Resisting social influence

• Social support


  Can help people to resist conformity
• Asch's research


  • The person not conforming doesn't have to be giving the 'right' answer, but simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience. Social support makes resisting easier. However, if dissenter starts conforming again, so does the naive pp- so effect is not long lasting
• Obedience


  Social support can also help people to resist obedience
• Milgram's variations


  • The rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate. However when confederate was obedient, the ppt was even more obedient. This suggest that social support can increase or decrease obedience
• Locus of control (LOC)


  A concept concerned with internal control versus external control
• Internals


  • Believe the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves.They are more likely to resist influence as they seek their own information (ISI)
• Externals


  • Have a tendency to believe that things happen without their own control. They are more likely to be affected by influence as they rely on others for information.
• Continuum


  People differ in the way they explain their successes and failures, with high internal LOC at one end and high external LOC at the other end, and low internal and low external lying in between
• People who have an internal LOC


  Are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey
• People with a high internal LOC


  • Tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval
• What does LOC stand for ?

  Locus of control
• How did Rutter identify LOC

  23 questions on a questionnaire
• Real life evidence that supports LOC

  Oliner and Oliner found that people who hid Jews had internal LOC and scored high on a social responsibility questionnaire. This supports LOC theory
• LOC and Milgarm‘s study 


  Holland repeated Milgram’s study and measured LOC

  37% internals did not continue

  28% externals did not continue

  These findings support LOC theory
• Evidence agains LOC

  Twnege et al. analysed studies from over 40 years

  people became more resistant to obedience, but also more external

  therefor Something else is causing people to be more resistant
• Dissenting Peers and conformity 


  Allen and Levine found that conformity decreased when there was a dissenter ( who wore thick glasses- had difficulty with vision)

  This supports the theory that a dissenter allows someone to be free from pressures of group and act more independently
• Social support and obedience

  Reserve Ballition 101 were allowed to re-assign duties. Several did re-assign, however severval still decided to kill Jews. The presence of allies should have encouraged more people to re-assign