social change

• Social change occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things e.g. women's suffrage, gay rights, environmental changes
• Drawing attention -

  The minority draws attention to their views to expose the majority to their viewpoint e.g. by protesting, marching, sit ins
• consistency -

  Over time, consistency in the minority's views increases the amount of interest from others & makes them rethink their views
• deeper processing -

  People who had previously accepted the status quo begin to think deeply about the injustices of it and start questioning their own views/beliefs
• The augmentation principle -

  A member of the minority has performed a behaviour which has risks/leads to suffering.
• the snowball effect -

  The more people that are ‘converted’ to the minority view, the quicker this process of change will occur.
• social cryptomnesia -

  People have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened
• Social change can also take place as a result of majority influence

  If people perceive something as the norm, their behaviour typically changes to fit that norm (NSI)

  Zimbardo suggests obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment – once a small instruction is obeyed, it is harder to resist a bigger one.
• strength -

  Nolan conducted a study where they regularly hung messages on California house doors which either said ‘most residents were reducing their energy usage’ or ‘please reduce energy usage’. Found the first group significantly reduced energy usage more.

  Shows that conformity (majority influence) can lead to social change due to NSI, making this a valid explanation
• strength -

  Nemeth claims social change is due to people considering minority arguments broadly which allows them to search for information and makes social change more likely to happen.

  This shows why dissenting minorities are valuable – they stimulate new ideas and opens minds in a way majorities can’t
• weakness -

  Some people resist social change e.g. A study found pps were less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways as they did not want to be part of the minority ‘environmentalists’.

  Minority influence can sometime be ineffective if the perception of that group is negative.