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Social Support, Dissent and ConformityAuthor(s): Vernon L. Allen and John M. LevineSource: Sociometry, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp. 138-149Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2786454 .

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Social Support,Dissent and Conformity*VERNON L. ALLEN ANDJOHN M. LEVINE

Universityf WisconsinThe present tudy nvestigatedheeffectn conformityfdirectionnd degreeofdissent rom he erroneousudgments f a simulated roup.Results howedthat n udging isual tems, onformityas significantlyeduced ither y adissenteriving he correct esponse rbya dissenter iving responsemuchmore ncorrecthanthe group's.On opinion tems he presence f a veridicaldissenter ignificantlyeducedconformity,ut the presence f an extremeerroneous issenter id not. t was suggestedhatforobjective isual timuliany response hatbreaksgroupconsensuseads to rejectinghegroup;thisrejectionccounts or onformityeductionn thepresencefeither veridicaldissenterran extremerroneousissenter.n contrast,or ubjective pinionstimuli,heemotionalupport f partner, rovided ytheveridical issenter,seemsnecessary or onformityeduction.

The importancefgroup onsensus n conformitys clearlydemonstratedby the impactof a singledissenter's resencen thegroup.Asch's (1951)research ramaticallyemonstratesheeffectfdissent n conformity. henone stoogedissented rom he ncorrectroupby giving hecorrectnswer,conformityecreased ignificantlyrom pproximately2 per centto 5 percent.This typeof dissent-when one person disagreeswiththegroup bygiving hecorrect esponse-providesocialsupport or hesubjectwho alsoresponds orrectly.The roleof veridical issentnreducing onformityas importantheoreti-cal implicationsorunderstandinghegroup's ffect n individual ehavior.Asch (1951) notedthattwofactors re presentn thissituation, ither fwhichmightbe responsible orthe observed eductionn conformity:1)presence fa partner greeing ith he ubject social support), nd (2) lackof groupunanimityrconsensus.f thesocialsupport fa partnerwere thecrucialfactorn thissituation,n order o reduceconformityhedissenterwouldhavetogivethespecific esponsehatthesubjectprivatelyelieved rperceived o be correct. ut,ifmerely reaking hegroup'sconsensuswerethecritical ariable, dissenter's isagreement ith thegroup-whether rnothisanswerwere orrectnd agreedwith hesubject'sprivate udgment-wouldbe sufficiento decrease onformity.

*Portions f thispaperwerepresentedt theMidwesternsychologicalssociationConvention, hicago,April1966.The researchwas supported y a grantfrom heWisconsin lumniResearchFoundation.138

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SOCIAL SUPPORT, DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 139To test thesealternative xplanations, sch (1955) had one confederateanswer even more ncorrectlyhan the incorrect roup n an experimentrequiring ubjectsto match a standard ine with one of threecomparison

