Social Support (resistance to social influence)

Question 1

What is social support?

Answer 1

The presence of other people who resist pressures to conform/obey thus helping others to do the same

Question 2

How does SS help resisting conformity?

Answer 2

• The presence of someone else also not conforming makes it easier to resist social pressure
• This is because the individual feels more confident in their own decision and in rejecting the majority position thus decreasing the chance of conformity
• Having an ally who shares the individual’s views breaks the group’s unanimity and so the individual is ‘freed up’ to not conform

Question 3

How does SS help resisting obedience?

Answer 3

• The presence of someone who disobeys (disobedient role models) can reduce obedience
• The obedience of others can make even harmful actions seem acceptable
• But when there’s another person disobeying, observers feel empowered to disobey and challenge the legitmacy of the authority figure

Question 4

How does Asch support?

Answer 4

• A strength of SS in resisting conformity is that there’s supporting evidence
• Asch found that an individual having social support helps them resist pressure to conform from the majority
• Asch found that conformity dropped to just 5.5% when one ally confederate answered differently to the other confederates and so resisted the majority
• This supports SS as it shows that when an individual has SS they are more likely to resist conformity
• This is because they feel more confident in their decisions and thus are less likely to conform
• This validates our understanding of SS in resisting SI

Question 5

How does Milgram support?

Answer 5

• A strength of SS in resisting obedience is that there is supporting evidence
• In one variation of Milgram’s experiment, the participant was part of a team of three testing the learner
• The two other ‘teachers’ were disobedient confederates who refused to continue shocking the learner and withdrew
• Their presence encouraged the genuine participant to disobey as well - only 10% continued to the max 450 volts
• This us a strength as it shows the presence of disobedient role models allowed PPs to disobey as they felt they had support from someone else
• This undermined the perceived legitimacy of authority and made them confident to resist pressure to obey
• This validates SS as an explanation of disobedience