social change

• What is Social Change?

  -> When the whole society adopt new attitudes/beliefs and ways of doing things
• Name the 6 steps for Social Change.

  1. Drawing Attention
  2. Consistency
  3. Deeper Processing
  4. Augmentation Principle
  5. Snowball Effect
  6. Social Cryptomnesia
• Give an example for each of the 6 steps.

  1. Drawing attention through social proof - 1950s - separation of black and white -> civil rights march -attention
  2. Consistency - had many civil rights march & many took part
  3. Deeper Processing of the issue - the attention caused people to think about the injustice
  4. Augmentation Principle - people risked their lives - mob violence
  5. Snowball Effect - US civil rights act passed - showing the switch of minority to majority
  6. Social Cryptomnesia - have memory of a change occurred but don't remember how it happened
• STRENGTH - RESEARCH SUPPORT -Normative Influence

  -> Nolan et al - investigated if S.I led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community

  >messages were hung on front doors every week for a month - San Diego, Cali -> key msg to reduce their energy usage

  -> control group - a different msg asking to save energy but no reference to others behaviour

  • decrease in energy usage for 1st group
  • conformity can lead to S.C through operation of normative S.I
• LIMITATION - Time Consuming

  -> Nemeth - S.C is a slow process & produce fragile effects

  >>majority are not exposed to the main issue at hand so this main issue is not resolved - effects are delayed

  • suggests that social change through minority influence cannot be relied upon to bring about long-standing changes in society