Personality Characteristics Related to

Susceptibility to Influence by Peers

or Authority Figures
LEONARD BERKOWITZ AND RICHARD M. LUNDY,
Umverstty of Wisconsin

O NE OF THE MAJOR difficulties in the application of reference group

theory is m the a priori specification of the group that will be
employed by an individual as a reference group Newcomb (9), for
example, has noted that college students differentially accepted the
attitudmal norms of their college community Accordmg to New-
comb, the students successfully influenced by their immediate peers
had come to utilize these peers as a reference group m the formation
and maintenance of their sociometnc attitudes The students not in-
fluenced presumably did not have their immediate peers as a reference
group
However, it is not clear why most of the students adopted their
peer group's attitudes, while other students did not The latter stu-
dents apparently had used groups other than their immediate peers
for their reference groups Personality characteristics probably are
among the factors determmmg the individual's acceptance of a par-
ticular group as a reference group, and Newcomb presents personali-
ty sketches of students who did or did not adopt the community at-
titudes Nevertheless, little is known of the characteristics that pre-
dispose an individual to be successfully influenced by one group rather
than another
This mformation is particularly important m the prediction of
social behavior m a muhigroup society such as our own Through
the mass media, or by other means, individuals often become aware
of conflicting viewpoints on a given attitude issue The opinion they
adopt frequently depends solely upon knowledge of the groups advo-
cating each viewpoint A particular group is utilized as a reference
group m evaluating the merit of the vanous viewpoints on the attitude
PERSONALITY AND CONFORMITY 307
issue In many instances the choice of a group as a reference group
can be predicted from sociodemographic variables (2) In other
instances, however, this choice appears to depend largely upon indi-
vidual personality characteristics
The present study is an exploratory investigation of this problem
We have attempted to determine whether the personality character-
istics of 5's successfully influenced by their peers differ from the
characteristics of those more readily influenced by a particular group
of authority figures—generals Also, whether there are character-
istics predisposing the individual to be influenced by both types of
groups
Because of the exploratory nature of this study we have not at-
tempted to formulate specific hypotheses Some broad conceptions,
however, dictated the choice of the personality measures We be-
lieved that 5"s with strong authoritarian tendencies would tend to be
successfully influenced by the authority figures, while 5"s with a strong
need for affiliation would be more readily influenced by their peers
The California F scale is employed as the measure of authoritarian
tendencies, and a paper-and-pencil sociability scale was chosen as the
measure of need for affiliation In addition, we believed that 5's who
preferred to structure their phenomenological worlds into simple,
orderly categories also would be more readily influenced by generals
than by peers These 5's might achieve such simplicity and orderli-
ness by uncritically accepting the propositions and opinions advocated
by authority figures The preference for a more complex rather than
a simple and orderly phenomenological world is referred to as the
complexity-simplicity dimension, or more briefly, complexity

METHOD
Subjects and attitude measures
Attitude questionnaires were administered in two testmg sessions
to the students (both male and female) in two intermediate psy-
chology courses
The first session questionnaire was introduced as dealing with an investi-
gation into "the psychology of normal people," and the students were asked
to indicate their attitudes on "every-day matters " The 132 items m this
questionnaire comprised (o) three modified Thurstone scales attitudes
toward the movies, tariff, and the punishment of criminals, and (6) three
personality scales the Califorma F scale, a modified version of Barron's
complexity scale (1) , and a modification of the Guilford-Zimmerman sociabil-
308 LEONARD BERKOWITZ AND RICHARD M. LUNDY
lty scale (3) All of the items in each of the scales were found to have
satisfactory correlations with the scale totals (ranging from 4 to 9)
Because of the relative familiarity of the F scale, sample items will be
presented only for the latter two scales Two items with high item-
scale total correlation in the complexity scale are as follows
73 In art, I generally prefer things that are simple or regularly predictable
to thmgs that are complex, irregular and whimsical
57 In art, I generally prefer themes involving home, family or traditional
events to themes that are esoteric, primitive or experimental
Some of the items with high item-scale total correlations m the sociability
scale are
20 I am inclined to limit my acquaintances to a select few
124 Other people say it is difficult to get to know me well
128 People think of me as being a very social type of person
The attitude-change procedure and fhe attitude sources
One month after the original testing session four alternate forms
of the second session questionnaire were administered to the two
classes
These questionnaires were introduced with the following orally delivered
statement "Many investigations into the psychology of attitudes have dealt
witii issues generally given little thought or attention by people We want to
study attitudes that have been given some thought In order to stimulate
your thinking on these issues we have provided you with the opinions of
other people For each of the three attitude issues, first read the opinions
expressed by these other people, then indicate your opinion on each item "
Half of the questionnaire passed out to the classes presented the opinions
supposedly expressed by peers with this introduction "A national public
opinion organization recently conducted a survey of the opinions of college
students in the universities of the 'Big Ten' The survey showed a
fairly high degree of consensus among the college students on several issues
On the following pages we have presented the attitudes of the great majority
of collie students "
The remaining half of the questionnaires contained opimon statements
supposedly expressed by generals The students were told in these question-
naires "A writer for a national magazine recently interviewed Generals
Bradley, Clark and Taylor on certain issues of national mterest The gen-
erals were in complete agreement on these issues On the following pages we
have presented their attitudes "
In contrast to the first session questionnaire, the items pertaining to a
given issue, l e , either movies, tariffs, or the punishment of criminals, were
presented together on a single page Before each page containing the given
attitude scale was a page describing the opinions of either the peers or the
generals on this issue To illustrate, the items in the attitudes toward movies
scale were preceded in some of the bodklets by a page containing this state-
ment "The great majority of the college students expressed favorable at-
titudes toward movies They felt that movies often were very fine entertain-
ment and frequently contributed to the educatum of the movie-goer " For each
attitude scale half of the b o d d ^ contained favorable opinions by either the
PERSONALITY AND CONFORMITY 309
peers or generals while the remaining booklets contained unfavorable state-
ments The same opinion rationale was used for both the peers and generals
After reading the mtroductory statement to each issue, the 5s mdicated their
opinions <m the given attitude items by marking an IBM sheet

