Influence

Influence may refer to:

In science and technology:

  • Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), the region around a celestial body in which it is the primary gravitational influence on orbiting objects
  • Sphere of influence (astronomy), a region around a black hole in which the gravity of the black hole dominates that of the host bulge
  • Social influence, in social psychology, influence in interpersonal relationships
    • Minority influence, when the minority (which can include the status quo) affect the behavior or beliefs of the majority

In entertainment:

  • Influence (band), a rock band formed in the 1960s
  • Influence (Little Caesar album), 1992 album by Little Caesar
  • Influence (Sister Machine Gun album), the seventh album by industrial rock band Sister Machine Gun

Other uses:

  • Undue influence, in contract law, where one person takes advantage of a position of power over another person
  • Sphere of influence, in political science, an area over which a state or organization has some indirect control
  • Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived U.S. government department
  • Driving under the influence, the criminal act of driving while intoxicated
  • Influence: Science and Practice, or Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion; two books by Robert Cialdini

Famous quotes containing the word influence:

    “Only let the North exert as much moral influence over the South, as the South has exerted demoralizing influence over the North, and slavery would die amid the flame of Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy indignation.”
    —Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)

    “We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way. But in this water there are countless objects at different depths; and certain influences will give certain kinds of those objects an upward influence which may be intense enough and continue long enough to bring them into the upper visible layer. After the impulse ceases they commence to sink downwards.”
    —Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)