Dill negatively influences Scout to participate in games portraying and bothering their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. Dill is infatuated with Boo Radley and comes up with various schemes and plans to get Boo out of the house. Despite Scout's fear of their enigmatic neighbor, she feels compelled to participate in many of the activities that Dill masterminds involving Boo. Scout would prefer to stay as far away from the Radley home as possible but feels compelled to join in with Dill and Jem so that she will not be ridiculed by the boys for acting like a "girl." Scout even finds herself in a dangerous situation in chapter 6 after she agrees to raid the Radley house at night. During their raid, Boo's brother comes outside with a shotgun and proceeds to shoot into the air as the children flee.

Dill also agitates Scout by claiming that he loves her before he begins excluding Scout from his activities with Jem. Scout desperately wants to play with Dill and Jem and begins to feel left out. There are also several occasions when Scout physically beats up Dill for excluding her from activities and refusing to pay her any attention. Other than getting Scout involved in relatively harmless games involving Boo Radley and provoking her anger by excluding her from certain activities, Dill is not that bad of an influence on Scout.

Dill has been a negative influence for a variety of reasons:

1. Dill is more interested in the rumors of Boo Radley than either Jem or Scout. We know this because he would go to the lightpole at the end of the street and look longingly at the Radleys. It was Dill who prompted the dare that made Jem hit the house, and it was Dill who proposed the note from the fishing pole. Dill had the idea of helping Boo Radley out with a trail of lemon drops. Other ways that the children chided Boo Radley during the summers were usually Dill's doing. Think about it, do you know of a scene during the school year when Jem and Scout hunted Boo on their own? No, because it never happened.

2. Dill comes between Jem and Scout. With Dill's influence, the two boys outnumber the girl. This makes Jem treat Scout like the girl she doesn't want to be but actually is. This starts his calling of Scout names like "Angel May" and his acting like she is too scared to do the things that boys do together.