lines. n thisconditionf erroneousissent, onformityas reduced rom 2percent o 9 percent; the decreasewas nearly s great s thatproduced ythepresence f a veridicaldissenter social support). From these results,Asch concluded hat breaking he group's consensuswas the major factorresponsible or onformityeductionn the veridicaldissent ondition.Asch'sconclusion an be questionedn boththeoreticalnd methodologicalgrounds. irst, methodologicalroblem n the experiment akeshazardousthecomparisonf results rom he veridical issent onditionwiththe erro-neous dissent ondition. he degreeof extremenessf the groupnormwasconfoundedcrossthe two conditions.n the veridical issent ondition,hegroup's nswerwas extremelyncorrectn one-halff thepressure rials ndmoderatelyncorrect n the otherhalf. n the erroneous issent ondition,however,hegroup's nswerwas moderatelyncorrect n all pressure rials.Previous esearchndicates hat mount fconformitys a direct unctionfextremenessf thegroupnorm Helson et al., 1958; Tuddenham, 961);thus, onformityeductionn the erroneous issent onditionmayhavebeencaused partially y thegroupnorm eing ess extremen thisconditionhanin the veridical issent ondition.The moderatelyncorrectocation f thegroupnormn the erroneous is-sentcondition as unavoidablenAsch'sstudy.Onlythree omparisonineswere used; withthe dissenter hoosing hemost ncorrectlternative, hegroup ouldonlygivethemoderatelyncorrectnswer. n thepresent tudythismethodologicalroblemwas avoidedby locating hegroupnorm t aconstant osition n a nine-pointcale in all conditions,ather hanvaryingthegroup'sposition cross the veridicaldissent nd the erroneous issentconditions.Asch'sconclusionan also be questioned n the basis oftheory nd every-dayobservation.n real-lifeituations,onformityftens notreducedwhena more xtremeesponse reaksgroupunanimity;n thecontrary,ncreasedadherence o thegroupnorm ometimesesults. or example, personwhoprivately pposes governmentolicymayfeelmorepressure o support hepolicy fterhearingt opposedby someone olding positionmore xtremethanthepopularone. Two theoreticalpproacheswouldpredictmorecon-formityn this ituation. rom roletheory iewpoint,xtreme issentmakesmore alient heroleof thedeviant. incenegative xpectationsrecommonlyassociatedwith he deviant ole, nhanced ressure oward onformityouldresult Allen,1965). Judgmentalheory Sherif nd Hovland, 1961) wouldalsopredictmore onformitynder heextremeissent ondition. dissenterholding positionmoreextreme han thegroupestablishes moredistant


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140 SOCIOMETRYanchorpoint.By comparison iththe extremenchor, he group'spositionwould appear moderate nd reasonable, esultingn increased onformity.Finally, he generalityf Asch's results an be questioned. ven if erroneousdissent oesreduce onformityn visual tems, s Asch found, hisreductionmay be limited o objective tems.On subjective tems such as opinions,erroneous issentmaybe ineffective.n ambiguous r subjectivematerial,an extreme ositionmay be seen as more cceptable nd plausible than nthe case of material aving bjectivelyorrectnswers. n the present tudythe rangeof stimulus ontent s increased y usingopinion nd informationitems,n addition ovisual perceptualtems.Thepurpose fthepresent tudys to determineheeffectivenessf severaltypes f dissent s meansof reducingonformitynbothobjective nd sub-jectivematerial. n the veridicaldissent ondition,nothergroup memberalwaysgivesthecorrect nswer,n agreement iththesubject'sprivate er-ception; in otherdissentconditions, ne persondisagreeswith the groupbutdoes notgivetheanswer hatthesubjectbelieves o be correct rappro-priate.The influencen conformityf amount f dissent,s wellas directionofdissent,s investigated.

METHODDESIGN. Fiveexperimentalonditions ereused. n four fthese onditions,oneperson, nsweringourthna group ffive, issented rom he erroneousresponses f threeother ubjects.Responsesof the three ubjectswho an-swered irst, econd, nd third, emained onstant cross all conditions. heresponse fpersonfour, hedissenter,eviatedfrom hegroup n directionand degree s shown n Table 1.An examplewill llustratehedissenter'sveragedistancefrom hegroup

on thenine-pointesponsecale.Assume hatthecorrect rmodal nswer oran items three. he unanimousnswer f the imulated roup, lwaysplacedat the 95thpercentile f the standardizationroup,wouldbe six. In theveridicaldissent ondition,he dissenterwouldanswer hree, hecorrect rTABLE 1Relation ftheDissentero theGroupn theFive Conditions

ExperimentalCondition Dissenter'sResponse1. Consensus No dissent2. Veridicaldissent Correct rpopular3. Extreme rroneous issent Much more ncorrectrunpopular hanthegroup4. Slight eridicaldissent Slightlymorecorrect rpopularthanthegroup5. Slight rroneous issent Slightlymore ncorrectrunpopular hanthegroup


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SOCIAL SUPPORT, DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 141popularanswer. n the extreme rroneous issentcondition, he dissenterwould give responsenine-clearlymore ncorrecthanthe incorrect roupresponse f six. The dissenter's esponse n the twoslight issent onditionsdeviates rom he groupby onescale point: the dissenter ouldgiveanswerfive n theslightveridical issent onditionnd answer even n the slighterroneous issent ondition.In theconsensus ondition,ll four imulatedubjects ave thesame ncor-rector unpopular nswers n the critical rialsthatwere givenby thefirstthree ubjects n the fourdissent onditions.

APPARATUS. The apparatuswas a Crutchfield-typelectrical ignalingdevice (Crutchfield,955). It consistsof fiveadjacentbooths containingsignal ights ndanswerwitches, master ontrol anel n an adjoining oom,and a slideprojector peratedby remote ontrol.The subjectsare led tobelieve, y instructionsnd practice rials, hat signal ights n their oothsindicate esponses f theotherfour ersonsn the group.Actually,ights nall booths re controlled y theexperimenterrom master anel. The sub-jects believe hat one memberfthe group nswersn each of the fiveposi-tions;however,ll subjects nswer ast (fifth) n all trials.The same simul-lated groupresponses re presented o all fivesubjects. n this way, thesimulated roupcan be made either o agreeor disagreewith thesubject'sprivate udgments.

PROCEDURE. Seated in the fivebooths, ubjectswere nstructedo makeaccurate udgmentsn perceptual,nformation,nd opinion temsprojectedon a screen n front f the room.Use of the apparatuswas explained ndfour ractice rialsweregiven, uringwhich achsubject's rder fansweringvaried. Duringthepracticetrials, ubjectscalled out their nswers loudso that all subjectscould verify hat the lightscorrectlyndicatedothersubjects'responses. he subjectswere toldthatduring heexperimentachsubjectwouldkeep the sameposition hroughoutll trials, .g.,one subjectwouldalwaysanswerfirst,notherwould alwaysanswer econd, etc. Theexperimentereftthe room nd presentedheexperimentallidesby remotecontrol.All subjectsansweredn positionfive, nd all observed he samesequenceof simulated roupresponseswhichwere controlledy theexperi-menter. short uestionnairend careful ebriefingollowedheexperiment.STIMULI. Stimuliwereof threetypes: perceptual tems requiring isualjudgmente.g.,"Which f thenumbered rcswas takenout ofthecircle?"),general nformationtems e.g., "In thousands fmiles,howfar s it fromSan Francisco oNewYork?"), andopiniontems e.g.,"Mostyoung eoplegettoomuch ducation.").Each stimulus ad nine alternativenswers, or-respondingo the nine switches n thepanel.Visual and informationtems


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142 SOCIOMETRYwereanswered y using the number elow each switch 1 through ). Forthe opinion tems, he switcheswere labeled on a continuum rom verystrongly isagree" switch1) to "very tronglygree" (switch9).

Of the45 itemsused, 18 were critical, r grouppressure,tems;six eachof visual, nformation,nd opinion.On thesecritical tems, he norm f thesimulated roupwas placed at the 95th percentile f responses ivenby astandardizationroup.The standardization roupwas composed f personsanswering lone without eeing responses f others.For informationndopinion tems, he standardization roup was 300 introductorysychologystudents. he Tuddenham, t al. (1956) standardizationroupwas employedforvisual items.The remaining 7 stimuliwereneutral temson which hesimulated roupgave popularor correct nswers crossall conditions. nboth critical ndneutraltems, hegroupwas unanimousn one-half f thetrialsand variableon one-half. n unanimous tems ll simulated ubjectsgavethe sameanswer.On variable tems, imulatedubjectsgaveone oftwoanswerswhichdifferedy onepointon theresponse cale.The orderof stimulus resentation as balancedin fourways. The 45slideswere divided nto blocksof 15 witheach blockcontainingix criticaland nine neutral tems. econd, hecritical temswereseparatedby twoorthreeneutral timuli. hird, hethree ypesof stimuli visual, nformation,and opinion)werecounterbalancedithin ach block of 15. Finally,unani-mous and variable rialswerecounterbalanced.

SUBJECTS. The subjectswere165 student olunteers romn introductorypsychologylass at the University f Wisconsin. tudents arnedcreditsapplicableto their lass grade by participatings subjects.Data from 0subjectswerediscarded ecause heir lear tatementsn thepost-experimentalquestionnairendicatedknowledge f thedeception.Five randomlyhosensubjectsof the same sex werealwaystestedtogethers a group.Approxi-mately hesamenumber f males and femaleswereassigned o each of thefiveconditions.METHOD OFANALYSIS.For each subject a mean conformitycorewas com-putedfor ach of the three ypesof items.To ascertainnitialresponses,pre-experimentaluestionnaire ontaining riticalopinionand informationitems, longwithmanybufferuestions,was administeredn class to allpotential ubjects t thebeginningfthesemester. ince thisprocedurewasnotfeasible or isual tems,modalresponsesftheTuddenham, t al. (1956)standardizationroupwereused as initial cores.Meanconformitycoreswerecomputed y summinghealgebraic ifferencesetweennitialresponses ndresponses iven n thegroup ituation nd dividing y thenumber f itemsusedfor achsubject. ix items feachtypewere lmost lwaysemployedncalculatinghemeanconformitycore feachsubject.Butwhen he ubject's


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SOCIAL SUPPORT, DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 143initial nsweron a critical rialwas as extreme r moreextreme han thesimulated nswer his temwas not used in calculating he meanconformityscore, ince the subject did not receivegroup pressure.Only 81 of 1884initial nformationnd opinion cores 4.3 per cent) fell at or beyondthesimulated roupnorm.To assess the effects f the varioustypesof dissent n conformity,achexperimentaldissent) conditionmustbe comparedwiththe consensus on-dition. The appropriate tatisticfor comparing everal experimentalon-ditionswith a single control s Dunnett's test (Winer, 1962); this testmaintains he level of Type I errorforthe summary ecisionregardingcomparisonsf all experimentalonditions ith hecontrol.

RESULTSPERCEPTION OF DISSENT. It is essential o ascertainwhetherubjects ecog-nized that the dissenter greedwiththem n the veridical issent onditionand thathe disagreedwiththegroup n the otherdissent onditions.nfor-mationrelevant o the experimental anipulation f dissentwas obtainedfrom he post-experimentaluestionnaire. n one item subjectswere askedwhethernyone n thegroup ended ften o agreewith hem. able 2 shows

thepercentage f subjectswho identifiedhe dissenter s the personwhofrequentlygreedwiththem.As data in Table 2 show, ubjectsmoreoftencorrectlyerceivedhepresence fa partnerntheveridical issent onditionthan n theother onditions. ombiningmale and femaledata in Table 2,differencemongthe conditionswas significantt less than the .01 level(x2=46.96).A majority f subjects n the veridicaldissentconditionwas aware ofhaving partner 93 percentofmales nd 73 percentoffemales).Onlyonemale and one femalereported he dissenter s agreeingwiththem n theextremerroneousissent ondition.hesedata, then, eflect quiteaccurateperceptionf thesituation. few ubjects n theslight eridical issent ndslighterroneous issent conditions lso identifiedhe dissenter s having

TABLE 2Percentagef Subjectsn theNonunanimousonditionsWhoPerceived heDissenter greeing ithThemMale Female

Condition % N % NVeridicalissent 93 (15) 73 (15)Extremerroneousissent 7 (14) 7 (14)Slight eridicalissent 23 (13) 27 (15)Slightrroneousissent 20 (10) 8 (13)


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144 SOCIOMETRYagreedwith hem.For subjects n theveridical issent ondition,hisreportwas sometimesccurate; the distributionf subjects' nitialresponses idshow n overlap n some temswiththedissenter'snswer.

