might occur when their predictions turn out to be true or when they help followers to find some sort of success. The establishment of the trustworthiness varies from leader to leader, but once that trust is lost, it is often hard to regain.

Opinion leaders function across the diversity of platforms. Some are seen on television programs as weekly guests who viewers turn to and quote regarding their personal behaviors or consumption decisions. Other opinion leaders serve as consultants for major media houses. These individuals do not appear on television but do affect the information presented on news broadcasts. Other opinion leaders function as consultants for large corporations or governments. These opinion leaders specifically attend to the ways that corporations make decisions, engage in international trade, and negotiate international policy. Some opinion leaders operate independently, recording their own videos, podcasts, or otherwise self-produced and self-published works, which are distributed via social media platforms. Some leaders offer their information to the general public without asking for monetary support. All opinion leaders attempt to influence the behavior of their audiences, sometimes engaging in long-term strategies designed to radically change the behavior of audience members.

Opinion leaders play a critical role in large organizations because they can encourage a large group of people to act in a new way, or to take up new behaviors very quickly. Brown, Chen and O’Donnell (2017) examined the way that this works in large organizational structures. They found that informal opinion leaders are often already at work, crafting and effecting policy even if they have not been asked to do so by management. The ability of these unofficial leaders to enact radical change is enabled by their charisma and their role-modeling capabilities. When the opinion leader is very charismatic, more change is likely to occur. Based on this information, Brown et al. worked to model the ways that informal opinion leaders could be recognized, supported, and guided by the organizations they work for. The researchers note that these individuals are already influencing behavior among members of the organization, and as such, opinion leaders are best addressed and dangerous to ignore.

In some instances, opinion leaders are honored members of the community and provide information that is both sought after and greatly needed. For example, Rosen, Goodson, Thompson and Wilson (2015) have studied the ways that school nurses can serve as opinion leaders for students and their families regarding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. These researchers found that school nurses had considerable knowledge about the effects of HPV and the benefits of the vaccine, and generally supported giving the vaccine to children. However, the school nurses did not believe that they had a role as opinion leaders and therefore did not often speak with parents about the vaccination. The researchers argued that school nurses should be supported in their role as opinion leaders and are critical informants for parents about the best ways to protect children’s health and safety. This study pointed to the need for public health officials to fully understand their role in influencing individual decision making, that is, to groom potential opinion leaders to believe in their own ability to influence behavior.

Further Insights

Scholars have worked to define and better study the way that opinion leadership occurs, but this is difficult as each leader works in slightly different ways with different demographics. For this reason, there are many different subsets of scholarship on opinion leading. One subset is the study of how young people operate as opinion leaders. For example, the Gentina, Butori and Heath (2014) study of teenage opinion leaders. These opinion leaders are especially interesting to scholars as they have the ability to sway large numbers of young people with disposable income. They are also at a life stage when they are exploring many different products, corporations, media producers, and events. Gentina et al. surveyed 1,142 teenagers to understand the ways that opinion leaders sought to balance their own position within groups of peers (assimilation) and their need to be different (individuation). They looked for the traits of the teenagers who are important opinion leaders for their demographics. Their findings indicate that for girls, opinion leaders need to be close to the center of already established opinion. It is possible for these girls to highlight their uniqueness, but they need to do so without radically breaking from the group. Male decision leaders were different in that they were most effective when they highlighted their uniqueness from already established opinions. They did still need to identify with a group and have some level of assimilating. However, these boys could deviate from commonly held opinions much more radically than girls and still be considered an opinion leader by their peers. Gentina’s team argues that these differences are critical to advertisers, who need to take different approaches when marketing to male and female teenagers. Studies of adult opinion leaders have found similar success among adults who maintain a level of attachment to the center of the group, and then deviate slightly regarding their uniqueness (Risselada, Verhoef & Bijmolt, 2016). It is these deviations that change opinion—when a person who is well known and respected in the group begins to support a new candidate, for example, or begins to wear a new brand of shoes, or participates in a new social activity.

Similarly, Badaoui, Lebrun, Su and Bouchet (2018) examined the ways that 1,596 French teenagers consumed name brand clothing, and the ways that opinion leaders affected their consumption. They found that opinion leaders were often able to attach a new importance to specific brands, making them more or less important for their specific social group. Badaoui et al. argue that understanding this process is necessary for producers who want to sell to high school students. They recommend that clothing manufactures produce their goods in a variety of ways, such as providing a range of colors so that teenagers who have assigned a specific meaning to having a green jacket can find a green jacket in the clothing line. As hyper-individualization takes hold in many communities, teens can find a jacket that is similar, but also different in some specific way, from those of their classmates. They also suggested that clothing manufacturers need to spend more time engaging in social networks, specifically targeting engagement with the opinion leaders of the high school students. This includes music, media, and sports celebrities. Zhang, Fam, Goh and Dai (2018) suggest that when seeking to change the consumption behavior of these consumers, companies do best when they target opinion leaders who are in the middle level of influence. Those with the most influence are likely to be overly individualistic and may reject any attempt to influence their behavior. Those who are at the lowest level of influence either will doubt their ability to have any meaningful effect or will actually lack the capacity to make a significant enough change to consumer behavior to justify the expense engaging with them. Influencers in the middle often have many peers who they can influence.

