social influence processes on social change

• P: the role played by minority influence may be limited since minorities such as the suffragettes rarely bring about social change quickly

  E: because there is a strong tendency for human beings to conform to the majority position, people are more likely to maintain the status quo rather than engage in social change
• link for status quo

  L: this suggests, therefore, that the influence of a minority is more latent than direct
• P: the potential for minorities to influence social change is often limited because they are seen as 'deviant' in the eyes of the majority

  E: members of the majority may avoid aligning themselves with the minority position because they do not want to be seen as deviant themselves. the message of the minority would then have very little impact because the focus of the majority's attention would be the source of the message rather than the message itself
• link for being deviant limiting influence of minorities

  L: in trying to bring about social change, therefore, minorities face the double challenge of avoiding being portrayed as deviants and also making people directly embrace their position
• P: while social norms interventions have shown positive results in a number of different settings, they also have their limitations

  E: DeJong tested the effectiveness social norms marketing campaigns to drive down alcohol use among students across 14 different college sites. despite receiving normative information that corrected their misperceptions of subjective drinking norms, students in social norms condition did not report lower self-reported alcohol consumption as a result of the campaign
• link for dejong

  L: it appears, therefore, that not all social norms interventions are able to produce social change