13: The Role of Social Influence Processes in Social Change Flashcards
what is meant by social change
social change occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals adopt new attitudes and behaviours.
most major social movements are started by individuals or small groups (minorities) who aim to persuade the majority in soviet to support their cause through using a number of different methods.
eg: suffragettes, environmental activists, black lives matter, LGBTQ movement, communists/Karl Marx
what 2 social influence processes affect social change
- minority influence
- conformity (majority influence)
3 parts of the role of minority influence in social change
- drawing attention to an issue
- consistency
- the snowball effect
Outline the role of social influence processes in social change: MINORITY INFLUENCE
- Drawing attention to an issue
firstly, minorities may begin the process of social change by drawing the majorities attention to an issue
if the views expressed by the minority are different to those if the majority, this creates a conflict that they are motivated to reduce
for example, the suffragettes protested to draw attention to the fact that women were denied the same voting rights as men
in the modern day, the media can be used to draw attention to an issue (eg adverts, leaflets, or online campaigns)
Outline the role of social influence processes in social change: MINORITY INFLUENCE
- consistency
secondly, it is argued that minorities are most likely to achieve social change if they are consistent
this might be agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consistency - all saying the same thing), and/or consistency over time (diachronic consistency - saying the same thing for a long period)
this leads the majority to doubt themselves which can lead to behaviour change
for example, the suffragettes all consistently made the same argument over time
Outline the role of social influence processes in social change: MINORITY INFLUENCE
- the snowball effect
minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but this then continuously grows as more people in society consider the issues being promoted, until it reaches a ‘tipping point’ at which it leads to a wide scale social change. this is called the ‘snowball effect’
social change can then be cemented with the passing of laws to ensure everyone ‘obeys’ societies new accepted approach to the issue (eg anti-discrimination laws, voting rights for women)
Evaluate the role of social influence processes in social change: MINORITY INFLUENCE
- Strengths
P: support for the role of ‘consistency’ in social change comes from Moscovici (1969)
E/E: found that when a minority of confederates consistently said blue slides were green (incorrect answer) they had a larger influence over the minority group of ppts (8.42%), than when the confederates were inconsistent (1.25%)
L: suggests minorities in society have more of a chance of social change when they are consistent
Evaluate the role of social influence processes in social change: MINORITY INFLUENCE
- Limitations
P: our understanding is based on research that is low in ecological validity
E: although the lab setting is controlled, it can also be views as an artificial setting because it doenst represent real life
E: in real life minority groups are usually arguing in favour of important social issues rather than more trivial tasks such as colour judgement
L: the findings may not generalise to real life minority influence social situations
P: real life minority groups in society are more complicated than much of the research suggests
E: there is more involved in the difference between a minority and a majority than just numbers
E: eg, majorities in society usually have much more power and status than minorities whilst minorities can be right-knit groups whose members know each other well and turn to each other for support
L: minority influence research may over-simplify the processes involved in social change
Outline the role of social influence processes in social change: CONFORMITY (majority influence)
research has shown that ‘conformity’ (majority influence) can play a key role in social change
this is because many of the attributes and behaviours of individuals in society are shaped by what they perceive to be ‘social norms’, meaning we are influenced by what we think everyone else is doing
the normative social influence explanation of conformity suggests we will often change our behaviour out of a desire to be liked and accepted by the majority and to gain social approval
therefore, if individuals in society are led to believe that the majority are behaving differently to the way they behave (eg recycling more or drinking less alcohol) they may change their behaviour to avoid being seen as socially deviant
Evaluate the role of social influence processes in social change: CONFORMITY
- Strengths
P: support for the role of conformity in social change comes from Nolan et al (2008)
E: they hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month, saying that most residents were trying to reduce their energy consumption. a control group were asked to save energy but did not refer to other people’s behaviour
E: the found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group
L: supports the view that conformity can lead to social change through the use of NSI
P: may benefit the economy
E: based on research into social psychology, the government set up the ‘behavioural insight team’ (aka ‘nudge unit’) to help them run the country more effectively
E: eg they have used NSI messages to help encourage people to pay car tax, reduce drink-driving and junk food consumption by informing people this is not the social ‘norm’
L: helps to reduce waste (eg money spent in unnecessary healthcare costs or chasing non-payment) and improve efficiency in the system
