Role of Social Influence Processes in Social Change

• Social change occurs when whole societies (rather than just individuals adopt new beliefs, attitudes and ways of doing things.
• They then become widely accepted as the norm. this becomes a change in society.
• We can APPLY our knowledge of conformity, obedience and minority influence to help understand how social change occurs.
• Drawing attention- in order for a social change to occur, the majority must be first made aware of the need for change.
• Consistency- Displaying consistency of a viewpoint and intended outcome is beneficial in bringing about social change as a consistent message appears more credible and can continue a majority.
• The augmentation principle: Commitment

  Deeper processing, the more people think about the issue at hand, rather than blindly accepting it, the more they will be able to challenge existing norms and bring about social change.

  Augmentation principle, when people demonstrate their commitment to cause, majority pay more attention and think more deeply about why they would behave that way.
• The snowball effect- Once the majority viewpoint has got the attention of some of the majority group members, more and more people began paying attention and the minority viewpoint fathers momentum. This is much like a snowball growing in size when rolled along a snowy field.
• Social Cryptoamnesia- The majority knows that a social change has occurred but the source of the change and the message itself have become disassociated through the process of social cryptoamnesia and they do not recall how it has happened.