RSI

• What is meant by Resisting Social Influence? (RSI)

  Involves the rejection of social influence to behave in accordance with one’s internal attitudes, regardless of whether they coincide with the majority. They resist the pressures to conform and/or obey.
• % of Asch’s participants who RSI on every trial:

  25%
• % of Milgram’s participants who showed some RSI:

  35%
• What are the explanations to why people RSI?

  1. Situational factors - social support
  2. Dispositional factors - Internal Locus of Control (ILoC)
• What is social support? (Point 1)

  Situations where you have social support from another non-conformist promotes RSI. When a minority is given an ally who also disagrees with the majority, they are more likely to resist social influence, because they are more confident in expressing their own views.
• Example of social support:

  Asch’s variation found that when unanimity was broken and the real participants were given some social support from a confederate, conformity dropped to 5.5%. This could be because they will not stand out from the crowd as much and subsequently do not encounter such high levels of anxiety.
• What is social support? (Point 2)

  Situations where you have social support from another disobedient person also promotes RSI. This is because individuals will be more confident when they are not alone.
• Example of social support:

  Milgram’s variation ‘disobedient stooge’ real participants had 2 fellow teachers alongside them. (The other teachers and the learner role were all confederates). Here, one of the fake participants refused to give any further shocks at 150V and the second stooge also refused at 250V. Only 15% of participants (6) Continued to the top voltage of 450V. This could be because just one or two disobedient people make them question authority and shifts them back to their autonomous states.
• What is Locus of Control? (ILoC)

  An individual difference in our personalities are Locus of Control. This is the extent to which we think we have control over our own behaviour as measured by a questionnaire.
• What are high internal ILoC?

  They are active seekers of information as useful to them, so they are less reliant on opinions of others and therefore more likely to RSI. High ILoC’s take more responsibility for their actions, hence they are more likely to base all their decisions on their own beliefs and thoughts and thus resist pressure from others.
• What are high external ILoC’s?

  Believing what happens to them is due to either luck, fate or other uncontrollable outside forces, and they have no impact on this.
• What are high internal ILoC’s?

  Believing they can affect the outcome of the situation, as they are responsible due to their own choices and decisions.