Social Influence L13 - Social Change

Question 1

Social change

Answer 1

When society changes and adopts new beliefs/ways of behaving which then becomes the norms
Commonly result of minority influence - when individual/small group of individuals impact upon the majority

Question 2

Examples of social change

Answer 2

Rosa parks
Suffragettes
Homosexuality

Question 3

Steps that cause social change

Answer 3

• drawing attention to the issue
• consistency of position
• deeper processing
• the augmentation process
• the snowball effect
• social cryptoamnesia

Question 4

Drawing attention to the issue

Answer 4

Minorities can bring about social change by drawing attention to the issue e.g. protests

Question 5

Consistency of position

Answer 5

Minority groups are more influential when they express arguments consistently, over time and with each other (not very flexible at this stage)

Question 6

Deeper processing

Answer 6

Other people not part of the minority start to pay attention to the minority by thinking about what the status quo is and perhaps the unjustness of it

Question 7

The augmentation principle

Answer 7

• If a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and are taken more seriously
• for example, doing something ‘wow’ which will catch the majority’s attention - this supports the minority influence characteristic of commitment

Question 8

The snowball effect

Answer 8

Minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but this then spreads more widely, as more and more people consider the issue being raised, until it reaches a tipping point, where the minority becomes the majority and there is wide-scale social change.

This is when conformity will occur either through Normative Social Influence or Informational Social Influence and everyone will follow each other. Perhaps even laws will be made which people are then bound to follow (obedience to authority).

Question 9

Social cryptoamnesia

Answer 9

the majority knows that a social change has occurred but the source of the change and the message itself has become disassociated through the process of social cryptoamnesia and they do not recall how it happened.
This could be because it is the law and we all have to obey the law so we don’t always think how this law came about e.g. it is now the law that we have to treat people equally regardless of their background otherwise we will be punished through the Discrimination and Equality Act.

Question 10

Apply to African American civil rights movement

Answer 10

See notes

Question 11

Lessons from conformity research

Answer 11

• In one variation of Asch’s experiment, we learned that when one confederate gave a difference answer to the majority then conformity rates dropped even if the answer was incorrect.
• Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change. Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity processes through NSI (Normative Social Influence).
• They do this by giving information e.g. ‘bin it- others do’ - suggesting that the majority of society are saving the environment and this is the norm! In other words, social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority is doing!

Question 12

Lessons from obedience research

Answer 12

Milgram’s research also showed how when one disobedient person refused to give the shock then obedience rates decreased dramatically.
- Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment
- once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes increasingly difficult to resist further instructions.
- In other words, social change can happen when one disobedient person can take the correct decision and others will follow

Question 13

Lessons from minority influence research

Answer 13

• Moscovici’s research demonstrated the needs to be committed, flexible and consistent if one is going to bring about social change.
• If you hear something new, then you might think about it especially if the source is consistent and passionate - the conversion is possible.
• It is this process which can eventually bring about social change. Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority to the minority - known as the snowball effect.
• Finally the minority then becomes the majority and social change has occurred successfully!

Question 14

Social change evaluation

Answer 14

strengths
research support for NSI’s role in social change
weaknesses
Effects of minority influence likely to be indirect/delayed
Barriers to social change

Question 15

Research support for NSI’s role in social change

Answer 15

• There is research evidence for the role of normative social influence in bringing about social change.
• Nolan (2008) investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in the consumption of energy.
• He hung messages on the door of houses in San Diego every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage.
• A control group had a message not referring to other residents instead just to save energy.
• It was found that the group that referred to other residents had shown a decrease in energy usage.
• Thus stating that conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence.

Question 16

Effects of minority influence likely to be indirect/delayed

Answer 16

• The problem with studying in the process of minority influence in social change is that Nemeth (1986) argues that the effects of minority influence are likely to be mostly indirect and delayed.
• They are indirect because the majority is influenced only on the matters at hand, not the central issues itself.
• They are delayed because the effects may not be seen for some time.
• However, this could be seen as a limitation of using minority influence to explain social change because it shows that its effects are fragile and limited.
• Furthermore, this then makes it difficult to test and measure in a scientific setting because social change does not happen straightaway.

Question 17

Barriers to social change

Answer 17

• Also, there may be barriers to social change as investigated by Bashir et al. (2013) who found that participants were less likely to behave in environmental friendly ways as they did not want to be associated with environmentalists who were stereotyped as ‘tree huggers’.
• Thus social change can only happen if the minority influence is not associated with negative and extremist stereotypes which can be very difficult to shift.
• This means that studying social change is even more difficult when there are barriers to social change in general.

Question 18

Social change AO1 question

Answer 18

See notes (gap-fill)