An important aspect of normative influence is that social influence occurs when people believe that the majority viewpoint is correct just because it is the majority. In the above example, Tom thinks to himself that Option A must be better than Option X because he respects all of the other members in his group, so he believes that their opinion must be correct. It is important not to confuse normative influence with compliance, as we discussed it in Chapter 6. When compliance occurs, group members voice the majority position but do not believe it. With normative influence, group members come to privately accept the majority point of view.