Social influence and social change Flashcards
(7 cards)
what is social change?
Occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.
- E.g. gay rights, environmental issues
Lessons from minority influence research
1) Drawing attention through social proof – the civil rights marches of the 1950’s drew attention to this racial issue, providing social proof of the problem.
2) Consistency – civil rights activists took part in marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggressive messages.
3) Deeper processing of the issue – the activism meant people began to think deeply about the unjustness.
4) The augmentation principle – the personal risk indicated a strong belief and reinforces their message. E.g. the ‘Freedom Riders’ were mixed racial groups who got on buses in the south to challenge the segregation. Many were beaten and incidents of mob violence
5) The snowball effect – Activists (such as Martin Luther King) gradually got the attention of the US government. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination, marking a change from a minority to a majority support for civil rights.
Lessons from conformity research
Asch’s research highlighted the importance of a dissenter in breaking the power of majority. Such dissent has the power to lead to social change.
Social change appeals to normative social influence by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing so they dont feel like the odd one out
Lessons from obedience research
Milgram’s research demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models.
Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one.
Evaluation of social influence and social change (brief)
strength - psychologists can explain minority influence, Nemeth
strength - support for NSI, Nolan et al
weakness - deeper processing might not play role, Mackie
weakness - barriers, Bashir et al
strengths of social influence and social change
Psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change. Nemeth claims social change is due to the type of thinking minorities inspire. When people consider minority arguments, they engage in divergent thinking. Nemeth argues such thinking leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues. Therefore, this shows why dissenting minorities are valuable as they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way majorities cannot.
there is research support for normative influences. Nolan et al aimed to see if they could change energy use habits. They hung messages on front doors every week for a month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce energy usage. As a control, some messages just told residents to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. There was a significant decrease in energy usage in the first group compared to the second. Therefore, this shows that conformity can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence, this is seen to be a valid explanation.
weakness of social influence and social change
deeper processing may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change. People are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about the minorities views. Mackie disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you don’t share their views. When we find out a majority believes something different, we are forced to think hard about their arguments and reasoning. Therefore, this means that a central element of minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change.
There are barriers to social change. Bashir et al (2013) investigated why people so often resist social change, even when they agree that it is necessary. They found participants were less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical and minority ‘environmentalists’. Rated them and feminists in negative ways- ‘tree-huggers’ and ‘man-haters’. Therefore, researchers advice to minorities hoping to create social change is to avoid behaving in ways that reinforce the stereotypes as this will always be off-putting to majority they want to influence.
