3a. Social processes in social change

What is social change?

Social change= This occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things. Examples include accepting that the Earth orbits the Sun, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues.

What are the steps in how minority social influence creates social change?

Steps in how minority social influence creates social change=

• Drawing attention through social proof

• Consistency

• Deeper processing

• Augmentation principle

• Snowball effect

• Social cryptomnesia (people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened)

What is a real-world example of how minority social influence creates social change?

Real-world example of how minority social influence creates social change=

1. Drawing attention through social proof – In the 1950s, black and white segregation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods, and, in the southern states of America, places such as certain schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to this situation, providing social proof of the problem.

2. Consistency – Civil rights activists represented a minority 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-aggressive messages.

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

4. The augmentation principle – Individuals risked their lives numerous times. For example the ‘freedom riders’ were mixed ethnic groups who boarded buses in the south, challenging racial segregation of transport. Many freedom riders were beaten. This personal risk indicates a strong belief and reinforces (or augments) their message.

5. The snowball effect – Activists (e.g. 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, marking a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.

6. Social cryptomnesia (people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened) – Social change clearly did come about, so the south is quite a different place now. But some people have no memory (cryptoamnesia) of the events that led to that change

What is a different approach used to exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI?

A different approach is one used by environmental and health campaigns which exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence. They do this by providing information about what other people are doing. Examples include reducing litter by printing normative messages on litter bins (‘Bin it – others do’) and preventing young people from taking up smoking (telling them that most other young people do not smoke). In other words social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing

How can obedience be used to create social change?

Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of 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.