social support

• social support is when the presence of another individual helps others resist pressures of conforming or obeying
• social support- the presence of people who resist pressures to obey/conform may help others to do the same - acting as models to show how resistance to social influence is possible
• example of social support for conformity - Asch's study when the confederate doesn't conform provides social support for the naive participant to also not conform
• example of social support for obedience - Milgrams variation, when the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was accompanied by a disobedient confederate
• strength of social support - Albrecht et al found that when social support (older mentor) was provided to teen mothers they were more likely to resist pressures to smoke - showing SS can help young people to resist pressures