Chapter 1 Social Influence - Social Influence & Social Change

Question 1

Social influence & social change - Research - Lessons from minority influence research?

Answer 1

• Minority influence is a powerful force for innovation & social change.
• For example, civil rights marches (US) influence involves (1) Drawing attention, (2) Consistency, (3) Deeper processing (thinking), (4) Augmentation (risks), (5) snowball effect, (6) social cryptomnesia (forgetting).

Question 2

Social influence & social change - Research - Lessons from conformity research?

Answer 2

• Dissent breaks power of majority (Asch).
• NSI draws attention to what majority is doing.

Question 3

Social influence & social change - Research - Lessons from obedience research?

Answer 3

• Disobedient role models (Milgram).
• Gradual commitment leads to change (Zimbardo).

Question 4

Social influence & social change - Evaluation of research - Research support for NSI? STRONG

Answer 4

• NSI valid explanation of social change, e.g. reducing energy consumption (Nolan et al).
• Counterpoint - NSI doesn´t always produce change (Foxcroft et al).

Question 5

Social influence & social change - Evaluation of research - Minority influence explains change? STRONG

Answer 5

Minorities stimulate divergent thinking - broad, creative, more options (Nemeth).

Question 6

Social influence & social change - Evaluation of research - Role of deeper processing? WEAK

Answer 6

It is majority views that are processed more deeply than minority views, challenging central feature of minority influence (Mackie).

Question 7

Social influence & social change - Evaluation of research - Barriers to social change?

Answer 7

People resist social change because minorities seen negatively e.g. ´tree huggers´(Bashir et al).