Self‐efficacy and independence from social influence: Discovery of an efficacy–difficulty effect

Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that as tasks become more difficult, individuals tend to become more susceptible to the influence of others. This study investigates the potential of a specific self‐efficacy to moderate this effect. Participants exposed to easy maths problems were more independent of erroneous social influence on those problems than participants exposed to difficult maths problems. However, this effect was moderated by participants' mathematical self‐efficacy, with high self‐efficacy participants remaining more independent than low self‐efficacy participants under high problem difficulty. In addition, the effect of self‐efficacy on independence from social influence was mediated through participants' subjective perceptions of problem difficulty. Overall, these results demonstrate how behaviour in a social influence setting can result from the interaction of social/situational and individual difference variables.