Social Influence - Resistance to SI and Minority Influence

EXPLANATIONS OF RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE

1. SOCIAL SUPPORT

CONFORMITY

Social Support can help people resist conforming and being obedient. Pressure to conform is reduced if there is another person present who is not conforming. Asch found that to an extent. the influence of the majority to make others conform depended partly on the group being unanimous. The presence of confederate that disagreed with the authority decreased conformity (32% to 25%) regardless of whether the confederate's answer was right or wrong. The dissenter allowed the naive participant to behave independently. However, Asch also showed that when the non-conforming confederate begins to conform, so does the participant; the effect is not long lasting.

OBEDIENCE

The pressure to obey is reduced if there is another person that is seen to disobey. In one of Milgram's variation, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the participant was joined by a disobedient confederate. The participant may not follow the disobedient person's behaviour, but the disobedient stooge acts as a model for the participant to copy that frees him to act from his own conscience.

Evaluation of Social Support

+ other research studies supporting the role of dissenters in conformity. In another study, the dissenting confederate wore thick glasses and said he had difficulty with his vision (and therefore obviously was in no position to judge line length). The same decrease in conformity occurred which supports the idea that the resistance is not just motivated by following what someone else says, but it enables someone to be freed from group pressure.

2. LOCUS OF CONTROL (LOC)

A concept concerned with how people view the world and what happens to them. People can be external or internal. Externals believe that things happen outside of their control and that it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces. Internals believe that what happens to them is largely controlled by themselves and that they themselves are mainly responsible for what happens to them. It is a continuum on which people can fall anywhere i.e low internal or high external.

RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE

People who are internals are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey…