Social influence

• Civil rights movements


  Movements to end racial discrimination and segregation
• Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela led civil rights movements and were consistent in their views against apartheid for many years
• This helped bring about social change
• Apartheid


  Racial segregation and discrimination
• In the 1950s, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white male passenger, violating US law
• This event helped trigger the civil rights movement to end the racial segregation laws in America
• Rosa Parks


  • She was willing to make a sacrifice (being arrested) to show her commitment to her cause
  • This made her more influential in bringing about social change
• The case of Rosa Parks demonstrates that people who are willing to make a sacrifice to show their commitment to their cause are more influential in bringing about a social change
• social change is seen with the suffragettes who were consistent in their

  view and persistently used educational and political arguments to draw attention to female rights. They

  remained consistent for many years and despite opposition continued protesting and lobbying
• Over time their minority influence influenced people to consider the

  issue, leading to social change and all adults gaining the right to vote.
• 1st step of social change : Consistency – displaying consistency of viewpoint and intended outcome is beneficial in bringing about

  social change, as a consistent message appears more credible and can help to convince a majority
• 2nd step of social change :Deeper Processing – the more people think about the issue at hand, rather than blindly accepting it,

  the more they will, in turn, be able to challenge the existing social norms to bring about change
• 3rd step of social change:Drawing attention – in order for a social change to occur, the majority must first of all be made aware of the need for the change.
• 4th step of social change: The Augmentation Principle – when the majority pays attention to selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority group and is more likely to integrate the group’s opinion into their own personal

  viewpoints due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority.
• 5th step of social change: The Snowball Effect – once the minority viewpoint has got the attention of some of the majority group members, more and more people begin paying attention and the minority viewpoint gathers

  momentum, much like a snowball growing in size when rolled along a snowy field.
• 6th step of social change : Social Cryptoamnesia – the majority knows that a social change has occurred but the source of the change and the message itself have become disassociated through the process of social cryptoamnesia and they do not recall how it has happened.
• 7th step of social change :Normative Social Influence – social change can be encouraged by reporting the behaviour or attitudes of the majority, to urge others to follow suit for normative reasons (e.g. to fit in with the majority).
• 8th step of social change: Gradual Commitment – once a small instruction has been followed, it is harder for larger requests to be declined. This is often referred to as ‘the foot in the door technique’ and means that people

  effectively find themselves adopting a new way of behaving gradually over a period of time.
• Evaluation for social change

  Minority influence can often act as a barrier to social change. Bashir et al. (2013) were interested in

  investigating why so many people resist social change even when they believe it to be needed. It was

  found that some minority groups, such as environmental activists or feminists, often live up to the

  stereotypes associated with those groups, which can be off‐putting for outsiders. This means that the

  majority often does not want to be associated with a minority for fear of being stereotypically labelled.
• Evaluation for social change

  Research support for the role of normative social influence as a process for social change
• Study for social change evaluation 


  • Spanned one month in California
  • Involved hanging messages on the front doors of people's houses in San Diego
  • Encouraged them to reduce energy consumption
  • Indicated that most other residents in the neighbourhood were already doing this
• Control group for evaluation of social change


  • Received a message about energy usage but with no reference to the behaviour of others
• Experimental group for social change 


  Significantly lowered their energy consumption
• Conformity


  Can lead to positive social change
• Minority influence and majority influence may involve different levels of cognitive processing.

  Moscovici believes that a minority viewpoint forces individuals to think more deeply about the issue.

  However, Mackie (1987) counters this, suggesting the opposite to be true. She suggests that when a

  majority group is thinking or acting in a way that is different from ourselves we are forced to think even

  more deeply about their reasons. This, therefore, casts doubt on the validity of Moscovici’s minority

  influence theory, suggesting it may be incorrect.
• Methodological issues may undermine the links drawn between social influence processes and social change. For example, many of the research studies providing an explanation for social change, such as

  those conducted by Asch, Milgram and Moscovici, can themselves be criticised for issues in their

  methodology ranging from low generalisability to demand characteristics. This means that there are

  doubts about the validity of some of the processes involved in social influence and social change due to the research informing the theories.
• Reports of social change within society can involve concepts that have not been, or cannot be, tested empirically, which means they lack scientific credibility
• Idiographic approach


  There is a large amount of subjective interpretation involved in explaining the occurrences of social norms being superseded in society
• Each piece of research that contributed to the processes involved in social influence, such as that of Asch, Milgram and Moscovici, takes a nomothetic approach, as they have each created universal laws to explain human behaviour under certain social circumstances
• Social change refers to the ways in which a society (rather than an individual) develops over time to

  replace beliefs, attitudes and behaviour with new norms and expectations.
• Psychologists have identified different factors that can enhance the effectiveness of a minority, including:

  consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• Consistency refers to the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority

  members share the same belief and retain it over time. This then draws the attention of the majority group to the minority position. One of the most influential experiments investigating minority influence was

  conducted by Moscovici (1969).
• Aim: To see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer, in a colour

  perception task.
• Method: His sample consisted of 172 female participants who were told that they were taking part in a

  colour perception task. The participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, which were all

  varying shades of blue. The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide.

  Two of the six participants were confederates and in one condition (consistent) the two confederates said

  that all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said that 24 of the

  slides were green and 12 were blue
• Findings: Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.2% of the

  trials, whereas in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials.
• Conclusion: Moscovici’s results show that a consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an

  inconsistent minority and that consistency is an important factor in exerting minority influence.
• On occasion, minorities sometimes engage in very risky or extreme behaviour in order to draw attention to their views. In psychological terms, it is important that these behaviours place the minority at risk in order for them to demonstrate commitment to their cause. This is called the augmentation principle, as the majority then in turn pays more attention to the actions being taken and is therefore more likely to

  integrate it into their personal viewpoints, augmenting its importance, due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority.
• Flexibility refers to the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority is willing to compromise. This means they cannot be viewed as dogmatic and unreasonable.
• Aim: Nemeth (1986) believed that consistency was not the most important factor in minority influence,

  suggesting that it can often be misinterpreted as a negative trait. She set about investigating the idea of flexibility as a key characteristic of successful minorities who exert pressure.
• Method: Participants, in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski‐lift accident.

  One of the participants in each group was a confederate and there were two conditions:

  1. When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position

  (inflexible).

  2) When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher

  rate of compensation (flexible).