Social change

Question 1

What is social influence?

Answer 1

The process individuals and groups go through to change each other’s attitudes and behaviours

Question 2

What is social change?

Answer 2

Whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours and they become the norm

Question 3

What are the processes of minority influence in social change?

Answer 3

1. Attention is drawn
2. Consistency, flexibility and commitment
3. Augmentation principle
4. Internalisation
5. The snowball effect
6. Social crypto amnesia

Question 4

What is social crypto amnesia and when does it occur?

Answer 4

Social change has occurred and the minority becomes the majority view. It is a new norm and often becomes law people have to obey

People remember that change happened but do not remember how it happened or why people had the original opinion

Question 5

Give a specific example to demonstrate how minority influence can lead to social change?

Answer 5

Attention- unfair segregation with Rosa Parks

Question 6

How can social change occur through conformity processes?

Answer 6

NSI- as the new norm is developed it becomes something that is desirable

ISI- draws attention to a social/moral injustice and people have more information to start to change to the new viewpoint

Question 7

How can social change occur through obedience processes?

Answer 7

Zimbardo argued that obedience can be used in social change through gradual commitment. Obeying one small instruction is harder to resist a bigger one

Question 8

What research did Nolan et al conduct?

Answer 8

Hung messages on houses every day for a month.
Experimental group messages focused on how all residents were trying to reduce energy usage.
Control group message just asked them to reduce usage and found significant decrease in energy usage in experimental group.
This shows the importance of NSI in social change

Question 9

How is minority influence most likely to be indirect?

Answer 9

Cannot study cause and effect due to delay and indirect because majority is only influenced by most pressing part of the topic itself

Question 10

How has the idea of deeper processing been counteracted?

Answer 10

Mackie argues it is majority influence as we like to think others agree with our beliefs so it causes more dissonance when we disagree with them, so we consider their reasoning and arguments deeper