resistance to social influence

Social support

The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same

Locus of control

Julian Rotter (1966) first proposed the concept of locus of control. It is a concept concerned with internal control versus external control. Some people (internals) believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. For example, if you do well in an exam it is because you worked hard, if you don't do well it is because you didn't work hard. Other people (externals) have a tendency to believe that things happen without their own controk If they did well in an exam they might well say it was because they used an excellent textbook (ours), If they failed they might blame it on the textbook (not ours) or they had bad luck because the questions were hard.

Research support

Research evidence supports the link between LOC and resistance to obedience. Holland (1967) repeated Milgram's baseline study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (i.e. they showed some resistance) whereas only 23% of externals did not continue. In other words internals showed greater resistance to authority.

Research support of this nature increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance.

Obedience

Social support can also help people to resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced 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.