9 Resistance to social influence

• Why is there resistance to social influence? = Resistance to social influence explanations discusses:

  • Social Support:
  • Obedience (Milgram)
  • Conformity (Asche)
  • Locus of Control
• Two types of social influence?


  • Conformity
  • Obediance
• Social Support - Conformity


  • Pressure to conform is reduced if other people are not conforming (dissenting peers)
  • The non conformists do not even need to be correct - fact someone else is not following majority frees person to follow their own conscience - dissenter acts as a 'MODEL'
  • For example: Demonstrated in Asches variations where there was one disagreeing confederate and conformity dropped to 5%
  • HOWEVER = if dissenter starts conforming again, other person likely to follow suite (naive ppt) - not very long lasting.
• Social Support - Obedience


  • Social support helps to reduce obedience as it reduces the pressure felt if you were the only one disobeying.
  • Person does not have to copy behaviours of the dissenter - fact someone else is not obeying is enough to enable the person to follow their own conscience.
  • For example: demonstrated in Milgram’s variation where there were 2 disobedient confederates & obedience dropped to 10%. Independent behaviour increased in the disobedient peer condition (from 35% to 90%)
• Locus of Control


  • Rotter (1966) said locus of control refers to what you believe controls the events of your life. (personality type)
  • described internal & external LOC
  • Internal place control with themselves, externals place control outside themselves:
• External LOC:


  • Externals believe things happen outside their control. If they fail an exam they say it was because they had a bad teacher or had bad luck because the questions were hard.
  • Outcome of events dependent on factors like luck & fate - what happens is outside your control - MORE LIKELY TO CONFORM TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE
  • e.g. I never vote, i don't see the point, a single vote can’t make a difference
• Internal LOC:


  • Positive events come from hard work, what happens is inside your control - MORE LIKELY TO RESIST SOCIAL INFLUENCE
  • Internals believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves (e.g. doing well or badly in an exam depends on how hard you work)
  • e.g. = I don't care what my teacher says. I am not doing the cross country run at the weekend.
• How are people with internal LOC going to respond to pressures to conform/obey?


  • People with internal LOC are more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey
  • People with high internal locus of control tend to be more self confident, achievement-orientated, higher intelligence & less likely to need social approval - all traits which are likely to increase resistance to social influence.
  • If a person takes personal responsibility for their actions & experiences (good or bad) then they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs & resist pressures for others.
• There is a continuum - LOC:


  • People differ in how they explain successes and failures but it is not simply about being internal or external.
  • There is a continuum: high internal at one end and high external at the other; low internal and low external lie in-between.