SI and Social Change

Define Social Influence

The process by which individuals and groups change each other's attitudes and behaviours

• Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence

Define social change

Social change is a shift or adaptation in social norms

What are the steps of how minority influence creates social change

1. Drawing attention through social proof

2. Consistency

3. Deeper processing of the issue

4. The augmentation principle

5. The snowball effect

6. Social cryptoamnesia

Define social crypto amnesia

The minority attitudes, behaviour and beliefs become the majority

What did Asch's research highlight

• The importance of dissent (in one of his variations)

• Such dissent has the power to lead to social change

What did Milgram's research demonstrate in terms of social change

• The importance of disobedient role models

• Variation where confederate teacher refused to give shocks to the learner

• Rate of obedience in genuine p's plummeted

What did Zimbardo 2007 suggest about the role of obedience on social change

Gradual commitment

Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes harder to resist a bigger one

Evaluate the strengths of social influence processes in social change

Process is supported

• The processes of social change are supported by Dickerson et al. (1992):

• Participants who had made a prior commitment (signing a poster on saving water and answering a questionnaire on their use of water) spent less time showering than participants who had not done so

• Thus, prior commitment to prosocial behaviour results in positive behaviour change

Benefits the economy

• There are positive implications for the economy when it comes to social change:

• 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

Evaluate the limitations of social influence processes in social change

Difficult to track accuracy

• 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

Can have negative implications on the economy (CC)

• Recycling waste by separating it into categories means different bin collections followed by several processes to convert/transform the waste, all of which are expensive

• 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