Positive Things You Can Do To Be Less Vulnerable to Influence and Authority

by Sharon Presley

• Cultivate a sense of self-worth. Keep in mind your special talents, the times when others thought you were special. Nourish a secret "inner core" of self that cannot be violated. If you feel good about yourself, you'll not be as vulnerable to manipulation and emotional appeals by others.
• Know what your values are; develop and maintain a sense of commitment to principles that are important to you. Understand why they are important. Have a sense of purpose in your life.
• Build your critical thinking skills. Practice analyzing and discussing arguments; looking at the pros and cons of important issues. Build creative arguments and counter-arguments.
• Read diverse opinions from different kinds of sources. Don't just read what you agree with. Be as well-informed about opinions you disagree with as your own. Analyze the pros and cons of these opinions. Be open to the possibility of changing your opinions.
• When watching TV news or reading a newspaper, remember to ask questions and be critical of what you see or hear. Be more aware of what the media selectively reports, distorts, and leaves out. Remember that the media don't represent "the truth," only certain perspectives.
• Teach yourself and your children or students to watch out for persuasive manipulation and tricks in advertising and news reporting.
• Join with others who are willing to stand up for the values that are important to you. Find allies at work or school. Join an organization that supports your values.
• If there's a social or political issue that's important to you, get active. Join a group and work for social change. But be careful not to get mired in dogma. Remember that people with views different than your own are not stupid or "evil."
• Before joining any religious, political, social or self-help group, check them out. Get outside perspectives and criticisms. Make sure they don't have a reputation for being dogmatic, authoritarian, secretive, elitist, intolerant of outside opinions, etc.
• Develop and maintain a sense of humor. Be willing to laugh at yourself as well as others. Humor deflates dogmatism and pomposity. But nourish a sense of humor that pokes good-natured fun, not one that is mean-spirited or based on humiliation of others. That kind of humor encourages seeing others as "bad" instead of merely different.
• Try to encourage independent thinking at work, school, or groups you're in. Encourage and support diverse opinion and dissent. Don't make fun of or attack people within these groups whose views are different from your own or who are different from the majority.
• If you see something inappropriate, troubling or potentially harmful going on in your workplace, school, or others social situation, talk about it with someone outside that situation that you trust. Seek allies within the group.
• Maintain outside interests and sources of social support. Reject appeals that claim that devotion to the cause requires severing relations with others outside the group. Religious converts, battered wives, and people in institutions and prisons are often victims of impoverished connections to outside systems.
• Watch out for attitudes you may have that reflect negative attitudes or stereotypes about others who are different from you in race, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle, or politics. Learn more about the history, culture, traditions or values of those different from you in these respects. Attend cultural, social or other events of these groups. You'll be less vulnerable to attacks on these group or emotional appeals that see them as "the problem" or "evil" if you have see them as ordinary people and not just some faceless monolithic group.
• If you have trouble being assertive in the face of authority or are overly timid or passive, find an assertiveness training group, a counselor with a background in such training, or at least read a book on assertiveness training. In a non-threatening situation, practice using the techniques you learn so you won't feel so awkward or timid when you really need to stand up for yourself.
• If you lack self-confidence or have excessively negative attitudes, fears or anxieties that make you vulnerable to pressures from authority, seek professional counseling or at least seek advice from an appropriate book (books based on cognitive therapy usually offer sensible and effective techniques that can help you change negative beliefs).
• Practice going against social rules or conventions when no harm will occur as a result of breaking them. For example, dress differently than you normally do or differently than a social group you participate in, play devil's advocate in your social. political, or religious group. You may find out that the consequences of being different are not as catastrophic as you imagine. Even if you get flack, it's a psychologically stretching exercise.

Sharon Presley is a social psychologist. Her Ph.D. dissertation on political resisters to authority, chaired by Stanley Milgram, demonstrated the role of critical attitudes toward authority and highly developed moral judgment as factors in resistance to authority.