Social influence and Social Change Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is social change?
When society adopts new beliefs or behaviours, often influenced by a minority and leading to widespread internalisation.
What are the six steps of minority influence in creating social change?
- Drawing attention
- Consistency
- Deeper processing
- Augmentation principle
- Snowball effect
- Social cryptomnesia
How can conformity research explain social change?
Asch showed that dissent breaks majority pressure and allows others to resist.
Campaigns use Normative social Influence e.g. “most people recycle” - to promote positive behaviours.
What does Milgram’s research suggest about obedience and social change?
the presence of a disobedient role model reduced obedience, encouraging others to resist authority.
What is gradual commitment (Zimbardo)?
Obeying a small instruction makes it easier to comply with larger ones - people ‘drift’ into new behaviours.
What is a strength of research into social change?
It helps explain real historical changes (e.g. civil rights, climate action) and is used in health/environmental campaigns.
Why might social change research lack validity?
Much is based on lab experiments which use artificial tasks and lack ecological validity.
What is a problem with minority influence causing change?
It often takes a long time and may only affect attitudes, not behaviours - change is slow and fragile.
What research supports the role of NSI in social change?
Nolan et al. (2008) found that people who were told their neighbours were saving energy significantly reduced their own energy use, showing that normative messages can influence real-world behaviour.
What is a limitation of using NSI in social change?
Foxcroft et al. (2015) found that social norms campaigns had only a small impact on alcohol use, suggesting that normative influence does not always lead to lasting behavioural change.
What is a challenge to the role of deeper processing in minority influence?
Mackie (1987) argues that majority views, are more likely to cause deep thinking, because people are surprised when most others disagree with them.
How does social change research benefit from scientific methods?
Studies like Nolan’s use field experiments and control groups, which increases internal validity and real-world application.
What is a limitation of many studies in social change?
Many (Moscovici’s) are lab-based with artificial tasks (e.g. colour perception), which reduces ecological validity and limits generalisability to real-world social movements.
