Social influence and social change

• How does minority influence create social change?

  • Drawing attention
  • Consistency
  • Minority influence (special role as it leads to innovation)-> Deeper processing
  • The augmentation principle
  • The snowball effect and role of being flexible
  • Social cryptomnesia
• What is social change?

  when whole societies adopt new attitudes beliefs and ways of doing things.
• What is a real life example of minority influence occuring?

  The suffragettes
• Brief explanation of the orderly processes that occur to cause social change? (1)

  1. DRAWING ATTENTION to an issue e.g., marching/campaigning
  2. CONSISTENCY AND FLEXIBILITY- keeping the same message over time, but being willing to compromise so as to not appear dogmatic
  3. DEEPER PROCESSING of the issue- people begin to think about the minority opinion more deeply
  4. AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE- the minority demonstrates commitment through sacrificing something, e.g., freedom, reputation, their own property.
• Brief explanation of the orderly processes that occur to cause social change? (2)

  1. SNOWBALL EFFECT- more and more people become persuaded by the message
  2. .SOCIAL CRYPTOAMNESIA, CONFORMITY/OBEDIENCE- people have a memory that change has occurred but not how it happened. People conform to the new majority position
• Research support for the role of social influence processes in social change (such as conformity, AO3)

  • NOLAN ET AL
  • Investigated whether social influence processes (such as conformity and NSI) can lead to social change
  • Hung messages on doors of houses every week for one month
  • Key message was that most residents were trying to reduce energy usage (showing examples of commitment)
  • use of a control group where residents had a different message just asking residents to save energy
  • FOUND: significant decreases in energy usage in the first group
  • Suggests that conformity can lead to social change through NSI processes as deeper processing may occur leading to a tipping point (shift from the minority view becoming the widespread majority)
• Limitation of minority influence as a role in social change (AO3)

  • Minority influence may not always be effective or obvious as previously suggested
  • usually takes from years to decades for social change to fully occur
  • (such as attitudes against drink driving or public smoking)
  • Additionally, Nemeth argues that the effects of minority influence are mostly likely indirect and delayed
  • cannot be physically seen for time, nor instantly interventions tend to require government intervention
  • limitation of using minority influence as an explanation for social change as it may suggest that its effects are fragile and role in social influence and social change are largely limited
• How does the case of the suffragettes support the processes of SI in social change?

  • DRAWING ATTENTION- suffragettes drew attention to the issue of women not being able to vote through campaigns such as marches, food strikes, committing arson
  • CONSISTENCY -fought for women's rights over a longitudinal period of time (8 years), keeping the same message
  • DEEPER PROCESSING- as a result women and men may have acknowledged this issue and process more deeply the issue at hand in contrast to the majority view that women should not be allowed to vote
• 2+ processes the suffragettes demonstrate

  • AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE- as a result of demonstrating consistency within their view, this may have led to many individuals re-considering their view due to the sheer commitment
  • This includes the sacrifice of Emily Davidson who threw herself under King George's horse at the Epsom racecourse in order to protest and make a point for women's voting rights
  • SNOWBALL EFFECT- eventually a group of 4-5 women protesting grew to larger group numbers, demonstrating the minority view shifting to the majority
• Social crypto-amnesia applied to the suffragettes

  • 1918 voting laws finally changes and women were given the right to vote
  • This law was obeyed but many individuals who grew up with the right to vote as a female may have forgotten how the change occurred but are able to acknowledge the change happening
• LIMITATION- There are barriers to social change (AO3)

  • BASHIR et al
  • People may resist social change even when it is necessary due to being off-put by stereotypes
  • Bashir found people were less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways as they refused to be associated with the stereotypes
  • Labelled activists as 'tree huggers' and feminists as 'man haters'
  • Therefore suggests minorities should avoid behaving in ways that reinforce stereotypes as this will make the majority harder to influence
  • Limitation as it contradicts the MI explanation as factors such as consistency and the AP may reinforce stereotypes- calls into question validity of chosen processes
• Studies that can be used for AO1?

  • Asch and the importance of dissent (dissenter = 1/3 decrease in conformity rates) -> majority view had less influence, may support the idea that a dissenter is required to break unanimity of majority
  • Zimbardo's concept of gradual commitment (more effective for a societal change)
• Social change

  • refers to a change in a WHOLE SOCIETY, it is a large scale of change and is usually gradual
  • They adopt new beliefs, attitudes and ways of doing things