Social change

Question 1

What are the 5 stages of social change?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Explain drawing attention

Answer 2

Minority must draw attention to the issue

Question 3

Explain deeper processing

Answer 3

Causes the majority to think more deeply about why they hold a belief

Question 4

Explain consistency

Answer 4

Minorities must express their views consistently

Question 5

Explain the augmentation principle

Answer 5

The minority must appear willing to suffer for their cause

Question 6

Explain the snowball effect

Answer 6

minority become majority

Question 7

What is social cryptomnesia?

Answer 7

when the view is widely held and social change has occurred, people are aware of the change but they cannot remember how

Question 8

A03 - Social influence processes such as NSI can also create social change

Answer 8

• Nolan et al investigated whether social influence process led to reduction in energy consumption in a community
• Hung messages on front door of houses every week for a month
• Key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage
• As a control some residents has a different message that just asked them to save their energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour
• Nolan et al found a significant decrease in energy usage amongst the group who were given the message that their neighbours were trying to reduce energy
• shows that social change can occur through normative social influence

Question 9

A03 - Social change may not be due to minority influence instead may be more effective by majority influence

Answer 9

• Moscovici’s explanation of minority proposes minority influence makes individuals think more deeply about an issue
• Mackie disagrees and suggests that it is a majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views
• because we like to believe that other people share our views and think in the same way as us
• When we find that a majority believes something different, we are forced to think deeply about their reasoning and arguments
• therefore minority influence may not be as effective to gain social change

Question 10

A03 - Social change through minority influence is very gradual

Answer 10

• The influence of minority is only indirectly effective and can happen slowly
• For example, it has taken decades for attitudes against smoking to shift
• Nemeth argues that the effect minority groups have are most likely to be indirect and delayed
• Indirect because people are more focused on the man on the roof than the issue he is promoting and delayed as the effects may not be seen for a long time
• Social influence through minority influence may not always bring their point about and may cause focus on other issues

Question 11

A03 - Not all social norms are able to produce social change

Answer 11

• While social norms interventions have shown positive results in a number of different settings (e.g. reducing drunk-driving), they also have their limitations
• DeJong et al tested the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns to drive down alcohol consumption across 14 different college sites
• Despite receiving NSI that corrected their misconceptions of subjective drinking norms, students in the NSI condition did not lower self reported alcohol consumption as a result of the campaign
• Shows that social norm might not always lead to social change