Resistance to social influence

• What are the 2 factors to resisting social influence?


  Social Support and Locus of Control
• How does social support help in resisting conformity?

  As seen in Asch study, when there was a dissenting participant that is when social support was provided. It enabled the naive participant to follow their own conscience and the majority is no longer unanimous.
• How does social support help in resisting obedience?


  In a variation of Milgram’s there was a confederate seen to disobey, the obedience dropped from 65% to 10%. Another disobedient person acts as a model of dissent for another, freeing them to think for themselves.
• What did Rotter (1996) propose about locus of control (LOC)?


  People either have an Internal LOC or External LOC.

  Internal LOC - people are controlled by themselves (good test score = hard work, bad score = lack of effort)

  External LOC - people who tend to believe things are out of their control (good score = good textbook, bad score = bad textbook)
• What else is LOC?

  It’s a continuum scale and people vary across the two spectrums (low internals and externals lie in the middle of the scale)
• Who on the LOC continuum is more likely to resist social influence?


  Those who are high internals are more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey. They base their decisions on their personal beliefs rather than depending on others. They also tend to be more self-confident and intelligent So they’re more resistant.