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:

    “Exhaust them, wrestle with them, let them not go until their blessing be won, and, after a short season, the dismay will be overpast, the excess of influence withdrawn, and they will be no longer an alarming meteor, but one more brighter star shining serenely in your heaven, and blending its light with all your day.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “The Spirit of Place [does not] exert its full influence upon a newcomer until the old inhabitant is dead or absorbed. So America.... The moment the last nuclei of Red [Indian] life break up in America, then the white men will have to reckon with the full force of the demon of the continent.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    “I am always glad to think that my education was, for the most part, informal, and had not the slightest reference to a future business career. It left me free and untrammeled to approach my business problems without the limiting influence of specific training.”
    —Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)