Social Influence and Social Change

• Social Change


  When a society adopts a new belief or way of believing that then become widely accepted as the norm
• Drawing Attention


  1. Provides social proof to the problem

  2. Ex. Restaurants exclusive to whites (civil rights)
• Consistency


  1. Persistently and repeatedly present the same views

  2. Kept representing the minority and remained consistent in their position

  3. Ex. Millions took part in marches over several years presenting non-aggressive messages
• Deeper Processing


  Many people who normally accepted the issue and didn't think about it are beginning to think deeply about the unjustness of it all
• Augmentation Principle


  1. Cognitive conflict

  2. Individuals risk their lives numerous times

  3. Ex. Boarding buses - beaten/imprisoned

  4. Willing to put self at risk to reinforce the message

  5. Demonstrates commitment
• Snowball Effect


  1. Minority influences the majority - more and more people conform to minority so it becomes a majority belief

  2. Ex. Martin Luther King gradually gained attention from the government and more people began joining the movement - minority changed to majority supporting civil rights
• Social Cryptoamnesia


  People remember the change but no memory of the events that led to change
• Social change and conformity

  • Dissenters → breaks majority view which influences others to do likewise
  • Normative Social Influence → drawing attention to what majority are doing (ex. littering signs)
• Social change and obedience

  • Milgram → when confederate refused to give shocks to learner obedience of real participant decreased
  • Zimbardo → gradual commitment - once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one so people 'drift' into a new kind of behaviour
• Research support for normative influences

  • Nolan et al aimed to see if people could reduce their energy intake, and gave out signs for doors in San Diego
  • One group were given signs saying most residents were reducing their intake, whereas the other group were given signs saying to save energy
  • The first group had a significant decrease in energy use
  • This increases the validity of the explanation as it shows that conformity can lead to social change through NSI
• Minority influences social change - Evaluation

  • Nemeth claimed social change was due to engagement with minority view
  • When people consider minority arguments they engage in divergent thinking which is broad and weighs up more options
  • Leads to more creative thinking and better decision making
  • This shows dissenting minorities as valuable - they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way majorities cannot
• Role of deeper processing


  • Mackie does not agree that minority influence converts individuals to that view, and that majority influence creates deeper processing when you disagree with their views
  • This is because when we find that a majority believes something different we are forces to think long and hard about their arguments and reasoning as we want other people to have the same views and think the same as us
  • This means that a central element of minority influence is challenged and reduces its validity as an explanation of social change