The change scores

Linton (8) has convincingly argued that more than one behavior
change score must be obtained in order to assess a given individual's
susceptibility to mfluence Peripheral factors, such as his knowledge
relevant to a given issue, could affect the degree to which he can be
influenced on that issue These peripheral factors would tend to be
canceled out over several changes in behavior scores For this reason
changes on each of the three attitude issues are considered together
in arriving at a given individual's "lnfluenceability" score For each
individual we determined the number of attitude scales on which he
had been successfully influenced to any degree and subtracted from
this the number of scales m which the attitude change was in the di-
rection opposite to the opinions supposedly expressed by the peers
or generals A constant of three was added to each score m order
to facilitate the arithmetic computations The scores then ranged
from zero to six

The statistical destgn

Two personality variables were considered together at any one
time in investigating the relationships with attitude change In this
way we sought to study the particular mteraction of personality
variables as they related to opinion change The combinations were
F scale and sociability, complexity and sociability, and F scale and
complexity Eight groups were established for each of these com-
binations That IS, for the peers or generals subsamples separately,
the students were further subdivided into four groups (a) high on
both personality variables, (&) low on both, (c) high on the first
variable and low on the second, and (d) low on the first and high on
the second All S's scoring above the class median for their sex were
classified as "High," those below the median were classified as
"Low "
Two t3Tpes of statistical analyses were conducted First, withm
the subsam|rfe of students receiving either the peers or generals
"treatment," analyses of variance tested the significance of the mam
eflfects for each of the two personality variables and their interaction
310 LEONARD BERKOWITZ AND RICHARD M. LUNDY
Thus, there are two sets of analyses of vanance, one for each treat-
ment Several cases were randomly eliminated in order to obtain
cell frequency proportionality
In the second type of analysis, all eight groups were considered
in the same analysis, so that the mam effects investigated here were
(o) attitude sources, and (fe) the four personality groupings In-
teractions between attitude source and personality groupings also
were investigated Since many cases would have to be discarded in
order to achieve cell frequency proportionality for these latter
analyses, the analysis of variance procedure for disproportional cell
frequencies (assummg no interaction) described by Snedecor (10)
vf&s utilized The tables give the number of cases included in each
of the groupings
RESULTS
The combmatton of F scale and soctabtlity
It will be recalled that the sociability scale originally was in-
tended to serve as a direct measure of need for affiliation. The re-
sults of the first analysis cast serious doubt on this interpretation
A statistically significant relationship was found between scores on
this scale and the extent of successful influence in the condition re-
ceiving opinion expressed by peers However, it was the Ss with low
scores who were relatively successfully influenced by their peers
Examination of the items in this scale suggests that a high score on
the scale (high sociability) reflects a high degree of self-confidence in
interpersonal relations (Another item m the scale, m addition to
those cited, reads, "I am so shy it bothers me ") Adoption of this
o posterton interpretation makes the results consistent with other ex-
perimental findings Jams (5, 6) and others ( e g , 4) have found
that Ss low m self-estem or self-confidence tend to be relatively su-
sceptible to influence by others Throughout this paper, then, this
scale will be referred to as a measure of confidence in interpersonal
relations. The scale has been so identified in Tables 1 and 2
There are two significant F ratios withm the peers condition
The significant relationship with interpersonal confidence has been
described There also is a significant interaction t tests m the peers
condition indicate that the S's with high F scale a:ores and low inter-
personal confidences are significantly more successfully influenced
than the S's m the three remaming personahty groups (^ < OS)
PERSONALITY AND CONFORMITY 311
TABLE 1
MEAN DEGREE OF ATTITUDE CHANGE IN GROUPS CONTRASTED ON THEIR
F SCALE AND INTERPERSONAL CONFIDENCE SCORES

