Social influence/change

• Social influence and social change-

  Lessons from minority influence research-

  1. Drawing attention- civil rights marches against the racial segregation shows that it is a social issue.
  2. Consistency- the marches always stayed consistent with the same non-aggressive message.
• Social influence and social change-

  Lessons from minority influence research-

  3. Deeper processing- the activism made people think deeply into the issue that they just accepted before with no other thoughts.

  4. Augmentation principle- personal risk of mixed-race people riding on white only buses, indicating a strong belief and reinforces the message through their actions.
• Social influence and social change-

  Lessons from minority influence research-

  5. Snowball effect- gathering attention and more people joining the minority.

  6. Social cryptomnesia- the memory that change has happened but not how it happened, since the south changed but no one knows what led to the change.
• Social influence and social change-

  Lessons from conformity research-

  • Asch broke the power of majority by having one confederate gave the right answer every time which has the potential to lead social change.
  • Normative social influence is used with health and environmental campaigns saying that others don’t litter or smoke to influence people to do the right thing because others do.
• Social influence and social change-

  Lessons from obedience-

  • Milgrams research demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models, since when the teacher refuses to give a shock the obedience plummets.
  • Zimbardo showed how obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment, by having a small instruction obeyed which makes it harder to resists a bigger instruction, making people behave differently.
• Social influence and social change-

  CPS- Nolan et al (2008) changed people energy usage using messages hung up on peoples front doors daily (California + San Diego) for a month, having signs comparing to others or just asking to reduce energy uses, significant decreases when compared to others.

  CPW- Foxcroft et al (2015) reviewed part of the ‘gold standard’ collection, using 70 studies approaching alcohol usage with students, found a small reduction in drinking quantity but no effect on frequency, meaning that social influence doesn’t produce long term social change.
• Social influence and social change-

  S- Nemeth (2009) social change is due to minorities inspiring, through engaging divergent thinking, making it broader leading to more creative solutions that majorities can’t.

  W- Mackie (1987) states that majority influence may create deeper processing of the views stay private, due to thinking others share our views and finding out what the majority believes makes us rethink and doubt, casting a doubt on the validity of it as an explanation of social change.