Data from hepost-experimentaluestionnaire ere lso usedtodeterminewhetherubjectscorrectlyerceived hat the dissenter isagreedwiththegroup.Table 3 presents esultsforthe threedissent onditionsn whichthedissenter id notgive thecorrect r modalresponses. ombiningmaleandfemale ata in Table 3, differencemong he three onditions as signifi-cantat less thanthe 01 level (x2=13.97).TABLE 3

Percentageof Subjects in the (Nonpartner) Dissent ConditionsWho Perceived the Dissenter Disagreeingwith the GroupMale Female

Condition % N % NExtreme rroneous issent 29 (14) 50 (14)Slightveridical issent 8 (13) 0 (15)Slight rroneous issent 10 (10) 8 (13)

Fifty per cent of the females nd 29 per cent of the males correctlyidentifiedhe dissenter s havingoftendisagreedwiththe groupin theextreme rroneous issent ondition.n spiteof the greatdistanceof thedissenter'sesponses romhecorrect rmodalanswer, nlyhalf the femalesand less thanone-thirdf the males dentifiedhe dissenter. he resultmaybe due to subjects'perceivinggreementetween hedissenter'snswer ndthegroup'sresponse ecausebothdisagreed trongly iththesubject'sownposition. ven fewerubjectsperceived hedissenters disagreeing iththegroup n the slightdissentconditions. n summary,hese data show,asexpected,hatmore ubjects orrectly erceived hedissenter s disagreeingwiththegroup n the extreme rroneous issent ondition han n the twoslightdissent onditions.CONFORMITY.Mean conformitycores n each of thethree ypesofitemsin the five onditionsre shownn Table 4. Male and female ata are com-bined n Table 4, sinceno significantexdifferencesmerged.nspection fthetablereveals hatveridical issent educed onformityn all three ypesof items, s comparedwiththe consensus ondition. he veridicaldissentconditionignificantlyeduced onformityorvisual tems t=4.56, p

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SOCIAL SUPPORT, DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 145TABLE 4

Mean Conformity coreType of tem

Condition N Visual Information OpinionConsensus 36 .755 .644 1.079Veridical issent 30 .244 .445 .447Extreme rroneous issent 28 .351 .665 .823Slightveridical issent 28 .661 .562 .765Slight rroneous issent 23 .616 .684 .844

NOTE: Data are combinedfor males and females.

The effect n conformityf theextremelyrroneous issenter an be seenin the thirdrowof Table 4. Relativeto the amountof conformityn theconsensus onditions,onformityas significantlyeduced n the extremeerroneous issent ondition n visual items t-3.61, p< .01).2 Notice thatonopinion tems herewas a slight nd nonsignificantecreasen conformityin the extreme rroneous issent ondition. he meanconformitycorewas.82 for he extremerroneous issent onditionnd .45 for heveridical is-sentcondition,ndicating hat veridicaldissentwas approximatelywice seffectiven reducing onformitys extremerroneous issent.For informa-tion tems onformityas not significantlyeducedn theextremerroneousdissent ondition.n fact,hereconformityas slightly igher hanin theconsensus ondition.66 vs. 64). Wehadexpectedhat heextremerroneousdissent onditionwould ncrease onformity,utonlythissingle nstance fa slight ncreasewas found.Resultsfor hetwoconditionsnvolving light issent rom hegroup realso shownnTable 4. Boththe light issent onditionsroduced,ngeneral,smallbutnonsignificantecreasesn conformityn all three ypesof items,as comparedwiththeconsensus ondition.n addition, he slightveridicaldissent nd slight rroneous issent onditions id not differignificantlynamountof conformity.In summary,eridicaldissent ignificantlyeduced onformityn visualand opiniontemsbut noton informationtems.The extremerroneous is-sent condition educedconformityn visual itemsonly. Neither of theslightdissent onditionsignificantlyeduced onformity.

