Social influence and social change

• Social influence: the process of individuals and groups changing others attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence.
• The steps in how social influence creates social change:

  • Drawing attention: civil rights marches for segregation in 1950s America drew attention to the situation by providing social proof of the problem
• The steps in how social influence creates social change:

  • Consistency: people took part in the segregation marches on a large scale, despite being a minority they displayed consistency of message
• The steps in how social influence creates social change:

  • Deeper processing: the activism meant that people began to think deeply about the unjustness of it
• The steps in how social influence creates social change:

  • The augmentation principle: Individuals risked their lives numerous times e.g. ‘freedom riders’, the personal risk strengthened their message
• The steps in how social influence creates social change:

  • The snowball effect: social change came about but some people have no memory of the events leading to that change
• Lessons from conformity research:

  • In Asch’s research one variation was where one confederate always gave correct answers, this dissenter has the potential to ultimately lead to social change
• Lessons from obedience research:

  • In Milgram's research, disobedient models in the variation where a confederate refused to give shocks, the rate of obedience in genuine participants plummeted.
  • Zimbardo suggested obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment; once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one.
• Strength of social change: support for normative influence in social change. Nolan et al hung messages about residents trying to reduce energy usage on front doors, significant decreases in energy use shows conformity can lead to social change through NSI.
• Strength of social change: minority influence explains social change. Nemeth says that minority arguments cause people to engage in divergent thinking. This leads to creative solutions to social problems, this shows that minorities are valuable because they stimulate new ideas and open peoples minds.
• Limitation of social change: deeper processing may apply to majority influence. Mackie disagrees with the view that minority influence causes the majority to think deeply about an issue. Majority influence creates deeper processing because we believe others think as we do, and creates pressure to think about their views. Casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change.