Resistance to social influence Flashcards
Resistance to Social Influence
the ability of people to withstand the
social pressure to conform to the majority or to
obey authority.
2 types of resistance to social influence
Social support
Locus of control
How do you reduce conformity?
If there is a dissenting peer who provides social support, then the majority is no longer unanimous and that encourages further separation from the majority because people are now free to follow there own conscious making it even less unanimous
What is a dissenting peer / what do they represent
Someone who differs from the majority therefore forming a social support, and someone who acts as a the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to
obey authority.
They represent a model of independent behavior
How can you resist obedience
If someone openly disobeys ,like in Milgram’s unanimity variation,there lack of obedience acts as a model of dissent
How does someone resisting obedience change the people around them?
It frees individuals from the agentic state making them aware of their own consequences and responsibilities
This is because the legitimacy of the authority has been challenged
AO3 Social support pos
Real world application
-Albrecht et al looked at
programme to help pregnant teens
resist peer pressure to smoke. Social
support was provided by a “mentor/buddy”.
-They found at the end of the programme,
those with a buddy were significantly less
likely to smoke than a control group who did
not have a buddy.
AO3 social support pos
Gamson et al found there were higher levels of resistance to producing evidence for smear campaign campaign when people were placed in groups
29/33pp (88%) rebelled
Locus of Control is
How much a person feels they have control over the events and outcomes of their lives
Its set on a scale from high internal LoC to high external LoC
Internal locus of control
-I control the consequences of my behavior
-more likely to be able to resist pressure to conform or obey:
-they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
-more self-confident,
-more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence
and less need for social approval.
-greater resistance to social influence
High external locus of control
The consequences of my behavior are beyond my control
-less likely to be able to resist pressure to conform or obey:
-they are less likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs
-more self-confident,
LOC AO3 pos
Research support
Holland- redid Milgrims research and measured wether participants were externals or internals
-14% more externals externals continued to the highest shock compared to the internals
LOC AO3 NEG
Contradicting research
Twenge et al analyzed data from American obedience studies over a 40 year time period and found that over he time span people have become more resistant o obedience but more external
