Resistance to Social Influence

• Define 'resistance to social influence'

  Refers to the ability to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or obey an authority figure. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by situational and dispositional factors.
• Define 'social support'

  THe presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible.
• Social support - Resisting conformity


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

  - This is seen in Asch's (1951) research, where conformity drastically reduced in the presence of dissenters.

  - Simply the fact that someone else isn't following the majority is social support, and enables the naive participant to be free to follow their conscience.

  - The dissenting confederate acts as a model of independent behaviour and their dissent gives rise to more dissent as it shows that the majority is no longer unanimous.
• Social support - Resisting obedience


  - The pressure to obey can be resisted if there is another 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 person's disobedience acts as a 'model' of dissent for the participant to copy, and this frees him to act from his own conscience.

  - The disobedient model challenged the legitimacy of the authority figure, which makes it easier for others to disobey.
• Evaluating social support: Research support

  - Albrecht et al. (2006) evaluated Teen Fresh Start USA, an 8 week programme to help pregnant adolescents (14-19yrs) resist the peer pressure to smoke.

  - Social support was provided in the form of a slightly older mentor.

  - After 8 weeks, those who had social support were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who didn't have a buddy.

  - This shows that social support can help young people to resist social influence as part of a real-world intervention.
• Evaluating social support: Research support for dissenting peers

  - Gamson et al.'s (1982) study supports the role of dissenting peers in obedience.

  - The participants were told to produce evidence that would help an oil company run a smear campaign.

  - Gamson et al. found higher levels of resistance than in Milgram's base study. This was likely because the participants were in groups, and so had to opportunity to discuss what they had to do.

  - 29/33 (88%) groups of participants rebelled against their orders.

  - This shows that peer support can lead to disobedience by undermining the legitimacy of an authority figure.
• Evaluating social support: Social support explanation

  - Allen and Levine (1971) showed that social support can help individuals to resist the pressures of a group.

  - In an Asch-style task, when the dissenter was someone with apparently good eyesight, 64% of the genuine participants refused to conform.

  - When there was no supporter at all, only 3% resisted. However, the study also showed that social support doesn't help in every scenario.

  - This is because when the dissenter had obvious poor eyesight (thick glasses) resistance was only 36%.
• Define 'locus of control'

  - Rotter (1966) proposed LOC as a concept concerned with internal and external control.

  - LOC refers to the sense we have about what directs our lives. Internals believe that they are mostly responsible for what happens to them, while externals believe that it is mainly a matter of luck or other external forces.

  - LOC is a scale; people are not just internal or external.
• Locus of control - Resistance to social influence

  - People with a high internal LOC are more likely to resist social pressures to conform and/or obey.

  - If a person takes personal responsibility for their actions, they tend to base their decisions on their own beliefs rather tan others' opinions.

  - People with a high LOC are more confident, achievement-oriented and have higher intelligence. These traits lead to greater resistance to social influence, and are also the characters of leaders, who have less need for social approval than their followers.
• Evaluating locus of control (LOC): Research support

  - Holland's (1967) research supports the link between LOC and obedience resistance.

  - He repeated Milgram's baseline study and measured participants' LOCs. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest level, whereas on 23% of externals resisted.

  - This shows that resistance is at least partly related to LOC, which increases the validity of LOC as an explanation of disobedience.
• Evaluating locus of control (LOC): Contradictory research

  - Twenge et al. (2004) analysed data from American LOC studies conducted over a 40 year period (1960-2002).

  - The data showed that over this period, people became more resistant to obedience and more external.

  - If resistance was linked to locus of control, we would expect people to become more internal.

  - This suggests that LOC is not a valid explanation of how people resist social influence.
• Evaluating locus of control (LOC): Limited role of LOC


  - Rotter (1982) points out that LOC isn't necessarily the most important factor in determining whether someone resists social influence.

  - LOC's role depends largely on the current situation, a person's LOC only significantly affects behaviour in new situations.

  - If you have conformed or obeyed in a specific situation in the past, you will most likely do the same again in the situation, regardless of whether you have an internal or external LOC.