Social influence and change Flashcards
What are the six ways to achieve social change
Drawing attention
Consistency
Deeper processing
augmentation principle
snowball effect
Social cryptoamnesia
Drawing attention
This can be done by showing social proof.
e.g. There was social proof that the black and white people in USA were segregated
Consistency
Express their arguments over and over again to allow people to rethink their views
Deeper processing (cognitive conflict)
Majority group think more deeply about the issue being challenged.
Augmentation principle
Go to extreme measures to get your view heard
e.g. Civil war in America many people were beaten up and some were even killed
Snowball effect
When the minority become the majority and social change has occured.
Social cryptoamnesia
people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened
Lessons from Conformity research
Asch showed in his variation the importance of dissent as when the confederates gave the right answer the ppts broke the power of the majority encouraging them to go against the majority. This research has implications as many environmentalist and health campaigners exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI. They do this by providing what other people are doing. e.g. less young people smoke. In other words it draws their attention to what the majprity are doing
Lessons from Obedience research
Milgram’s study demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. When the confederate teacher refused to give shocks, the rate of obedience of the genuine ppts decreased significantly. 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. Zimbardo calls this gradual commitment