SOURCE OF ATTITUDE EXPRESSION

Peers Generals

N M N M P
1 Hi F, Hi Interpers Conf 14 2 21 18 3 50 05
2 Hi F, Lo Interpers Conf 13 4 54 11 3 45 > 10
3 Lo F, Hi Interpers Conf 14 3 00 18 2 83
4 Lo F, Lo Intcrpers Conf 13 3 31 11 3 00

Two X Two ANALYSES MEAN SQUARES FOUR X TWO ANALYSES MEAN SQUARES

Peers Generals
F scale 0 06 4 98 Source 0 08
Interpers Conf 19 69"* 0 05 Among Per^onabty Conditions 7 30**
Interaction 17 46*** 0 15 Interaction Source x Conditions 6 99*
Residual 2 28 2 77 Withm 2 64

*F rauo u^mficant >t 10 ievd of confidence

**F ratio ngmScant at 05 level of confidence
***F ratio Mgmficant at 01 level of confidence

There are no significant differences in Table 1 for the groups

provided with the opinion of the generals This suggests that inter-
personal confidence per se is related to mfluenceability primarily when
the influencing agent is a peer
The four-by-two analysis of variance indicates that there are
differences among the four personality groups that tend to be con-
sistent over both the peers and generals treatments In both of
these conditions, i's with high authoritarian tendencies and low
interpersonal confidence tend to be relatively successfully influenced
It may be that the joint operation of both personality characteristics
predisposes the 5" to place a great deal of reliance upon others in de-
ciding how to respond to relatively uncertain situations
There is also a significant interaction t tests indicate that the 5"s
With high F scale scores and high interpersonal confidence tend to be
more successfully influenced by generals than by peers In fact, their
mean change score, which is below the "no change" level of 3 in the
peer condition, suggests that they have reacted somewhat against the
opinions expressed by the peers We may hypothesize that the com-
bination of high authoritarianism and high interpersonal confidence
312 LEONARD BERKOWITZ AND RICHARD M. LUNDY
TABLE 2
MEAN DEGREE OF ATTITUDE CHANGE IN GROUPS CONTRASTED ON THEIR
COMPLEXITY AND INTERPERSONAL CONFIDENCE SCORES

SOURCE OF ATTITUDE EXPRESSION

Peers Generals
N M N M P
2 64 18 294

2222
1. Hi Complexity, Hi Interpers Conf
2. Hi Complexity, Lo Interx)ers. Conf 4 07 9 4 11
3 Lo Complexity, Hi Interpers Conf 2 57 18 3 61 06
4 Lo Complexity, Lo Interpers Conf 3 71 9 2 33 05

Two X Two ANALYSES MEAN S<iUAREs FOUR X TWO ANALYSES MEAN SQUARES

Peers Generak

Complexity 0 64 0 30 Source 0 00
Interpers. Conf 23 14*** 0 04 Among Personality Conditions 7 67**
Interaction 0 29 17 92** Interaction Source x Conditions 6 43*
Residual 2 72 2 64 Within 2 70

*F ratio ngmficant at 10 level of confidence

**F ratio ugnificant at OS level of confidence
***F ratio ngmficant at 01 level of confidence

results m some mdiflference or even hostility toward peers, and m a

relatively high regard for authority figures such as generals
The combtnatton of complexity and interpersonal confidence
Table 2 presents the comparable data for the combination of
complexity and interpersonal confidence As expected, interpersonal
confidence is negatively related to successful opinion change in the
peers condition, and is not related to change in the generals condition
In this latter condition we find a significant interaction between in-
terpersonal confidence and complexity, though neither personality
measure, by itself, is related to opinion change This interaction is
quite difficult to interpret, but descriptively it appears that authority
mfluence is effective only for particular combinations of complexity
and interpersonal confidence (high m one and low m the other) and
that it IS not effective for other combinations (high in both or low in
both)
The significant main effect found m the four-by-two analysis of
variance indicates a consistency in the differences among the four
personahty groups across the two treatments Individuals with high
complexity scores and low interpersonal confidence are the most
PERSONALITY AND CONFORMITY 313
successfully mfluenced in both conditions Our hypothesis here is
somewhat analogous to the Gestalt conception of the effects of
prestige suggestion Accordmg to this view (cf 7), individuals
who are influenced to change their judgment of a given stimulus
object perceive or interpret the stimulus object in a different man-
ner Our hypothesis is that the more highly complex individuals are
the ones who are most able to "restructure" their viewpoints, l e , are
the ones who can "see" or appreciate the opinions supposedly advo-
cated by the peers or generals However, to be able to appreciate the
opinions of others does not necessarily mean that the individual will
accept their opinions The present results suggest that this ac-
ceptance comes about when the individuals have low interpersonal
confidence and perhaps, therefore, low confidence in the merit of
their initial opinions
There also is an interaction that approaches statistical signifi-
cance t tests indicate the differences involved in this interaction
have to do with the 5's having low complexity scores In this group
of 5"s, those with high interpersonal confidence tend to be more suc-
cessfully influenced by generals than by their peers, while those with
low interpersonal confidence are more successfully influenced by their
peers than by the generals The reason for these differences is not
clear, but again we can see that the 5"s with high mterpersonal con-
fidence tend not to be successfully influenced by their peers and may
even react somewhat against the peers' opinions
TABLE 3
MEAN DEGREE OF ATTITUDE CHANGE IN GROUPS CONTRASTED ON THEIR
F SCALE AND COMPLEXITY SCORES

