Social Influence And Social Change

What is social influence?

The process by which individuals ang groups change each other’s attitudes and and behaviours, includes conformity, obedience and minority influence.

What is social change?

This occurs when whole societies, rather than individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.

What are some examples of social change?

Acceptance that the earth orbits the sun, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues.

What do lessons from minority influence research tell us?

How minority social influence creates social change.

What are the steps in social change?

1. Drawing attention.

2. Consistency.

3. Deeper processing.

4. The augmentation principle.

5. The snowball effect.

6. Social cryptomnesia.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how did the minority draw attention?

Through social proof - in the 1950s, black and white segregation applied to all parts of America. The civil rights marches drew attention to this situation, providing social proof of the problem.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how did the minority show consistency?

Civil righs activists represented aminority of the American population, but their position remained consistent. Millions of people took part in many marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggresive messages.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how did deeper processing play a role in social change?

The activism meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think deeply about the unjustness of it.

What is deeper processing?

When people think more deeply about something.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how was the argumentation principle applied?

Individuals risked thier lives numberus times, for example, the ‘freedom riders‘ were mixed ethnic groups who boarded buses in thr south, challenging racial segregation on transport. Many freedom riders were beaten. This personal risk indicated a strong belief and reinforces their message.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how did the snowball effect happen?

Activists, such as Martin Luther King gradually got the attention of the US government. More and more people backed the minority position. In 1964 the US civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination, making a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.

What is the snowball effect?

The rate of conversion from minority to majority.

In the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, how did social cryptomnesia take place?

Social change came about in the South, but some people have no memory of the events that led to that change.

What is social cryptomnesia?

When people have a memory that change has occured but do not remember how it happened.

What do lessons from conformity research show?

Dissenters can break the power of the majority, such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead social change.

How do environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity processes?

By providing information about what other people are doing. Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing.

What do lessons from obedience research demonstrate?

The importance of disobedient role models.

What did Zimbardo (2007) suggest?

How obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment.

What is meant by gradual commitment?

Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People essentially ‘drift‘ into a new kind of behaviour.

What are the strengths of the social change argument?

• Research support for normative influences.

• Minority influence explains change.

How does research support for normative influences support the social change argument?

Nolan et al. aimed to see if they could change people’s energy use habits using normative influences. They hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. There were significant decreases in energy usage in the first group compared to the second (control).

What does the research support for normative influences mean?

That conformity (majority influence) can lead to social chnage through the operation of normative social influence, and is a valid explaination.

What is the counterpoint to the research support to normative influences?

Some studies show that people’s behaviour is not always changed through exposing them to social norms. Foxcroft et al. reviewed social norms interventions. This review included 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce student alcohol use. They found that there was only a small reduction in drinking quantity and no effect on drinking frequency.

What does the counterpoint to the research support for normative influences show?

That using normative influence does not always produce long-term social change.

How is minority influence explaining change a strength of the social change argument?

Psychologists can explain jow minority influence brings about social change. Nemeth claims that social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire. When people consider minority arguments, they engage in divergent thinking. This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow, in which the thinker actively searches for information and weighs up more options. He also argues that divergent thinking leads to better decisionsnand more creative solutions to social issues.

What does minority influence explaining change show?

Why dissenting minorities are valuable - they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way majorities cannot.

What is the limitation of the social support argument?

The role of deeper processing.

How is the role of deeper processing a limitation of the social change argument?

It may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change. Some people are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about the majority’s views, but Mackie disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views. This is because we like to belive that other people share our views and think in the same way as us. When we find that a majority believes something different, we are forced to think long and hard about their reasoning and arguments.

What does the role of deeper processing mean?

That a central element of minority influence has been chalenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explaination of social change.