Resistance to Social Influence

5 Key excerpts on "Resistance to Social Influence"

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  eBook - ePub

  Resistance to Belief Change

  Limits of Learning

  • Joseph R. Lao, Jason Young(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  8Social Influences on Resistance

  Overview

  We defined learning above as the process by which we acquire new information. But what is it that determines whether a new piece of information will be warmly received or coldly rejected? So far, the answer we explored in the last few chapters has focused on the inner dynamics of the individual, including our mental framework and our preexisting beliefs. Recall that our mental framework at any waking moment reflects an interactive nexus between the inner and outer contexts of our behavior, that is, between our external environment and the beliefs that make up our mental framework. Of all the different factors in our environment, one of the most powerful influences on our behavior comes from other people, in the form of social norms and pressures from those around us. While our inner life focuses on maintaining a sense of order among our beliefs, our outer life reflects concerns how we appear and relate to others, an inherent priority given humans’ social nature.

  It is important to acknowledge that resistance frequently occurs in a social environment that has the power to influence the likelihood resistance will occur. Indeed, most people find it socially embarrassing or intra-personally disruptive to admit they are wrong. Many worry that people who frequently change their beliefs will be perceived as fickle, indecisive, weak, or even unstable. And those whose beliefs deviate too much from the norms of their social group run the risk of being sanctioned, imprisoned (as was Galileo), or even executed (as was Socrates). Such social pressures may compel us to resist new and different information, thereby reinforcing adherence to our existing beliefs. Therefore, this chapter explores various social factors that may influence the type and degree of resistance to new information and belief change.

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  Studies in Decision Making

  Social Psychological and Socio-Economic Analyses

  • Martin Irle, Lawrence B. Katz(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 10 The Theory of Psychological Reactance D. Dickenberger and G. Gniech 1. Reactions to social influence attempts: Conformity and Opposition Attempts at forcing a person to do or not to do something are not always successful. When such attempts serve what are con-sensually accepted as legitimate aims, there is generally no problem. More complicated, however, are those cases in which the person conforms with the influence attempt even though he/she rejects the aim towards which it is directed, a state that Allen (1965) refers to as public conformity with private disagreement. The psychological processes occurring in this latter, ambivalent state should differ fundamentally from those in which the overt behavior and underlying attitude are consistent with one another. There are, of course, other possible reactions to social in-fluence besides these two different types of conformity. The person may, for example, completely ignore the influence at-tempt, his/her behavior being instigated by personal aims that may or may not coincide with those towards which the influence attempt is directed. The person may also, however, react against the attempted influence, purposefully behaving in a way that resists or counters it. The present chapter is pri-marily concerned with these cases of anti-conformity, the theoretical background being provided by the theory of psy-chological reactance (Brehm, 1966, 1972). According to react-ance theory, people have a basic motivational drive to resist social influence and preserve personal freedom. 312 Chapter 10. Psychological Reactance 2. The theory The theory of psychological reactance, formulated by Jack Brehm in 19 66, deals with how individuals respond when their behavioral freedom is threatened.

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  Psychology Applied to Modern Life

  Adjustment in the 21st Century

  • Wayne Weiten, Dana Dunn, Elizabeth Hammer(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  To resist conformity pressures, we offer these sugges- tions: First, make an effort to pay more attention to the social forces operating on you. Second, if you find yourself in a situation where others are pressuring you, try to iden- tify someone in the group whose views match yours. Re- call that just one dissenter in Asch’s groups significantly reduced conformity pressures. And, if you know in ad- vance that you’re heading into this kind of situation, con- sider inviting a friend with similar views to go along. Pressure from Authority Figures Obedience is a form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority. In itself, obedience isn’t good or bad; it depends on what one is being told to do. For example, if the fire alarm goes off in your classroom build- ing and your instructor “orders” you to leave, obedience is a good idea. On the other hand, if your boss asks you to engage in an unethical or illegal act, disobedience is prob- ably in order. The Dynamics of Obedience Like many other people after World War II, social psycholo- gist Stanley Milgram was troubled by how readily the citi- zens of Germany had followed the orders of dictator Adolf Hitler, even when the orders required morally repugnant actions, such as the slaughter of millions of Jews, as well as Russians, Poles, Gypsies, and homosexuals (Blass, 2004). Charles Barsotti/The New Yorker Collection/ www.cartoonbank.com Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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  Psychology

  Modules for Active Learning

  • Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, , Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, (Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Perhaps we should form a group to think about it! Compliance Pressures to “fit in” and conform are usually indirect. In contrast, the term compliance refers to situations in which Mere presence The tendency for people to change their behavior just because of the presence of other people. Social facilitation Tendency to perform better when in the presence of others. Social loafing Exerting less effort when performing a specific task with a group than when alone. Conformity Matching behavior and appearance to perceived social norms. Groupthink Flawed decision-making in which a collection of indi-viduals favors conformity over critical analysis. Compliance Bending to the requests of a person who has little or no authority or other form of social power. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 612 PSYCHOLOGY MODULES FOR ACTIVE LEARNING one person bends to the requests of another person who has little or no authority (Cialdini, 2009). These more direct pressures to comply are quite common and more powerful than you might think (Bohns, 2016). You passively comply when, for example, you suffer, without protest, someone smoking near you in a nonsmoking zone or talking loudly while you are trying to study in the library. You actively com-ply when, for example, you hand over your cell phone to a stranger who asks to borrow it to make a call or lend money to a coworker who requests it to buy a cappuccino.

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  Power and Influence in Organizations

  • Roderick M. Kramer, Margaret A. Neale, Roderick M Kramer, Margaret A. Neale(Authors)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  The upshot, then, is that an act of resistance requires one to reject the definition of the situation (Hodson, 1995, p. 84) provided by the 106 POWER AND INFLUENCE IN ORGANIZATIONS powerholders. Judging by the sheer prevalence of resistance in con-temporary organizations, most individuals appear able to reject at least portions of the organizational orthodoxy and blunt some of its de-mands. There are several reasons why this might be so. First, life in industrialized societies requires that one wear many hats across situ-ations and over time: Parent, coworker, spouse, community member, and so on. In response to the need to juggle the often competing demands among these social identities, one develops a facility for compartmentalizing identities and donning and doffing the appropri-ate hat(s) as each situation requires. The self, in short, is multifaceted, and the search for balance leads one to bracket the demands of any single identity (Broadhead, 1980). Furthermore, a multifaceted self has more internal resources for resisting external demands. Whistle-blowers, for instance, often have a strong moral orientation derived from external social identities (e.g., family, church) (Near & Miceli, 1987). Second, regarding the organizational self in particular, the much-publicized erosion of job security and the growing contingency work-force have severely affected the willingness of individuals to trust in organizational orthodoxies. As loyalty gives way to cynicism and de-tachment, the popular press proclaims the death of the organization man and urges individuals to protect themselves by maintaining their options and managing their own careers (Managing Your Career, 1996). Thus, a 1987 survey by Ashforth and Lee (1989) reported that the perceived legitimacy of managerial influence over employees had greatly eroded since a comparable study in 1962.

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