Resistance to Social Influence

Conformity

• Reduced by presence of dissenters from the group.

Obedience

• Decreases in presence of disobedient peer who acts as a model to follow.

Evaluation

Research support

• Conformity decreass when one person dissents even if they are not credible (Allen and Levine).

Research support

• Obedience drops when disobedient role models are present (Gamson et al.)

Locus of Control

• LOC is a sense of what directs events in our lives (Rotter).

Continuum

• High internal at one end and high external at the other.

Resistance to social influence

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

Research support

• Internals less likely to fully obey in Milgram-type procedure (Holland).

Contradictory research

• People have become more external and more disobedient recently (Twenge et al.).
• Hard for LOC to explain.

Evaluation extra

• Limited role of locus of control