Social Influence across conversational contexts: a new taxonomy of social influence techniques and public understanding of the characteristics of persuasion, manipulation, and coercion in interpersonal dialogue

We propose a taxonomy of seven social influence strategies and 42 techniques for interpersonal dialogue across diverse settings. Perceptions of these techniques, gathered from 164 UK participants, show persuasive techniques as low-harm and covert, while manipulative-coercive techniques are high-harm and overt. Ambiguities exist where some techniques fit both categories, highlighting significant variability in individual perceptions. We highlight that even benign techniques like humour or friendliness can covertly bypass defences, hiding the speaker's true intentions. This work underscores the importance of understanding receiver perceptions of social influence techniques across a range of settings, including interactions with large language models (LLMs), which may employ such techniques. By offering a universal taxonomy of social influence techniques and associated public perceptions, we aim to enhance understanding of social influence in varied conversational contexts.