resistance to social influence

• Despite how people are influenced, some people still refuse to obey or conform
• There are 2 explanations for resistance to social influence:

  • social support
  • locus of control
• Social support involves having other people in the situation not obeying or conforming
• Social support can help people resist conformity or obeying due to having someone else’s support
• in Milgram’s study, a variation included a disobedient confederate and obedience dropped to 10%
• Asch introduced a dissenter and conformity decreased
• An individual’s locus of control is how much a person believes that they have control over events that happen in their lives
• Someone with an internal LOC believes things that happen are largely controlled by themselves
• Someone with an external LOC believes things happen without their control e.g due to luck
• It is suggested those with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist social influence because they are more likely to take responsibility for their actions
• Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an Asch type study, even when that dissenter wore thick glasses and stated they had bad vision so they were clearly in no position to judge the length of the lines
• Allen and Levine's study supports the view that resistance is not just motivated by following what someone else says but it enables someone to be free of the pressure from the group
• Gamson et al (1982) found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram because the participants were in groups. 29 out of 33 groups of participants rebelled. This shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance
• Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s study and measured whether participants had an internal or external LOC. 37% of internals did not want to continue to the highest shock level whereas only 23% of externals did not continue
• Twenge et al (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of data from american obedience studies over a 40 year period. The data showed that over time, people have become more resistant to social influence but also more external. This contradicts the link between internal LOC and increasing resistant behaviour and therefore LOC may not influence social resistance