Social change:

• STRENGTH

  • Research has shown that SI processes based on research do work
  • Nolan et al 2008 aimed to see if they could change people's energy use habits
  • Researchers hung messages on the front doors of houses in California every week for 1 month
  • Message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage
  • Control some residents had a message that asked them to save energy - no reference to other peoples behaviour
  • Significant decreases in energy usage in the 1st group compared to the 2nd

  Conformity leads to social change through normative social influence a valid explanation
• COUNTERPOINT:

  • Some studies show that people's behaviour is not always changed through exposing them to social norms
  • Foxcroft et al 2015 reviewed social norms interventions as part of the 'gold standard' Cochrane Collaboration
  • This review included 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce student alcohol use
  • The researchers found only a small reduction in drinking quantity and no effect on drinking frequency

  Therefore it seems that using normative influence does not always produce long-term social change
• STRENGTH:

  • Psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change
  • Nemeth 2009 claims social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire
  • When people consider minority arguments they engage in divergent thinking
  • This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow in which the thinker actively searches for information and weighs up more options
  • Nemeth argues this leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues

  This shows why dissenting minorities are valuable - they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way that majorities cannot