social influence and social change

• what is the steps of social change ?

  1. drawing attention 2. consistency 3. deeper processing 4. augmentation principle 5. snowball effect 6. cryptoamnesia
• Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doingObedience can be used to create social change through a process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes harder to resist a bigger one. People then essentially drift into a new kind of behaviour.
• research support - normative influences?

  Nolan et al jung messages on people's doors every week for a month to reduce energy usage. Other houses had a message to save energy but had no reference to other people’s behaviour. There was a bigger change in the first group compared to the secondConformity can lead to social change through normatives
• counter?

  Foxcroft et al reviewed 70 studies where the social norms approach was to reduce student alcohol usage.They only found a small reduction in drinking quantity and no frequency.NI doesn’t produce a long term effect
• minority explains change?

  Nemeth claims that social change is due to the type of thinking minorities inspire.When people consider minority arguments they engage in divergent thinking. This leads to better decisions and creative solutions. They stimulate new ideas and open minds which majorities cannot do
• deeper processing?

  Mackie says that majority influence may create deeper processing if you do not share their views. We like to think that others share our views and think the same way as us. When the majority thinks something different we are forced to think hard and long about their reasonsThis doubts on its validity as an explanation of social change