EMOTIONAL REACTIONS. One item from he post-experimentaluestion-nairemeasured ubjects' motional eactions o thegrouppressure ituation

2 It should be mentioned hat formales amount of reduction n conformityn visualitems in the extremeerroneous dissent conditionwas as great as that found in theveridicaldissentcondition .32 and .30, respectively).For females,however, he veridicaldissentconditionreduced conformityn visual itemssomewhatmore than the extremeerroneousdissentcondition (.18 and .38, respectively).


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146 SOCIOMETRYTABLE 5

Means for Subjects' Reported Feelings During the ExperimentCondition Male FemaleConsensus 3.07 2.43Veridicaldissent 2.33 1.47Extreme rroneous issent 2.93 2 43Slight eridical issent 3.00 2.80Slight rroneous issent 3.20 3.77

NOTE: "Calm and relaxed"=1; "disturbedand upset"=12.on a 12-pointcale rangingrom calmand relaxed" o "disturbednd upset."Table 5 presentsmeansforsubjects'reports f theirfeelings uringtheexperiment.othmales ndfemales eported eelingalmer ndmore elaxedin the veridical issent onditionhan n the consensus ondition. ifferencebetween heconsensus onditionnd theveridical issent onditionwas sta-tistically ignificantorfemales t= 2.31, p

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SOCIAL SUPPORT,DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 147factprobablyresponsible or low conformityn the consensus ondition.Previous esearch ad reported strong orrelation etween onformitynditemdifficultyColeman, t al., 1958).

Now let us considerwhythepresence f an extreme rroneous issenterreduces onformityn visual itemsbutnot on opinions.Our explanationsbased on the differentmplicationsf group unanimity orobjectiveandsubjectivematerial.Personshold strong xpectationshatgroupmemberswill agreeon matters f physicalrealitywhich are amenableto objectiveverification,uchas length f ines.Onlyoneobjectivelyorrect nswer xistsforvisual discriminations,nd a group'sresponses n such judgments reexpected o be unanimousnd correct. ack ofgroup onsensusnvisual temsimplies that the group's perception f physical reality s unreliable ndthereforehouldnotbe takenas a basis formaking erceptual udgments.Hence, n theextremerroneous issent ondition onconformityn visualitemswouldresult rom he subject'srejectinghemajoritys an acceptablereferenceroup ndrelyingnstead n his ownperceptionfphysical eality.On opiniontems ther eople'sresponseserve s the sole indexofreality-social reality-becauseobjective ases for valuation f thecorrectnessrappropriatenessfan answer o not exist Festinger, 954). Although isualitemshave onlyone objectivelyorrectnswer, oropinion temsthere remany quallyreasonable nd correct nswers. hus, ack ofgroup onsensusdoes not have the same implication oropinions s forvisual judgments.Somedegree fvariability monggroupmemberss to be expected n sub-jectivematerial, nlikethe situation orvisual tems.Therefore,n spiteoflack of unanimityn opinion tems, he group s not rejected s a socialreferent.n theextremerroneous issent ondition, onformityn opinionsis perhaps otsignificantlyeduced ecausethegroup s stillemployeds anindexof socialreality.A second heoreticalonsiderations suggestedyourfindings: o differentpsychological echanismslso accountfor onformityeductionn objectiveand subjectivetems n the veridical issent ondition? ecall thatourdatashowed hatonlyveridical issent ignificantlyeduced onformitynopinionitems; merely reaking roupconsensus y extreme rroneous issentwasnot sufficient.he mechanismrimarilyesponsible ortheeffectivenessfveridicaldissenton opinion tems s apparently he emotional omfort fhaving partnerwithwhom o face theopposing roup. upportinghis ug-gestion re results fsubjects' motional eactions uring heexperiment.nthe veridicaldissentcondition, ubjects reportedfeelingmore calm andrelaxedthanin the otherconditions.n contrastwithresultsforopinionitems, esultsforvisual items howedthatconformity as significantlye-ducedby bothveridicaldissent nd extreme rroneous issent.Since con-


