Social change

• Outline social change


  1. drawing attention

  • drawing individuals attention by providing social proof of the problem

  1. consistency

  • the group must show consistency with intent

  1. deeper processing

  • people begin to think about the problem and think about whether social change could improve society

  1. the augmentation principle

  • individuals start to pay full attention to the idea of social change. this may be a result of commitment from a minority.

  1. the snowball effect

  • once one person commits, more do until a new majority

  1. social cryptoamnesia

  • people remember change has occured but not how it happened
• Social change A03: Moscovici +


  Moscovici et al (1969)

  • study on female uni students
  • groups of six (2 confederates)
  • consistent minority 8.42%
  • inconsistent minority 1.25%
  • indicates that consistency leads to social change through minority influence

  HOWEVER

  • all female (gynocentric)
  • 95% of colourblind population is male
  • lab environment
  • lacks external validity
  • cannot generalise
• Social change A03: application +


  can apply all six factors to social change over history e.g. growing success of feminist movement and suffragettes

  • employability is now equal, 52% emale, 48% male
• Social change: Bashir +


  Bashir et al (2013) investigated the reason why some people tend to avoid social change

  • participants were less likely to accept social change when minority group e.g. environmentalists and feminists were considered more extreme
  • worried to be associated with the minority group
  • referred to as 'tree huggers' or 'man haters'
  • these are negative stigmas associated with these groups
  • as a result Bashir concluded that for social change to be successful, the minority should avoid behaving in ways that reinforce negative stereotypes
  • perhaps evolution, not revolution?
• Social change: Wood +-


  Wood et al+ conducted meta analysis over 92 studies and found that consistent minorities are more likely to lead to social change

  • secondary nature -
  • cherry picking to support hypothesis
  • researcher bias
  • extremely large sample size +
  • can generalise outcomes