Resistance to Social Influence

• Social support


  • this can be a reason as to why people resist pressures to conform, by having an ally (someone that supports your POV)
  • allows individuals to have confidence and remain independent
• Allen and Levine (1971) 


  • resistance to conformity
  • found that introducing a dissenter - even if they wore thick glasses and claimed they had poor eyesight - reduced conformity
• Gamson et al (1982)


  • resistance to obedience
  • found higher levels of resistance than Milgram did - the pps in Gamson's study were in groups
  • 88% of groups rebelled
• 1943 - German women protested in Berlin


  • police threatened to open fire if they didn't disperse however the women demanded the release of their husbands
  • despite the threats from police the women prevailed and Jews were set free
  • this shows how strong the theory is considering that the women's lives were at risk but they still carried on
• strong internal locus of control


  someone who believes they are in control of what happens and it is not down to external factors
• strong external locus of control 


  someone who believes what happens to them is luck/fate and they are not in control of what happens to them
• meta-analysis - support for LOC


  • a meta-analysis demonstrated how people are much more external than they used to be and young Americans increasingly believe that their fate is determined by luck
• Holland's Milgram-style study 


  • measured whether the pps had internal or external LOC
  • found that 37% of internals did not continue to the 450V compared to 23% of externals who didn't
  • this increases the validity of the explanation
• Rotter (1982)


  • suggested LOC only comes into play in new situations
  • if people have conformed or obeyed in specific situations they will be highly likely to do so again regardless of if they have a high internal LOC
  • this decreases the validity of the explanation