Resistance to social influence

• what is resistance to social influence 


  The ability of individuals to oppose the pressure to conform to a majority group or obey an authority figure by maintaining personal autonomy and integrity in their thought and feelings
• Asch’s resistance

  25% of participants resisted the pressure to conform in every critical trial
• Milgrams Resistance

  35% of participants resisted the pressure to obey by refusing to deliver the shock of 450v
• What are the explanations of resistance to social influence 


  Social support ( situational )

  Locus of control (dispositional)
• What is social support 


  the presence of others who defy authority figures or go against the majority opinion. Even a single ally can significantly reduce the perceived risk of nonconformity or disobedience; this gives individuals the confidence to stand against majority pressure
• Problems with the F-scale 


  Response bias - people may have given specifically different responses as it was obvious which answer gave an authoritarian personality

  There are negitive stereotypes associated with authoritarianism so people want to avoid this in their responses

  Acquiescience bias - All of the questions were worded in the same direction. you can just tick agree for every question then score highly as an authoritarian. people who agree may not be authoritarian they may just be agreeing.

  Jackson 1961 swapped all of the question directions around and people still ticked agree
• what is Aquiecence bias 


  The tendancy to agree with every question on a scale regardless of content
• What are the 3 components of Right Wing Authoritarians

  Conventionality - Adherance to conventional norms and values

  Authoritarian agression - Agressive towards people who are unconventional

  Authoritarian submission - Submission to legitimate authorities
• What did Altimeyer do

  He re-developed the concept of the Authoritarian personality and changed the name to Right Wing Authoritarianism

  He also re-wrote the F-scale and named it the RWA scale which is more popular than the origional as it has fewer broblems. For exmaple counter-balancing has been used to overcome issues such as Acquiescence bias
• What is resisting social influence 


  People who resist social influence do not conform or obey
• 1) Advantages- Explanations of resistance to social influence

  Social support has been shown to help individuals resist the pressure to obey. Milgram conducted a variation of his original experiment in which he gave the participant social support in the form of two confederate 'teachers' one of the teachers refused to continue at 150v , and at 210 v and the second to continue . The obedience rate dropped from 65% to just 10% in this variation. Milgram argues this reduction in obedience was due to the defiant actions of the peers reducing the experimenters legitimacy of authority
• 2) Advantage - Explanation of resistance to social influence

  Social support has been shown to help individuals resist the pressure to conform. In Asch's unanimity variation one of the confederates breaks the unanimity of the group by providing the correct response and the conformity rate drops from 32% to 5.5% . in an experimental set up similar to Asch's,
• 3) Advantage - Explanation of resistance to social influence

  In an experiment set up similar to asch's Allen and Levine found even when they gave the participants a dissenting ally with thick glasses who claimed they had 'extremely limited eyesight participants still used this 'invalid social support' and conformity was significantly reduced
• 1 ) Disadvantage - Explanation of resistance to social influence

  As there are still some individuals who continue to obey and conform, even with the presence of significant social support, 10% in Milgram's study and 5.5% in Asch's variation it seems social support is incomplete as an explanation for resistance, and there are other important factors these may be dispositional, such as the individuals locus of control or if they have an authoritarian personality
• Evaluation of resistance to social influence

  Adv - Holland replicated Milgram's study participants were assessed for internal or external locus of control 37% of those with Internal LOC refused to continue to the highest shock level compared to 23% of those with an external LOC

  Dis - However while this suggests those with high internal LOC are more able to resist pressure to obey 63% of those with Internal LOC still obeyed suggesting LOC is only a partial explanation of resistance to social influence
• Evaluation of resistance to social influence

  Advantage - Spector 157 undergraduate participants completed a questionnaire that measured LOC and a questionnaire that measured tendency to conform to normative or informational social influence pressure there was statistically significant correlation with External LOC participants being more likely to resist NSI

  Disadvantage- However they were just as likely as internals to conform to ISI suggesting both externals and internals look to others for correct information so LOC does influence conformity but isn't a complete explanation
• Disadvantage of resistance to social influence

  The relationship between LOC and resistance to social influence is only correlational, there are other related factors that have been suggested as being involved in resistance to social influence such as social anxiety , individuals who see an action as morally wrong are more likely to resist regardless of social pressures and social status as individuals with higher social status may feel empowered to resist social pressure
• What is minority influence

  When the members of a majority group are converted to the views of a minority group, the effectiveness of a minority group can be affected by consistency commitment and flexibility
• Consistency

  if members of the minority group repeat the same message over time ( Diachronic consistency) and all group members give the same message (synchronic consistency), members of the majority group are more likely to consider the minority position and reconsider their own
• Commitment

  If the members of a minority are willing to suffer for their views but still hold them, members of the majority will take the minority and their ideas seriously, as people consider the causes of behaviour. if the majority members know the minority is not acting out of self interest they carefully consider their position
• Attribution theory

  the theory describes the process people use to assign motives to behaviour both their own and others. One feature outlined by Kelly is the Augmentation principle, which suggests that if someone performs an action despite costs and risks , the underlying motive or attribute driving that action is considered particularly strong
• Flexibility


  If seen as dogmatic, minorities will not be persuasive ; they need the ability to appear to consider valid counterarguments and show they are reasonable by slightly compromising . this flexibility encourages majority members to move closer to the minority position
• What was Moacovici's Aim

  To investivate the role of a consistent minority on the opinioons of the majority
• What was Moacovici's Procedute

  Female participants were placed into 32 groups of 6. In each gorup there were 4 (Majority) real participants and 2 (Minority) confederates. Participants were told that it was an investigation into perception. Each group was shown 36 Blue slides which varied in intensity . Participants gave their answers infront of the group

  
  

  There were two conditions:

  Consistent condition - confederates said that the blue slides were green 36/36 times

  Inconsistent - The confederates said that the blue slides were green 24/36 times
• What was Moacovici's Findings

  8.42% of the participants adopted the minority view and said that the blue slides were green in the consistent condition. 32% agreed with the minority at least once

  1.25% of the participants adopted the minority view and said that the blue slides were green in the inconsistent condition
• What was Moacovici's conclusion

  Although the consistent condition finding of 8.42% seems a small figure , it is significantky higher than 1.25%. It shows that although minority influence is small, consistency is the important variable
• Disadvantage of Moacovici's study

  Gender bias - the female study is gynocentric and cant be applied by men . It doesnt tekk us whether men will conform to minority influence too

  Artificial task - it was a lab experiment so its very artifictal thus lacks mundane realism so low external validity
• What is social change

  Social change is when a whole society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm