Social Influence - Social Change Flashcards
What is social change?
When whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs & new ways of doing things e.g. the LGBT movement
How is social change created?
Minority influence
People who initiate social change have which locus of control?
Internal locus of control
What are the different psychological processes that influence social change?
Drawing attention
Consistency
Deeper processing
The augmentation principle
The snowball effect
Social cryptoamnesia
What is the augmentation principle?
When a group member of the minority performs an action that is met with great opposition there beliefs are seen to be more valid & stronger than others
What is the snowball effect?
Once the minority persuades a couple of people to their way of people, many more people accept their view until the minority view becomes the majority
What is social cryptoamnesia?
When the minority view becomes dominant in society so no one can remember where the view originated from
What are some lessons from conformity that can be used in social change?
Asch -> highlighted the importance of dissent ( 1 confederate gave correct answers breaking the unanimity & encouraged the participant to dissent)
Normative social influence usually used in campaigns -> gives people information on what others are doing (encourages social change by drawing the attention of the actions of the majority)
What are some lessons from obedience that can be used in social change?
Milgram -> highlights the importance of disobedient role models (variation the confederate teacher refused to give shocks so obedience decreased)
Zimbardo -> social change can occur through gradual commitment (once a small instruction is obeyed it is more difficult to refuse another & people ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour)
What are some strengths of social change?
Research support for normative influences -> Nolan et al investigated whether social influence process led to energy reeducation in a community. They hung messages on doors in san Diego every week for a month with the key message more residents were trying to reduce their energy, a control having no mention of anyone else. They found significant decreases in the first group. Shows that conformity can lead to social change through NSI
What are some limitations of social change?
Role of deeper processing -> Mackie challenges Moscovici’s explanation that minority & majority influences involve different cognitive processes (minority influence causes individuals to think more deeply about an issue than majority influence) as when we disagree with a majority we stop & think about their views as we’re all inclined to believe that the majority agree with us which means the central element of minority influence is challenged and loses validity
Barriers to social change -> Bashir et al -> found out people are less likely to conform to social change as they didn’t want to be associated with the stereotype of the group (means to encourage social change, people shouldn’t behave in stereotypical ways as it is off-putting to the people they want to influence)