SOURCE OF ATTITUDE EXPRESSION

Peers Generals
A^ M A^ M
HI F, HI Complexity 13 3 00 15 3 20
Hi F, Lo Complexity 13 3 46 15 3 80
Lo F, HI Complexity 15 3 40 13 3 23
Lo F, Lo Complexity 15 3 07 13 2 54

The combination of F scale and complexity

There are no significant differences m degree of opinion change
among the grouj® formed by the combination of F scale and complexi-
314 LEONARD BERKOWITZ AND RICHARD M. LUNDY
ty scores For either of these scales, then, interpersonal confidence
has to be considered m predicting whether an individual will be suc-
cessfully influenced in the present type of situation

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The present exploratory investigation was guided by the general
hypothesis that personality characteristics are among the factors pre-
disposing an individual to utilize one group rather than another as
a reference group More specifically, we sought to determine whether
5's successfully influenced by their peers have personality character-
istics different from the characteristics possessed by 5"s more readily
influenced by authority figures (generals)
An attitude questionnaire was administered to male and female
college students in two intermediate psychology courses Responses
to this questionnaire provided the 5's' scores on (a) three attitude is-
sues attitudes toward movies, the tariff, and the punishment of
criminals, and (b) three personality variables The F scale, confi-
dence in interpersonal relations, and complexity One month later
the 5's were provided with the opinions on the three attitude issues
supposedly expressed either by college students (peers) or three U S
Army generals (authority figures) The 5"s' susceptibility to in-
fluence scores were based upon the number of scales in which the 5's'
opinions changed in the direction of the opinion expressed by the ex-
ternal agents
The present results indicate that individuals whose opinions tend
to be successfully influenced by peers may differ in certain personality
characteristics from individuals more successfully influenced by
generals Thus, it has been noted that individuals low on the present
measure of interpersonal confidence, m general, tend to be more
readily influenced by their peers than by the authority figures This
IS most clearly shown in the significant relationship between inter-
personal confidence and opinion change when the opinions were
advocated by peers, and the absence of this relationship when the
identical opinions were advocated by the generals It may be that
those with low scores on this personality scale have unsatisfied needs
for interpersonal relationships. Smce their peers are the likeliest
sources of need satisfaction, they are somewhat dependent upon these
peers and hence susceptible to influence by them
PERSONALITY AND CONFORMITY 315
The present results also indicate that the 5s more readily in-
fluenced by the generals than the peers tend to exhibit two types of
patterns (a) high F scale and high interpersonal confidence scores,
or (b) low complexity and high interpersonal confidence The F
and complexity scales are not significantly correlated so that the two
patterns are fairly discrete It was suggested that the i's with high
F scale and interpersonal confidence scores might tend to be hostile
toward their peers but have high regard for authority figures No
hypothesis was formulated for the second pattern
There are also two patterns that appear to be somewhat related to
successful influence by both peers and generals low interpersonal
confidence combined with either high F scale or high complexity
scores Here again the patterns are not extensively overlapping We
hypothesized that the pattern of low interpersonal confidence and
high F scale predisposes the i's to place reliance upon others in de-
ciding how to respond to relatively uncertain situations The 5s
with low interpersonal confidence and high complexity are believed
to be flexible enough to "see" or appreciate the viewpoint expressed
by the external agent Their low interpersonal confidence may mean
that they have low confidence in the correctness of their own initial
opinions on these issues These characteristics operating together,
then, predispose these i's to appreciate and adopt the views expressed
by others
The lack of significant findings in the analyses with the F and
complexity scales leads us to emphasize the importance of interper-
sonal confidence as a contingency variable in determining opinion
change
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Manuscript received May 31,1956