Resistance to Social Influence

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

• Pressure to conform canbe resisted if there are other people present who are not conforming

• Social support enables the naive participant to break from the majority and be free to follow their own conscience

• Like the confederate in Asch’s study who does not conform, they are acting as a model of independent behaviour - shows that the majority is no longer unanimous

Social support - resisting obedience

• In Milgram’s study, the rate of conformity dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate

• Disobedient confederate again acts like a ‘model’ for acting from your own conscience

• The disobedient model challenges the legitimacy of the authority figure, making it easier for others to disobey

Locus of control (LOC)

• Proposed by Julian Rotter (1966)

• Refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives

• Internal locus of control means you believe that your responsible for what happens to you

• External locus of control means you believe it is mainly a matter of luck or outside forces deciding what happens to you

Locus of control - The LOC continuum

• People are not just either internal or external

• LOC is a scale and individuals vary in their position on it

• High internal LOC is at one a- People with a high nd of the continuum and high external at the other

• Low internal and low external lie in between

LOC - resistance to social influence

• People with a high internal LOC are more able to resist social pressures to conform or obey

• A person with internal LOC takes personal responsibility for their actions and base their opinions off their own beliefs rather than depending on the opinions of others

• Another explanation is that people with a high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-oriented and have higher intelligence

• These traits lead to greater resistance to social influence