Social Influence and Social Change

What is the first lesson from minority influence research?

Drawing attention

Give an example of how a minority drew attention to a situation

Civil rights marches drew attention to segregation in 1950s America by providing social proof of the problem

What is the second lesson from minority influence research?

Consistency

How was consistency shown when protesting against segregation in America?

Ppl took part in the marches on a large scale to display consistency of message

What is the third lesson from minority influence research?

Deeper processing

What did the activism against segregation in America lead to?

Many ppl who had accepted segregation began thinking deeply about the unjustness of it

What is the fourth lesson from minority influence research?

Augmentation principle

What were ‘freedom riders’?

White/Black ppl who boarded buses in the south to challenge seperate seating for black ppl

What happened to the ‘freedom riders’?

Many got beaten up

What did the personal risk of the ‘freedom riders’ show?

It strengthened their message

What is the fifth lesson from minority influence research?

Snowball effect

Who did the civil rights activists get the attention of?

The US governemnt

When was the civil rights act passed?

1964

What is the sixth lesson from minority influence research?

Social cryptomnesia

How is social cryptomnesia applied to the sucessful protesting against segregation in America?

Social change came about but some have no memory of the events leading to the change

What is the first lesson from conformity research?

Dissenters make social change more likely

How does Asch’s research support that dissenters make social change more likely

Variation where one confederate always gave the correct answer

Broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent

What does Asch’s research demonstrate?

The potential for social change

What is the second lesson from conformity research?

Normative social influence

What is normative social influence?

Conforming in order to be liked

What do environmental and health campaings do?

Exploit conformity by appealing to normative social influence by providing info on what others are doing

What is the first lesson from obedience research?

Disobedient models make change more likely

How does Milgram’s research support that disobedient models make change more likely?

When a confederate refused to give shocks the obedience in genuine pps dropped

What is the second lesson from obedience research?

Gradual commitment leads to ‘drift’

How does Zimbrados research support that a gradual commitment leads to ‘drift’?

Once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one

People ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour

A03 Strength: Support for normative social influence in social change

Psychologist hung msgs on the front doors of houses which said ‘most residents are trying to reduce energy usage’

Energy usage decreases compared to the control group who saw msgs to save energy with no reference other ppls behaviour

Conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence

A03 Strength: Minority influence explains social change

Psychologist says that minority arguments = people engage in divergent thinking

Leads to better decisions/creative solutions to social problems

Minorities are valuable as they stimulate new ideas and open peoples minds

A03 Limitation: Deeper processing may apply to majority influence

Psychologist disagrees that minority influence causes the majority to deeply think about an issue

Majority influence creates deeper processing because we believe others think as we do

When a majority thinks differently we feel pressured to also change our views

Central element of minority influence has been challenged

Question validity as an explanation of social change

A03 Strength/Limitation: Barriers to social change

Steps involved for social change provide practical advice for minotiies wanting to inflience a moajority

Majorities may resist change as they find the minority unappealing but this can be counteracted