Social change:

• Steps in how minority social influence creates social change through real world examples ie the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s

  1. Drawing attention through social proof - In the 1950s, black and white segregation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods in the southern states of America, places such as certain schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to this situation providing social proof of the problem
• 1. Consistency - Civil rights activists represented a minority of the American population, but their position remained consistent. Millions of people took part in many marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggressive messages.
  2. 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. IE the 'freedom riders' were mixed ethnic groups who boarded buses in the south, challenging racial segregation of transport. Many freedom riders were beaten. This personal risk indicates a strong belief and reinforces their message

  1. The snowball effect - Activists ie Martin Luther King gradually got the attention of the US government. More and more people backed the minority position. In 1964 the US Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination marking a change from minority to majority support for civil rights
• 1. Social cryptomnesia (people have a memory that change has occurred but don't remember how it happened) - Social change clearly did come about so the south is quite a different place now. But some people have no memory (cryptoamnesia) of the events that led to that change
• Lessons from conformity research

  Asch stated the importance of dissent where 1 confederate gave correct answer throughout the procedure

  Broke the power of the majority encouraging others to do likewise

  Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change

  A diff approach used by environmental campaigns which exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI by providing information about what other people are doing

  IE reducing litter by printing normative messages on litter bins Bin it others do

  Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are doing
• Lessons from obedience research


  Milgram's research clearly demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models

  In the variation where a confederate Teacher refuses to give shocks to the Learner, the rate of obedience in the genuine participants plummeted.

  Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People essentially 'drift' into a new kind of behaviour.