Social Support AO3

• +Research evidence for the positive effects of social support. Albrecht evaluated an 8 week programme to help pregnant adolescents aged 17-19 to resist peer pressure to smoke. Social support was provided by a slightly older mentor / buddy: At the end of the programme, adolescents who had a buddy were significantly less to likely to smoke than a control group of participants who didn't have a buddy. This shows that social support can help people resist social influence as part of an intervention in the real world.
• +Research evidence supports the role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience. Gamson's participants were told to produce evidence that would be useful to help an oil company run a smear campaign. The researchers found higher resistance in their study than Milgram did in his. This was likely due to the fact the participants were in groups so were able to discuss what they were told to do. 29/33 groups (88%) rebelled against their orders. This shows that peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure.