A03 for social support

• * evidence from asch?

  • unanimity variation - confederate said different answer to majority
  • gave ally/dissenter causing conformity to decrease from 75% to 5%
  • felt less pressure to say answer of majority group
  • resistance to conformity is higher when theres social support of an ally
  • provides us with confidence in our ideas - avoid need to use NSI as we do not feel ridiculed by group
• * evidence from milgram?

  • variation - confederate disobeyed orders of experimenter & refused to give electric shock
  • obedience levels dropped to 10%
  • resistance levels were 90%
  • when social support of disobedient peer present feel less pressure to obey
  • more likely to remain in autonomous state
• X reductionist?

  • reduces social influence to 1 explanation that being social support
  • pro - likely to be accurate as it examines only 1 component - great detail & scientific
  • eg conduct lab experiments so evs are controlled
  • con - ignores other factors that could be involved - personality
  • cannot explain why everyone resists
  • does not take into account all factors
  • holistic approach would be better