Resistance to Social Influence

• Resisting conformity - social support


  - The pressure to conform can be resisted if there are other people present who are not conforming.

  - In Asch's research, the confederate who is not conforming may not be giving the 'right' answer.

  - The fact that someone else is not following the majority is social support - enables the naïve participant to be free to follow their own conscience.

  - Confederate acts as a model of independent behaviour.

  - Their dissent gives rise to more dissent because it shows that the majority is no longer unanimous.
• Resisting Obedience - social support

  - The pressure to obey can be resisted if there is another person who is seen to disobey.

  - In one of Milgram's variations, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.

  - The participant may not follow the disobedient person's behaviour, but the other persons disobedience acts as a model of dissent for the participant to copy.

  - This frees him to act from his own conscience.

  -This disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of authority figure, making it easier for others to disobey.
• Strengths of social support

  Real-world research support

  - Albrecht et al evaluated an 8 week program for pregnant teens resitting the pressure to smoke.

  - Those who where assigned a buddy were significantly less likely to smoke.

  - Highlights the importance of social support.

  
  

  Research support for dissenting peers

  - Gamson et al asked participants to argue for the sacking of a person in a made up oil corporation on camera for court.

  - 32/33 rebelled against suggested argument, 25/33 refused to sign release for court
• Locus of Control


  A belief about the amount of control a person has over situations in their life.

  
• The LOC continuum


  High internal at one end and high external at the other

  
• Resistance to social influence - locus of control

  - People with internal LOC take personal responsibility for their actions and experiences (good or bad) then they are more likely to base their decisions on own beliefs and thus resist pressures from others.

  - People with high internal LOC tend to be more self confident, more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval.

  - Leads to greater resistance to social influence
• Strength of locus of control

  Research support

  - Holland repeated Milgram's baseline study and found that 37% of internals did not continue to highest shock level, whereas 23% of externals did no continue, showing that internal are more resistant to authority.
• Limitation of locus of control

  Contradictory research

  - Twenge et al (2004) research found that students are becoming increasingly external and have a tendency to blame misfortune on outside forces.