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148 SOCIOMETRYformity as effectivelyeducednbothconditionsn thecase of visual tems,breakinghegroup's onsensus ppearstobe the critical actor nvolved.Wesuggestedarlier hat ack of consensus n visual temsmightead to rejec-tionof thegroup s a referenceroup.n accordwith his nalysis, heeffec-tivenessfveridical issent n visual temsmight e associatedwithrejectionof the group tandard, ather han with theemotional omfortf havingpartner.We have suggested hatdifferentsychologicalmechanismsould be re-sponsible ortheeffectivenessf veridical issent n objective visual) andon subjective opinion) items. One kind of data relevant o testing hehypothesis ouldconsist f subjects'ratings f thegroup'scompetencenvisual ndopiniontems nder onditionsf group nanimityndnonunanim-ity.Differencen relative ompetence f the groupon visual and opinionitems houldbe greaternnonunanimousonditionsextremerroneous is-sentand veridical issent)than n theunanimous ondition,frejection fthegroup n visual tems ccurs n the nonunanimousonditionss we sug-gest.Resultsfrom n unpublished xperimenty the authors-replicatingthepresent tudy npart-lend somesupport o thisprediction.Althoughurdata suggest hat ocial support eriving rom eridical is-sent s necessary orreduction f conformityn opinion tems, he roleofdissent erse shouldnotbe entirelyiscounted. vidence ndicates hatmeredissent oesmakea slight ontribution.esults howed hatthepresence fan extremerroneous issenterlightlyeduced onformityn opiniontems.Moreover, small reductionn conformityccurredn the slightveridicaldissent nd theextremerroneousissent onditions, hich s consistent ithAsch's (1951) findingor compromiseartner. he insignificanteductionin conformityn theslight issent onditionss not causedby failure oper-ceive thatthedissenter eviatedfrom hegroup.Even whenthedissenterwas clearlyperceived y mostsubjects, s in the extremerroneous issentcondition,onformityas notsignificantlyeduced n opiniontems.n viewofthesedata,we can safely ay thaton subjectivematerial hebreaking fgroup onsensus asa minorndnonsignificantffect,hemagnitudefwhichis negligibleomparedwiththe impactof the social support f a veridicaldissenter.

REFERENCESAllen, .L.1965 "Conformitynd the role of the deviant." ournal fPersonality3 (De-cember)584-597.Asch, . E.1951 "Effectsf grouppressure ponthe modificationnd distortionf judg-


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SOCIAL SUPPORT, DISSENT AND CONFORMITY 149ment." Pp. 177-190 in H. Guetzkow (ed.), Groups, Leadership,and Men.Pittsburgh:CarnegiePress.1955 "Opinions and social pressure."ScientificAmerican 193 (November):31-35.Coleman,J. F., Blake, R. R., and Mouton,J.S.1958 "Task difficultynd conformityressures."Journal of Abnormaland SocialPsychology 7 (July) 120-122.Crutchfield, . S.1955 "Conformitynd character."The AmericanPsychologist 0 (May):191-198.Festinger, .1954 "A theoryof social comparisonprocesses."Human Relations 7 (May) :117-140.Helson, H., Blake, R. R., and Mouton,J. S.1958 "An experimentalnvestigation f the effectivenessf the big lie' in shiftingattitudes."Journal of Social Psychology48 (August) 51-60.Sherif,Muzafer, nd Carl I. Hovland.1961 Social Judgment. ew Haven: Yale University ress.Tuddenham,R. D.1961 "The influence pon judgmentof the apparentdiscrepancy etweenself andothers." Journal of Social Psychology53 (February):69-79.Tuddenham,R. R., Macbride,P., and Zahn,V.1956 "Studies in conformitynd yielding." . Development of standard experi-mentalseries-1.ContractNR 170-159, Group PsychologyBranch,Office fNaval Research.

Winer,B. J.1962 StatisticalPrinciples n ExperimentalDesign. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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