Resisting social influence - Social support Flashcards
What is resisting social influence?
The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority
How does social support help you resist conformity?
When a minority is given an ally who also disagrees with the majority they are more likely to resist social influence because they are more confident in expressing their own views and they experience less anxiety
What is the research for social support?
Rees and Wallace (2015) found that social support provided by friends helped teens resist conformity pressures.
How does social support help you resist obedience?
When you have social support from another disobedient people, they will be more confident disobeying when they are not alone - they will experience less moral strain
RSI in Asch?
When there was social support for a confederate, conformity dropped to 5.5% due to not standing out so less anxiety
RSI in Milgram?
Variation called the disobedient stooge.
Real pt had 2 fellow teachers alongside them. Here, one of the fake pts refused to give further shocks after 150v and the second refused at 210v. Only 15% of the real pts continued to 450v.
Are their alternative explanations to social support?
Specific characteristics - high internal locus of control - are more likely to resist social influence
Are there theoretical problems to the social support explanation?
Some people still conform/obey when there is social support, meaning the explanation overlooks individual differences. 15% still obeyed in Milgram’s study
Are there practical applications of social support?
People may now be able to avoid situations that could cause negative social influence by finding themselves a partner who also wants to resist the social influence
What is the interactionist approach?
We consider how situational and dispositional explanations interact
