Before You Begin
This article explores how we naturally look to trusted people for guidance when we’re trying to understand unfamiliar experiences. As you read, you may find yourself remembering conversations with pastors, mentors, family members, or friends who helped shape the way you understood your experiences, your faith, or even yourself.
Realizing how our beliefs were influenced by people we trusted can bring up grief, confusion, anger, sadness, or a sense of betrayal. It may also stir up compassion for the version of yourself who was simply trying to understand the world around you.
Please read at your own pace.
If you begin feeling emotionally activated or overwhelmed, I encourage you to pause and visit the The Aftermath before continuing.
There is no timeline for understanding your story.
Remember the deck?
Today we’re going to turn over another card.
At your own pace.
Together.
Today’s card is:
Informational Social Influence
You had this overwhelming experience during worship.
Maybe it left you crying.
Maybe it filled you with peace.
Maybe it frightened you.
Maybe you weren’t sure what had just happened.
You had never experienced anything like it before.
Naturally…
You had questions.
So you listened.
You asked.
And someone gave you an answer.
“That’s the Holy Spirit.”
Maybe someone told you the overwhelming sense of peace, emotion, or connection you were experiencing was the Holy Spirit moving in your life.
“God is speaking to you.”
Perhaps you were encouraged to understand a sudden thought, feeling, or conviction as God’s voice.
“That’s conviction.”
Feelings of guilt or discomfort after a sermon may have been explained as the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin.
“That’s deliverance.”
If a burden seemed to lift, someone might have described it as deliverance.
“That’s spiritual warfare.”
Anxiety, doubt, fear, or internal conflict may have been interpreted as spiritual attack.
When we’re new, we don’t have an independent framework for interpreting experiences we’ve never had before.
So, we do what human beings have always done when we’re uncertain.
We look to people we believe know more than we do.
Psychologists call this informational social influence. It occurs when we look to others for guidance because we genuinely believe they have more knowledge or experience than we do. Unlike conformity driven by the desire to fit in, informational social influence is motivated by the desire to understand and to be correct.
What happens when the people we trust to interpret our experiences all share the same explanation?
When we’re trying to understand something unfamiliar, we naturally look to people who seem more knowledgeable than we are.
Children do this.
Students do this.
Patients do this with doctors.
We all do it.
It’s one of the ways human beings learn.
There was nothing irrational about trusting people you believed had spent years studying the Bible, living their faith, and helping others understand it.
If someone had been a Christian for twenty years and you had been one for two weeks, why wouldn’t you assume they understood what was happening better than you did?
Most of us would.
That’s what makes informational social influence such a powerful psychological process.
It isn’t driven by fear.
It isn’t driven by wanting to fit in.
It’s driven by a sincere desire to understand.
By itself, informational social influence isn’t harmful.
It’s how we learn from teachers, and parents.
It’s how we learn from mentors.
It’s how we learn from experts.
By itself, informational social influence isn’t the problem.
The question we’re investigating is different.
What happens when every trusted source in our environment offers the same interpretation?
What happens when there are no competing explanations?
What happens when one explanation becomes the only explanation?
Looking back through a different lens doesn’t change what happened.
It changes the questions we ask.
And sometimes…
asking different questions is how we begin finding different answers.
One card by itself doesn’t tell us very much.
But as we keep laying them beside one another…
the picture becomes a little clearer.
Discussion
When you first experienced something, you couldn’t explain, who helped you make sense of it?
Looking back now, do you remember any moments where someone else’s explanation became your own?
We’d love to hear your story.
Let’s take a moment.
Does this sound familiar?
I don’t know about you, but this card gave me a lot to think about.
Looking back through a different lens doesn’t change what happened.
It changes the questions we ask.
Today we turned over another card.
We examined another part of the picture.
Remember…
This is not a race.
It’s a marathon.
There is no rush.
You control the pace.
When you’re ready,
I’ll be here.
Then we’ll turn over the next card.
One at a time.
Together.
Sources
Understanding Conformity: Normative vs. Informational Social Influence
Why this source was used:
Explains the distinction between informational and normative social influence, including how people rely on others for guidance when they are uncertain versus conforming because they want social acceptance. This supports the discussion of why newcomers naturally looked to trusted church members to help interpret unfamiliar spiritual experiences.
Informational Social Influence Definition & Meaning
Why this source was used:
Provides a clear definition of informational social influence and explains how people adopt the beliefs or interpretations of others when they perceive them as more knowledgeable. This supports the discussion of how newcomers came to understand their experiences through the explanations provided by trusted leaders and community members.
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