Resistance to Social Influence

Resistance to Social Influence: Definition

Many things influence our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Whether we’re talking with our family, interacting with our friends, watching television, or scrolling social media, we are vulnerable to social influence.

You might like a certain song or type of music. However, your friends make fun of it, and so do many of the social media accounts you follow. You might start downplaying your affinity for that music or stop listening to it. That is the strength of social influence.

Fig. 1 - Group of female friends.

Is it possible to stand strong when we hear those opposing opinions? How do we resist their influence?

What are the two explanations for resistance to social influence?

When we find ourselves in situations where we act against our instincts, we often wonder why. There are a couple of reasons we might have acted the way we did.

The two main factors affecting resistance to social influence are social support (Asch, 1951) and locus of control (Rotter, 1966).

Social support

Social support can allow people to resist normative social influence by making them feel less alone when they go against the majority group, thus reducing the pressure to conform. It can also help fight informational social influence by validating a person’s thoughts and ideas and counterbalancing the information presented by the majority group.

Social support can be when a friend sides with you in a disagreement against others or the rest of your friend group.

Psychological Factors Affecting Resistance to Social Influence

We have mentioned one important psychological factor that influences our resistance to social influence: locus of control. How we interpret the nature of control in our lives can make us act differently. We might take more risks or make bolder choices if we feel we control our lives and fate. We might feel more certain of our choices and experience less anxiety and distress. Conversely, if we feel that control over our lives or fate is largely out of our hands, we might feel powerless, depressed, indecisive, or fearful of taking chances. Let us look at the locus of control regarding resistance to social influence.

Locus of Control and Resistance to Social Influence

Rotter (1966) proposed an idea known as the ‘locus of control’ to describe how people perceive how much control they have over their lives. People with an external locus of control believe that external forces influence much of their lives. On the other hand, people with an internal locus of control believe that their actions are the main driving force in their lives, and therefore they are more able to resist social influence.

A person with an internal locus of control could be a person who believes that as long as someone works hard and is honest and good-natured, they will live an easy life where they are rewarded for their work. Conversely, they would also believe bad things happen to people due to their flawed actions and decisions. This type of person would find it easier to resist social influence, as they believe in their power and decisions.

A person with an external locus of control could believe life is mainly based on luck or the consequences of the actions of greater powers such as the government, big businesses or the extremely wealthy. They believe many people work as hard as possible but never enjoy the same benefits as someone born into wealth. They might think bad things happen to people due to circumstances, such as place of birth, family, etc. This type of person may be less likely to resist social influence.

Fig. 2 - Intense portrait of a woman.

Resistance to Social Influence: Evaluation

A lot of research demonstrates the strength of social support in resistance. Asch (1951) found that participants’ conformity dramatically decreased when they were given a confederate for social support who agreed with their responses to the line task and rejected the responses of the other confederates, indicating resistance to social influence.

In addition, Milgram (1974) found that participants given the task of administering electric shocks to people were much less likely to administer shocks in a group with two confederates for social support (against the shocks). This is because the allies supported the participants’ desire to disobey the authority figure who gave them the order to shock.

Locus of control is an important element in resisting social influence. Oliner & Oliner (1998) studied a group of non-Jewish survivors of World War II, some of whom had helped Jewish people and others who had joined the Nazi regime. Those who opposed the Nazis tended to have a high internal locus of control beliefs.

Spector (1983) wanted to determine if the locus of control correlated with conformity. He had 107 students take Rotter’s control type test and found that those with an internal control type found it easier to resist social influence.

The locus of control is a binary way of looking at things. Most people know that internal and external factors influence their lives, but their locus of control definition does not reflect this.