Social Change

• what is the definition of social change?

  when societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways as a whole instead of an individual
• How is social change shown through minority influence?

  • consistency
  • commitment
• what are some real life examples of consistency through minority influence - social change?

  
  

  • Martin Luther king & Nelson Mandela: leading the civil right movement
  • suffragettes
  • Moscovici's study ->the importance of consistency
• what was Moscovici's study?

  Moscovici looked into the effect of a consistent minority.

  
  

  results: when a minority was consistent then they were 8.42% likely to convince the majority that the blue slides were actually green, than an inconsistent minority in group 1. Group 2: inconsistent minority 1.25% & Group 3: no minority 0.25%
• how can minorities show commitment?

  • commitment can be shown through the 'augmentation principle' to appear more influential and dedicated to their view as they are taking risks and making sacrifices to be heard
• what is a real life example of commitment of a minority influence - social change?

  Commitment -> Rosa Parks: she refused to give up her seat on a bus in the 1950s and she was arrested for violating the US law, but triggered the Civil Rights Movement
• how else can a minority influence social change?

  • through similarity -> if a minority are similar in age, gender, class or sexuality to a majority then they can be more influential
• what is a real life example of a minority being similar to a majority to influence social change?

  study: Maass et al 1982 -> suggested the idea of group membership

  study's results: a minority with heterosexual men were more likely to convince a majority of heterosexual men about gay rights, therefore similarity is am important factor
• what are some real life examples of consistency through minority influence - social change?

  • Suffragettes
  • Moscovici's study
  • Martin Luther King & Nelson Mandela -> leading the civil rights movement
• how did the Suffragettes influence social change?

  • consistency -> diachronic consistency (saying the same view for a long period of time): Female rights including to vote through the use of political an educational arguments
  • commitment -> making significant sacrifices (augmentation principle): hunger strikes, imprisonment & death
  • group membership -> convincing other women that they needed to join their cause
• how did the Civil Rights Movement influence social change?

  • consistency -> retained diachronic consistency (over several years): peacefully & non-aggressively presenting their cause
  • deeper processing -> people in the majority accepted their status and began thinking of the unjustness of their situation
  • augmentation principle -> groups took risks to show their commitment to their cause e.g. The Freedom Riders: challenged segregation on transport
  • snowball effect -> when Martin Luther King gradually got the attention of the American Government
• define 'social crypto-amnesia'


  when there is a gradual social change in peoples view to a majority from a minority, but no one can explain how it has happened except that it has happened
• how can conformity influence social change?

  • Asch's unanimity variation
  • Environmental Activist campaigns
• how does Asch's unanimity variation effect social change?

  • unanimity variation -> using a lone dissenter to give social support to the naive participant in a group setting, breaking the power of the majority
  • variation's findings -> lone dissenter decreased conformity to 5.5% when they agreed with the participants answer, and decreased conformity to 9% when the lone dissenter didn't support the majority or the naive participant
  • the lone dissenter encouraged others to break away from the power of the majority, leading to social change
• how do Environmental Health Activists effect social change?

  • adverts used in their campaigns use normative social influence to draw attention to the dangers of our social norms
  • example of social norms include: drinking, vaping, smoking
  • these adverts try to break these bad habits of the majority and encourage social change by showing the majority the consequences of their actions
• how can obedience effect social change?

  • Milgram's experiment
  • Zimbardo
• how does Milgram's 2 rebel study effect social change?

  • 2 rebel study -> Milgram added one/two other teachers to the existing teacher. These confederates would then say that they wish to width draw from the study - showing disobedience & being a role model
  • findings: rate of obedience dropped to 10% from 65% (baseline)
  • the other teachers act as a role model for social change as they disobeyed the orders they were given and provided support for the other teacher (naïve participant) to disobey as well
• how does Zimbardo effect social change?

  • Zimbardo suggested that obedience of a small instruction can be used to create social change through gradual commitment (building up smaller instructions till they get bigger and more difficult to resist)
  • therefore suggesting that people will slowly drift into a different kind of behaviour
• research support of Social change -> Nolan et al 2008

  • Nolan et al 2008 aimed to see if they could change peoples' energy use habits
  • procedure: hung messages on front doors of houses in San Diego everyday for 1 month to reduce energy usage
  • findings: there was a significant decrease in energy usage in group 1 than group 2 as group 1 had posters that would tell you how to save, and group 2 didn't have tips on saving energy
• explanation of Nolan et al research support

  this is a strength because:

  • temporal validity - task still practiced today
  • ecological validity - can be generalised to the real world
  • mundane realism - task is similar to events that happen in real life
  • valid explanation through NSI (operationalised)
• counterpoint of Nolan et al research for social change

  counterpoint -> Foxcroft et al:

  procedure:

  • reviewed social norm interventions/groups as part of the Gold Standard Cochrane Collaboration
  • reviewed 70 social studies to reduce alcohol consumption in students

  findings: researchers found that students reduced the quantity of their drinking but not their frequency

  this is a counterpoint because:

  • NSI doesn't always produce long term change
• strength of social change

  strength -> Nethem 2009: psychologists can explain how minority influence can bring social change

  • Nethem claims that change occurs through the thinking that minorities inspire -> when people consider minorities arguments and engage in divergent thinking, they broaden their views, allowing them to weigh the pros and cons
  • nethem argues this leads to better decisions & solutions -> showing how dissenting minorities are valuable