How Social Influence Affects Social Change Flashcards
What is an example of a consistent minority challenging beliefs?
Terrorist acts committed by the IRA in Northern Ireland over many years drew attention to their argument and eventually forced a power sharing in government.
They showed consistency and persistence in their message to have a united ireland. This caused a cognitive conflict in society as people were forced to consider their own views.
Supporters of the argument for unity would internalise this minority position and be ultimately ready to kill for it. This augmented their position
The snowball effect meant that more people had to take sides and at the time it seemed normal to have bombings. These individuals conformed to the idea that this was a rightful fight
What is an example of the power of the majority to establish norms?
The ban on smoking in public places and the obedience of smokers in following it has led to a fall in smoking. This is an example of a social norms intervention. People thought that after the ban more smokers would light up at home, but this does not seem to have happened. Equally, a study looking at children’s exposure to second hand smoking in England found that exposure levels had declined nearly 70%. It seems that the unacceptability of smoking in public let to conformity and obedience in private. This example of new law shows how the majority influence of non smokers led to a social change in the minority smoking group
Why is the timescale for minority influence a problem?
The timescale for minority influence to work is often very long because groups tend to conform to the majority position. For example, the fight for women’s suffrage took nearly 60 years from beginning to end
How does Nemeth’s study support minority influence?
She suggested that the minority and majority influence lead to different types of thinking, which she called convergent-divergent theory
This theory states that the minority who dissent stimulate thought that is broader and takes in more information. This leads to better decisions and more creative solutions (divergent thinking). On the other hand, people expect to agree with the majority and when they don’t, they find themselves stressed, so they narrow their thinking and become more convergent thinkers.
How can the IRA be a problem in minority influence?
They used violence, destruction and fear to influence the majority
How can social norms interventions backfire?
Social norms interventions using the majority influence can sometimes backfire, encouraging those who already behave in a socially acceptable way to conform to the majority and drop their high standards. For example, schulz et al found that in getting high energy users to use less power, those already using less increased their usage.
