This book describes how a network of interpersonal influence can operate to form agreements among persons who occupy different positions in a group or organization. It presents an account of consensus formation that is unique in its integration of work from the fields of social psychology and sociology concerned with group dynamics and social structures.

Social influence network theory presents a mathematical formalization of the social process of attitude changes that unfolds in a social network of interpersonal influences. This book brings the theory to bear on lines of research in the domain of small group dynamics concerned with changes of group members' positions on an issue, including the formation of consensus and of settled disagreement, via endogenous interpersonal influences, in which group members are responding to the displayed positions of the members of the group. Social influence network theory advances a dynamic social...