social change

• social change:

  • societies rather than individuals accept new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing something
  • occurs through both minority + majority influence
• process of social change:

  • drawing attention to issue
  • consistency
  • deeper processing
  • augmentation principle
  • snowball effect
  • social cryptomnesia
• drawing attention to issue:

  • if minority view is different, conflict is created we are motivated to reduce it
  • example: 1950s racial segregation applied in deep south, resulted in civil rights marches
• consistency in social change:

  • minorities are more influential when they express arguments over time
  • example: many people took part in marches, showed consistency of message + intent
• deeper processing in social change:

  • conflict makes us examine minorities views more closely - leads to internalisation
  • example: people who accepted status quo begin to think about unjustness
• augmentation principle in social change:

  • if there are risks in putting forward point of view, those who express those views are taken more seriously
  • example: risked their lives e.g freedom riders were beaten + attacked
• snowball effect in social change:

  • initially had small effect which spread more widely - reaches tipping point + leads to wide scale social change
  • MLK got attention from US gov - led to civil rights act 1964
• social cryptomnesia in social change:

  • people have a memory that change occurred but dont remember how it happened
  • US deep south is a new place now - no memory of events
• conformity in social change:

  • asch dissenters - social support breaks majority 36.8% - 5.5%
  • NSI - social norm interventions - attempt to correct behaviours in peers in an attempt to change risky behaviour
• most of us dont drink + drive campaign:

  • used to reduce drink driving among adults in montana
  • 20.4% reported driving within 1 hour of consuming 2 or more drinks
  • 92% believed that majority of peers do drink drive
  • campaign educated people that drink driving is unusual + unconventional
• most of us dont drink + drive impact:

  • 8% decrease -belief that average person drove after drinking in previous month
  • 11% increase - accurately perceived that majority use designated driver
  • 14% decrease - reports of personally drinking after driving
  • 15% increase - who always use designated drivers
  • 17% increase - supported passing law to decrease blood alcohol content to 0.08%
• obedience in social change:

  • milgram - disobedient confederates - 65% - 10%
  • zimbardo - gradual commitment - once small instruction is obeyed, more difficult to resist bigger one
  • milgram - already gave 45V - no difference in another 10V
• EVALUATION: normative influences + messaging

  • nolan et al - change energy habits, hung messages on doors once a week for month in san diego - key message = most residents were trying to reduce energy usage, some had different message that just asked to save energy
  • found big decrease in first group compared to second
  • conformity can lead to social change through NSI - valid explanation
• EVALUATION: contradictory research

  • dejong et al - tested effectiveness of social norm marketing campaigns to reduce alcohol use in students - despite receiving normative info that corrected misconceptions, students didnt report lower consumption
  • same result found for metaanalysis (70 studies) - used social norms approach to lower alcohol use (Foxcraft et al)
  • social norm interventions doesnt always lead to long term social change
• EVALUATION: barriers to social change

  • bashir et al - investigated why people resist social change - some minority groups e.g feminists or eco activists often live up to stereotypes, can be offputting
  • majority doesnt want to be associated with minority - fear of being stereotypically labelled
  • social change through minority influence may be limited