Social influence and social change

• Drawing attention

  Through social proof 1950s black and white segregation applied to all parts of America. Black neighbourhoods in the southern states of America and public places like schools were exclusive to whites. Civil rights marches of this period drew attention to this situation providing socialism proof of the problem.
• Consistency

  Civil rights activists presented a minority of the American population but their position remained consistent and always presented the same non aggressive arguments

  Deeper processing

  Activism meant that many people who had simply accepted the quo behan to think deeply of the injustice of it 
• Augmentation principle

  Individuals risked their lives numerous times the persona risk indicates a strong belief and reinforces their message 

  Snowball effect

  Activists got attention from the US government and more people backeds the minority position turning the minority into the majority

  Social cryptomnesia

  People have memory of the change but do not know how it happened
• Lessons from conformity research

  Asch highlighted the importance of dissent in one of his variations; the confederates gave all the correct answers throughout the procedure, breaking the power of the majority allowing others to dissent leading to social change. Different approach used by environmental and health campaigns exploiting conformity by appealing to NSI. Social change is encouraged  by drawing attention to what the majority are doing.
• Lessons from obedience research

  Milgram demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. Variation where the teacher refuses to give the learner the shocks rate of obedience decreased. Zimbardro suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment. One instruction obeyed becomes harder to resist the next instruction.
• Strength psychologists can explain how minority influence can bring about social change. Nemeth 2009  claims social change is due to a type of thinking that minorities can inspire (divergent thinking). The type of thinking is broad rather than narrow which the thinker actively searches for info and weighs up more options. Nemeth argues this leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues. Shows why dissenting minorities are valuable they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way majorities cannot. 
• Limitation deeper processing may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change.Mackie 1987 disagrees and presents evidence that the majority view may create deeper processing if not share their views because we like to believe that other people share our views and think the same way as us. When we find that the majority believes something different then we are forced to think long and hard about their arguments and reasoning. Means that a central element of minority influence has been challenged casting doubt on its validity as an explanation for social change.
• Strength research social influence processes are based on psychological research. Nolan 2008 aimed  to see if they could change people's energy use habits. Researchers hung messages on front doors of houses every week for a month , the key message reduce their energy usage. Some residents had different messages that asked them to save energy but no reference to others' behaviours. There were significant decreases in energy usage in their first group compared to the second. Shows that conformity can lead to social change through the operation of NSI it is a valid explanation.
• But some studies show that some people's behaviour is not always changed by exposing them to social norms. Foxcroft 2015 reviewed social norms interventions as a part of the gold standard , and included 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce alcohol consumption . researchers found that only a small reduction in drinking quantity and no effect on drinking frequency. Therefore it seems using NSI does not always produce long term social change.