A cognitive model of social influence (Social Sampling Theory [SST]) is developed and applied to several social network phenomena including polarization and contagion effects. Social norms and individuals’ private attitudes are represented as distributions rather than the single points used in most models. SST is explored using agent-based modeling to link individual-level and network-level effects. People are assumed to observe the behavior of their social network neighbors and thereby infer the social distribution of particular attitudes and behaviors. It is assumed that (a) people dislike behaving in ways that are extreme within their neighborhood social norm (social extremeness aversion assumption), and hence tend to conform and (b) people prefer to behave consistently with their own underlying attitudes (authenticity preference assumption) hence minimizing dissonance. Expressed attitudes and behavior reflect a utility-maximizing compromise between these opposing principles. SST is applied to a number of social phenomena including (a) homophily and the development of segregated neighborhoods, (b) polarization, (c) effects of norm homogeneity on social conformity, (d) pluralistic ignorance and false consensus effects, (e) backfire effects, (f) interactions between world view and social norm effects, and (g) the opposing effects on subjective well-being of authentic behavior and high levels of social comparison. More generally, it is argued that explanations of social comparison require the variance, not just the central tendency, of both attitudes and beliefs about social norms to be accommodated.

中文翻译：

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社会抽样和表达态度：真实性偏好和社会极端厌恶导致社会规范效应和两极分化。

社会影响的认知模型（社会抽样理论 [SST]）被开发并应用于包括极化和传染效应在内的多种社会网络现象。社会规范和个人的私人态度被表示为分布，而不是大多数模型中使用的单点。使用基于代理的建模来探索 SST，以将个人级别和网络级别的效果联系起来。假设人们观察他们的社交网络邻居的行为，从而推断出特定态度和行为的社会分布。假设（a）人们不喜欢在他们的社区社会规范中以极端的方式行事（社会极端厌恶假设），因此倾向于顺从和（b）人们更喜欢与他们自己的潜在态度（真实性偏好假设）保持一致，从而最大限度地减少不和谐。表达的态度和行为反映了这些对立原则之间的效用最大化妥协。SST 应用于许多社会现象，包括 (a) 同质化和隔离社区的发展，(b) 两极分化，(c) 规范同质性对社会一致性的影响，(d) 多元无知和错误共识效应，(e)适得其反的影响，（f）世界观和社会规范效应之间的相互作用，以及（g）真实行为和高水平社会比较对主观幸福感的相反影响。更一般地说，有人认为对社会比较的解释需要方差，而不仅仅是集中趋势，