Social change

• Steps in how minority social influence creates social change

  1. Drawing attention through social proof

  2. Consistency

  3. Deeper processing of the issue

  4. The augmentation principle

  5. The snowball effect

  6. Social cryptomnesia
• Drawing attention through social proof


  • Civil rights marches drew attention to the situation of black and white segregation, providing social proof of the problem
• Consistency

  • Civil rights activists represented a minority but their position remained consistent, with millions taking part in many marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggressive messages
• Deeper processing of the issue


  • The activism meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think deeply about the unjustness of it
• The augmentation principle


  • Individuals risked their lives numerous times, such as the 'freedom riders' who challenged racial segregation, indicating a strong belief and reinforcing their message
• The snowball effect


  • Activists gradually got the attention of the US government, and more and more people backed the minority position, leading to the US Civil Rights Act in 1964 prohibiting discrimination
• Social cryptomnesia

  People have a memory that change has occurred but don't remember how it happened
• Dissent

  • Dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change, as shown in Asch's research where one confederate giving correct answers broke the power of the majority
• Normative social influence

  • Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence, providing information about what other people are doing
• Disobedient role models

  • Milgram's research showed the importance of disobedient role models, as the rate of obedience plummeted when a confederate refused to give shocks
• Gradual commitment

  • Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment, where people 'drift' into a new kind of behaviour