Social support -situational resistance to SI

• social influence

  the effect on our behaviour of a social setting or other people.
• Resistance to social influence

  The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority.
• why people may conform

  unanimity, task difficulty, group size, normative social influence, informational social influence.
• Why people may obey

  situational variables - location, proximity, uniform. Legitimacy of authority, agentic state.
• what is social support

  A situational factor - about the situation that a person finds themselves in. Refers to the presence of others who do not conform or obey; they act as 'models.' This allows participants to make up their own minds and allows for free will.
• what did Asch find about the impact of social support.

  When one of the confederates did not give the same wrong answer as the majority, conformity decreased to about 1/4 of the level. suggests social support can be a powerful factor for someone to resist to social influence.
• Allen and Levine 1971


  Conformity levels dropped in Asch's line study when there was a dissenter which disagreed with the majority. This was even true in an 'invalid' supporter condition where the confederate had difficulty with vision - this shows it is the presence of the supporter not ISI which allows us to resist pressure to conform.
• Gamson et al (1982)

  Asked participants to argue for the sacking of a person in a made up oil corporation on camera for court. 32/33 rebelled against suggested argument, 25/33 refused to sign release for court