Influence And Social Change

Question 1

Social influence

Answer 1

The process by which individuals and groups change other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence

Question 2

Social change

Answer 2

“This occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things. Eg: accepting the earth is round, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues.”

Question 3

Example of how minority influence creates social change

Answer 3

American civl rights movement, gay rights movements, suffragettes

Question 4

Steps for minority influence

Answer 4

1. Drawing attention
2. Consistency
3. Deeper processing
4. The augmentation principle
5. The snowball effect
6. Social cyptomnesia

Question 5

Step 1 - drawing attention

Answer 5

Through social proof. In the 1950s, white and black were segregated. The civil rights marches draw attention to this situation, providing segregation as proof

Question 6

Step 2 - consistency

Answer 6

Civil rights activists were a minority, but position remained consistency. Millions took place in marches over years, and always had the same non-aggressive messages

Question 7

Step 3 - deeper processing

Answer 7

Activism meant that many who had accepted situation began to think deeply about unjustness

Question 8

Step 4 - augmentation principle

Answer 8

Indviduals risked lives, ‘freedom riders’ - mixed ethnic groups that boarded buses in south and challenged segregation on transport. They were often beaten, personal risk indicated strong belief

Question 9

Step 5 - snowball effect

Answer 9

Activists got attention of US government, more and more supported position. 1964 - US civil right act

Question 10

Step 6 - social cryptomnesia

Answer 10

People know a change has occurred but can remember how it happened

Question 11

Lessons from conformity research

Answer 11

Asch’s research - highlighted importance of dissent
One confederate gave correct answer, power of majority broken and encouraged participant to do same

Question 12

Normative social influence

Answer 12

Providing information about what people are doing, for example reducing litter by putting normative information on a bin, e.g ‘bin it, others do’

Question 13

Lessons from obedience research

Answer 13

Milgram’s variation - confederate refuses to obey, participant obedience dropped
Zimbardo suggested that obedience can create social change through gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, its harder to resist a bigger one

Question 14

Research support for normative influence

Answer 14

Research has show that social influence processes do work
Jessica Nolan et al (2008) - research to see whether they could change people’s energy-use habit
Hung message on the front door of houses in San Diego every week for a month - ‘most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage’
Control - some resident were given a different message that just told them to save energy with no reference to others
Results - significant decrease in energy usage in first group, showing that conformity (majority influence) can lead to social change through normative social influence

Question 15

Counterpoint to research

Answer 15

Some studies show that people’s behaviour is not always changed through exposing them to social norms
David Foxcroft et al (2015)
Looked at 70 studies where social norms are used to reduce student alcohol use
Found no effect on drinking frequency or drinking quantity
Does therefore not always produce long term social change

Question 16

Strength of minority influence causing social change

Answer 16

Nemeth (2009) claims social change is due to type of thinking about minorities
When people consider minority argument, they engage in divergent thinking. This is broader rather than narrow, thinker actively searches for information
-Argues that this leads to better and more creative solutions to social issues
-Shows that dissenting minorities are valuable, as can produce new ideas

Question 17

Limitation to deeper processing

Answer 17

May not play a role into how minorities bring about social change
Some people are meant to be converted when they think deeply
Diane Mackie (1987) disagrees and present evidence that majority influence may create deeper processing if someone does share your view, as we like to believe that other people share our views and think the same
When the majority disagrees, we are forced to think about their argument

Question 18

Limitation - barriers to social change

Answer 18

Bashir et al (2013) - people resist social change
Found that their participants were less likely to behave in an environmentally-friendly way as they did not want to be associated with the minority ‘environmentalists’, which were described negatively