Role of Social Influence Processes in Social Change

• Social change


  A shift or adaptation in social norms (behaviours, attitudes, customs, beliefs, habits)
• Social change is not sudden; it takes place gradually, sometimes without people realising that change is happening
• The move towards recycling at home


  1. People using communal recycling hubs (e.g. huge brown bins to deposit bottles)

  2. People installing their own green/brown/blue bins both outside and inside their homes for different recycled items
• In the 1970s, if you went into a pub, restaurant or even cinema


  You would probably be overwhelmed by cigarette smoke
• Public health campaigns over the decades

  Helped to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking which eventually translated to official government policy
• Minority influence


  The driving force behind social change
• Gay rights


  • The right to marry someone of the same sex
  • Decades ago, this would not have been considered possible
• Gay rights campaigners


  1. Drawing attention to the inequalities of heterosexual/homosexual experience (e.g. through campaigns such as Stonewall and celebrations such as Pride week)

  2. Maintaining a consistent message and showing commitment to the cause

  3. Taking a flexible approach (e.g. using humour as a 'weapon'; avoiding a rigid and inflexible argument)
• Harvey Milk was the first openly gay politician to be elected in California: he sponsored a bill banning homosexual discrimination in hotels, housing and jobs and was assassinated for his stance (the augmentation principle)
• The snowball effect


  Can be seen in the year-on-year traction that was made by the gay rights movement culminating in gay marriage becoming legal in the UK in 2013
• Gay marriage is now not regarded as unusual in many countries and TV shows such as Ru Paul's Drag Race, It's A Sin and Queer Eye highlight social cryptomnesia i.e. the change becomes part of the fabric of society to the extent that it's difficult to remember a time when things were different