Social influence processes in social change

Social Change

Occurs when whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs, & ways of doing things

Social Cryptomnesia

When people have memory of change occurring but don’t remember how it happened

6 Steps to social change

1. Drawing attention to an issue / thru social proof

2. Consistency 

3. Deeper Processing / Cognitive Conflict 

4. Augmentation principle 

5. Snowball principle

6. Social cryptomnesia 

Deeper Processing / Cognitive Conflict

Minority creates conflict between what majority believes & the position held by the minority

Augmentation Principle

If minority appears to willingly suffer for their views, they’re seen as more committed & so taken more seriously by others 

Role of Asch in social change

Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change

Role of NSI in social change

Drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing

Role of Milgram in social change

• Importance of disobedient role model 

• Confederate teacher refuses to give shocks to leaner & rate of obedience for naïve participants plummeted  

Role of Zimbardo in social change 

• Gradual commitment 

• People essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour 

Social norms interventions

Attempt to correct misperceptions of the normative behaviour of peers in an attempt to change the risky behaviour of a target population

DIS1: Social norms approach doesn’t always work

P: There has been positive results with social norm interventions, but they also have their limitations

Ev: DeJong et al (2009) tested the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce alcohol use among students across 14 diff college sited. Despite receiving normative info that corrected their misperceptions of subjective drinking norms, students in social norms condition didn’t report lower self-reported alcohol consumptions as a result of the campaign

Ex/L: Therefore, not all social norms interventions are able to produce social change

DIS2: The influence of minorities can be limited.

P: Minorities are often considered as ‘deviant’ by the majority

Ev/Ex: Members of the majority may avoid aligning themselves w. minority position as they don’t want to be viewed as deviant. As a result, the message of the minority would have v. little impact as the focus on the majority’s attention will be the source of the message (the deviant minority) as opposed to the message itself.

L: In trying to bring about social change, minorities face the challenges of not being portrayed as deviants and also making people embrace their position. They also need to think carefully about how to draw attention to an issue without being viewed as deviant.

DISC2: Is social change actually happening?

P: The role played by minority influence may be limited since minorities (e.g. suffragettes) rarely bring about social change quickly

Ex: This is due to there being a strong tendency for humans to conform to the majority position, which means that people are more likely to maintain the status quo rather than engage in social change

L: Therefore, the influence of a minority usually creates the potential for social change rather than actual social change, making it difficult to track the progress of social change & to know what the exact drivers of the change initially were

AD1: Research support for role of NSI in social change

P: There has been support for role of NSI in social change

Ev: Nolan (2008) investigated whether majority influence lead to reduction in energy consumption in a community. Every week for a month, hanging the message ‘most residents are trying to reduce their energy usage’. Control doors had messages telling them to save energy.

Ex: Findings showed significant decreases in energy usage in group that were informed of what majority residents were doing.

L: This shows us that conformity can lead to change thru NSI