For consumers looking to learn about a new topic, listening to opinion leaders can be a quick method of gaining a lot of information very quickly. The question then is how an individual can know which opinion leader to trust. Dubois and Gaffney (2014) addressed this question by studying the ways that opinion leaders function on Twitter (later X). Focusing on the Conservative Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party of Canada, these researchers sought to find the opinion influencers with the largest effect over a 2-week period in 2013. They found that traditional leaders, such as journalists and politicians, maintained their influence in discussions. However, when looking for the most detailed opinions with the highest quality messages, they found that commentators and bloggers outranked politicians and journalists. In a similar study of voter behavior, Thorson (2014) found that when new influencers attempt to change the behavior of others, such as encouraging others to vote, they do so by developing and expressing ideas that support specific candidates and forming new networks in which to spread information. These new opinion leaders have the ability to radically affect political deliberation because they are providing outsider analysis of elections and policy decisions. They also frequently are free to express any political opinion they like and are not bound by employment or other contracts regarding which candidates they can support, as may be the case for journalists who work for large media corporations with specific political connections or leanings.

Issues

Opinion leaders have a good deal of power, and many organizations are looking for ways to exploit that power. This is especially true for opinion leaders who are functioning on social media. For example, many organizations have turned to social media to encourage individuals to sign up as organ donors, and it is not uncommon in some parts of the world for media users to receive push notifications asking them to become donors. In Shi and Salmon’s 2018 study, researchers asked if and how opinion leaders played a part in this campaign. They worked for two weeks to send posts regarding organ donation across the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. They then tracked how often these messages were reposted, and what types of activities the opinion leaders suggested to go along with the call to become a donor. The results indicated that the willingness to participate as an advocate for organ donation was affected by an individual’s personal attributes and social positions. However, they did not find any difference in professional knowledge. This means that individuals were choosing to participate based on their opinions but not based on their education to become a doctor, teacher, or engineer. This finding is important to organizations that are looking for supporters. It might seem at first that an organ donation campaign should target doctors who are opinion leaders. Logically, it would seem that doctors know the most about the need for organ donations and as such are most likely to support a campaign that signs up new donors. However, the Shi and Salmon research suggest that time would be better spent focusing on individuals who display certain social opinions, perhaps related to sharing and humanitarianism, when looking for opinion leaders who will promote organ donation.

Bibliography

Badaoui, K., Lebrun, A. M., Su, C. J., & Bouchet, P. (2018). The influence of personal and social identity on the clothing consumption of adolescents. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 35(1), 65–78. Retrieved December 23, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=128314105&site=ehost-live

Britt, B., Britt, R., Anderson, J., Fahrenwald, N., & Harming, S. (2021). Finding the Invisible Leader: When A Priori Opinion Leader Identification Is Impossible. Communication Reports, 35 (1), 38-52. DOI: 10.1080/08934215.2021.2015796

Brown, S., Chen, L., & O’Donnell, E. (2017). Organizational opinion leader charisma, rolemodeling, and relationships. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 25(1), 80–102.

Dubois, E., & Gaffney, D. (2014). The multiple facets of influence: Identifying political influentials and opinion leaders on Twitter. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(10), 1260–1277. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=97727009&site=ehost-live

Fakhreddin, F., & Foroudi, P. (2021). Instagram influencers: The role of opinion leadership in consumers' purchase behavior. Journal of Promotion Management, 28(6), 795-825. DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2021.2015515

Gentina, E., Butori, R., & Heath, T. B. (2014). Unique but integrated: The role of individuation and assimilation processes in teen opinion leadership. Journal of Business Research, 67(2), 83–91. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=92642386&site=ehost-live

Risselada, H., Verhoef, P. C., & Bijmolt, T. H. (2016). Indicators of opinion leadership in customer networks: Self-reports and degree centrality. Marketing Letters, 27(3), 449–460. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=117264918&site=ehost-live

Rosen, B. L., Goodson, P., Thompson, B., & Wilson, K. L. (2015). School nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of role as opinion leader, and professional practice regarding human papillomavirus vaccine for youth. Journal of School Health, 85(2), 73–81. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=100274769&site=ehost-live

Shi, J., & Salmon, C. T. (2018). Identifying opinion leaders to promote organ donation on social media: Network study. Journal of medical Internet research, 20(1).

Sismondo, S. (2015). How to make opinion leaders and influence people. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(10), 759–760. Retrieved December 23, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=108686007&site=ehost-live

Thorson, E. (2014). Beyond opinion leaders: How attempts to persuade foster political awareness and campaign learning. Communication Research, 41(3), 353–374. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=94614732&site=ehost-live

Zhang, H., Fam, K. S., Goh, T. T., & Dai, X. (2018). When are influentials equally influenceable? The strength of strong ties in new product adoption. Journal of Business Research, 82, 160–170. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=125944912&site=ehost-live