Resistance to social influence- Social support and evaluation
- Created by: MollyL20
- Created on: 14-10-20 10:35
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- Resistance to social influence- Social support
- Conformity
- Social support can help people to resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced it as there are other people present who aren't conforming
- As we saw is Asch's research, the person not conforming doesn't have to be giving the right answer but simply the fact that someone else isn't following the majority appears to enable people to be free to follow their own conscience. The other person acts as a model
- However, Asch's research also showed that if this 'non-conforming role model' starts to conform again, so does that naïve participant, meaning the effect of dissent is not long lasting
- Evaluation- Research support
- Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an Asch-type study. This occurred eve if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said his eye sight wasn't the best
- This support this view that resistance isnt just motivated by what someone says but it enables someone to be free of the pressure of the group
- Obedience
- Social support can also help people to resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who's seen to disobey.
- In one of Milgram's variation the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.
- The participant may not follow the disobedient persons behaviour but the point is the other persons disobedience acts as a role model for the participant to feel like that had freed that to act of his/hers conscience
- Evaluation- Research support
- Gamson et al (1982) found a higher level of resistance in their study than Milgram
- This was probably because the participants in Gamson's study were in groups , they had to produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign
- In Gamson's study, 29/33 groups (88%) rebelled. This shows that peer support is linked to grater resistance
- Conformity
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