(12) Social influence processes involved in social change

What is social change?

Social change is defined as the process by which society changes beliefs, attitudes and behaviour to create new social norms (expected ways of behaving)

The Role of Social Influence Processes in Social Change

Social change occurs when societies as a whole adopt new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.

With majorities, it occurs through NSI and ISI

This process occurs continually but at a gradual pace, with minority influence being the main driving force for social change

How might social change be brought about by majority influence?

Research has demonstrated that behavioural choices are often related to group norms. They are subject to normative social influence.

The Social norms approach (Perkins, 1986) holds that if people perceive something to be the norm, they tend to alter their behaviour to fit that norm.

Behaviour therefore is based more on what people think others believe and do (the perceived norm) rather than on their real beliefs and actions (the actual norm). The difference between these is a ‘misperception

How can minority influence explain social change?

If an individual is exposed to a persuasive argument under certain conditions, they may change their views to match those of a majority

Moscovici (1980) referred to this process as conversion, this process is vital for social change.

This happens in five stages

What is step one of social change?

1. Drawing Attention to the Issue

• Minorities can bring about social change by drawing attention to an issue

• If their views are different to those held by the majority, this creates conflict that the majority are motivated to reduce

What is the second stage of social change?

2. Cognitive Conflict

• The minority creates conflict between what majority groups currently believe and the position advocated by the minority

• This does not necessarily result in a move towards the minority position, but it does mean that the majority group members think deeply about the issues being challenged

What is the third stage of social change?

Consistency of Position

• Research into minority influence has established that minority groups tend to be more influential in bring about social change when they express their arguments consistently

• To achieve this generally takes time

What is an example of consistency?

In the early 1960’s not only was being a gay a criminal offence, it was also a mental illness, this was when real protest began to change it

In 1967 being gay stopped being illegal, but remained a mental illness until 1973, after much protest

In the USA, may 1970, two University of Minnesota students, Richard Baker and James McConnell applied to Hennepin County District Court clerk for a marriage license

They denied the application, because the applicants were both men

In 2016 gay marriage is legalise in the whole of America

Minority influence takes time

What is stage four of social change?

If a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and so are taken more seriously by others

The influence is more powerful, it is augmented.

What is an example of the augmentation principle?

Nelson Mandela campaigned to end apartheid in South Africa. This was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party in 1948. The government segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services, and provided black people with services that were inferior to those of white people. Additionally from 1960 to 1983, 3.5 million non-white South Africans were removed from their homes, and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history

In 1962, Mandela was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela served 27 years in prison. He went on to become president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. Apartheid ended in 1994

What is the fifth stage of social change?

The snowball effect

• Minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but this then spreads more widely as more and more people consider the issues being promoted until It reaches a tipping point, where it changes from minority influence to majority influenc

• At which point it leads to wide-scale social change

What is the sixth stage of social change?

Social Cryptomnesia

People have a memory that change occurred, but do not remember how it happened

What are the lessons from conformity research?

Dissenters make social change more likely

• Asch’s research demonstrated that when one confederate always gave the correct answer, this broke the power of the majority – this enabled others to dissent

• This demonstrates the potential for social change

Majority influence and normative social influence

• Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to the majority’s behaviour

What are the lessons from obedience research?

Disobedient models make social change more likely

• Milgram's research demonstrated the importance of disobedient role models

• In his variation. When one confederate refused to give shocks, the rate of obedience in genuine pps dropped significantly

Gradual commitment leads to ‘drift’

• Obedience can be used to create social change – once a smaller commitment has been made it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one

• People ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour

(+) Evaluation: positive implications for the economy

• Accepting minority rights (e.g. women's rights, civil rights, gay rights) means that the workplace is open to more diverse attitudes and practices

  • this in turn can boost productivity and creativity

HOWEVER, there are also negatives for the economy

e.g Women being more active in the workplace means that maternity leave and pay must be factored into the costs of employing a woman of child-bearing age

(-) Evaluation: Social change happens slowly and is not without setbacks

This slow pace means that it is difficult to track the progress of social change accurately and to know what the exact drivers of the change initially were

(-) Evaluation: Nomothetic approach

Research into social change is predominantly nomothetic, as it seeks to establish general laws to predict how minorities can successfully influence a majority.

For example, researchers like Xie et al. (2011) identified a "tipping point," suggesting that once 10% of a population holds a committed opinion, it is enough to convert the majority.

However, critics argue this approach is limited because it ignores idiographic information—the unique individual differences and specific historical contexts that might explain why some social movements succeed while others fail