Evaluation of explanations

• A strength is that there is research evidence to support informational social influence. Todd Lucas et all asked students to give answers to mathemtical problems that were either easy or diffiucult. .There was greater conformity on the more difficult questions, especially if the students rated their math's skills as poor. This suggests that when people do not know the answer, they look to others for guidence as they have a desire to be right. This shows that the theory has validity.
• A weakness is that there are individual differneces in normitive social influence and not everyone is affected in the same way. Paul McGee & Richard Teevan found that people who are less concered with being liked are less likley to be affected by normitive social influrnce. Those that had a high need to be in a relationship with others had a high need to be in a relationshipwith others had a high need to be liked. This suggest that the desire to be liked is more important for some more than others, so not everyone responds in the same way.