Social change

• What is internalisation?

  Change your view and believe to be true (public and private)
• What is meant by the conversion process? (Moscovci)

  • Over time, people accept a new way of thinking
  • Gradual
  • Continuous process
• How many stages are there to social change? What are they?

  1. Draw attention
  2. Cognitive conflict
  3. Consistency
  4. Augmentation principle
  5. Snowball effect
  6. Social cyrptomnesia
• What is the draw attention stage ?

  Gain public attention to promote the issue
• What is the cognitive conflict stage ?

  fight between current view (majority) and the new possible view. If the view seems credible and plausible - deep processing when we pay attention
• What is the consistency stage ?

  • Saying the same thing (synchronic) for a long time (diachronic)
  • Same message over and over
  • To the point
  • Shows confidence
• What is the augmentation principle stage ?

  The minority engage in risky / inconvenient behaviours as they show dedication and commitment to their cause
• What is the snowball effect stage ?

  • tipping point
  • Gradual process
  • One person, then another, then another etc,
  • Minority eventually becomes majority = social change
• What is the social cryptomnesia stage ?

  social change comes about but people may eventually forget the entente and minority that led to change
• Suffragettes example - link to conformity

  • dissenters make social change more likely
  • Normative social influence (to be liked / fit in) is powerfully in social change
• Suffragettes example - link to obedience

  • disobedient models make change more likely
  • Small instruction disobeyed causes drift = larger scale disobedience
• Strength - Nolan (2008)

  • message about neighbours reducing energy usage put on doors
  • Compared with a control group with no message - not referring to other
  • Message referencing other - significant decrease in energy use
  • Conformity can lead to social change in everyday life
  • Study has mundane realism
  • Indicates applicability of conformity
  • = Social change in everyday situation
• Weakness - Mackie

  • the majority leads to deeper processing
  • Majorities way of thinking means it’s likely that others agree
  • Therefore, majorities have power, status and resources in real life
• Weakness

  • majority influence isn’t as effective at leading to social change as the explanation suggests
  • It is actually an indirect, delayed process and any full effect may not be seen for years
• Weakness - Lack of validity of research

  • Asch, Moscovici And Milgram
  • lower ecological validity as info in real life is more complex and there are more factors (e.g. Power and status)
  • Artificial studies
• Strength - Moscovici (1969)

  • Group of 6 (4ppts, 2 confederates)
  • Shown 36 slides clearly shades of blue
  • Asked to state colour of each slide out loud
  • Condition 1 = confederates answered green for every slide(consistent) = ppts gave wrong answer of green 8.42% of the time
  • Condition 2 = confederates mixed blue and green (not consistent) = ppts gave wrong answer 1.25% of the time
  • Consistency is a vital feature of minority influence