Social Influence

French First Lady Becomes AIDS Embassador

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is putting her star power behind the global AIDS campaign to help fight a disease that counts her brother among its millions of victims.
"I can put all of the media coverage directed toward me to the service of a useful cause," the 40-year-old supermodel-turned-singer said in an interview to be published in Monday's edition of Elle magazine."

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is capitalizing on the “who” segment of Carl Hovland’s systematic study of persuasion, which identifies “who says what to whom” as the three most important components of persuasion.

The “who” segment refers to the source of a persuasive message. Credibility and likability of the source are both key determinants of how well a message is received. To many, Bruni clearly exhibits both of these traits.  

Credibility is most influenced by expertise and trustworthiness. Bruni can be seen as an “expert” on AIDS because of her brother’s battle with the disease. She watched him die of AIDS in 2006 and is familiar with its traumatic influence. The fact that she has experience with AIDS gives her more credibility in the public eye: she’s not simply jumping on the bandwagon of a cause.  

Trustworthiness is likely to come from the fact that she is married to the President of France. Hopefully, such an authority figure would not choose an incompetemt wife. Thus, it is likely that the public trusts her enough to listen to what she has to say.

Bruni also seems very likeable. Likeability is influenced by physical attractiveness and similarity. Based on the fact that Bruni is a former supermodel-turned-singer, it is safe to say that she is attractive. Her physical attractiveness is likely to garner liking, and, in turn, influence on the public. As for similarity, Bruni’s identity as a French woman should benefit her in France’s eyes.

Finally, also in Bruni’s favor, people tend to believe “What is beautiful is good.” The effect is that people assume physically attractive people will be superior to others on many other traits, including happiness, sexual warmth, popularity, intelligence and success. (Baumeister 338). If a beautiful woman advocates the fight against AIDS, she is likely to gain support.