Influence And Social Change

Question 1

Social Influence

Answer 1

‘The process by which individuals and groups change other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence.’

Question 2

Social Change

Answer 2

‘This occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things. Eg: accepting the earth is round, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues.’

Question 3

What are the three steps on how minority influence creates social change?

Answer 3

Drawing attention, consistency and Deeper processing

Question 4

Drawing attention to the Civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

Answer 4

The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation of black and white segregation, providing social proof of the problem.

Question 5

Consistency of the civil rights movement

Answer 5

Although the activists represented a minority of the American population, their position remained consistent. Millions of people took part in many marches over several years, always presenting the same non-aggressive messages.

Question 6

Deeper processing of the civil rights issue

Answer 6

Activism meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think deeply about the unjustness of it.

Question 7

The augmentation principle

Answer 7

Individuals risked their lives many times. For example, ‘freedom riders’ were mixed ethnic groups who boarded buses in the south, challenging segregation of transport. Many freedom riders were beaten. This personal risk indicates a strong belief and reinforces their message.

Question 8

The snowball effect

Answer 8

Activist like MLK gradually got the attention of the US government. More and more people backed the minority position. In 1964 the US Civil Right’s Act prohibited discrimination, marking a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.

Question 9

Social Crytomnesia

Answer 9

People have the memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.

Question 10

Importance of dissent

Answer 10

This was highlighted by Asch’s study as when one confederate gave the correct answer the power of the majority was broken and encouraged the participant to do the same. Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change.

Question 11

Lessons from obedience research

Answer 11

Milgram’s research demonstrated the importance of disobedient role models.
Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through a process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one.

Question 12

Jessica Nolan et al. (2008)

Answer 12

Research to see whether they could change people’s energy-use habits.
The researchers hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month- the message saying that “most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage”
As a control, some residents were given a different message that just told them to save a nervy with no reference to other people’s behaviour.
The results showed a significant decrease in energy usage in the first group.
his shows that conformity (majority influence) can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence.

Question 13

Counterpoint to normative social influence

Answer 13

Some studies show that people’s behaviour is not always changed through exposing them to social norms.

Question 14

David Foxroft et al. (2015)

Answer 14

Reviewed social norms interventions as part of the ‘gold standard’ Cochran Collaboration.
This review included poking at 70 studies where the social norms approach was used to reduce student alcohol use.
The researchers found that only a small reduction in drinking quantity and no effect on drinking frequency.
Therefore using normative influence does NOT always produce long-term social change.

Question 15

Charlan Nemeth (2009)

Answer 15

Claims that social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire.
When people consider minority arguments, they engage in divergent thinking.
This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow, in which the thinker actively searches for information and weighs up more options.
Nemeth argues that this leads to better decisions and more creative solutions to social issues.
This shows why dissenting minorities are valuable- they stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way that majorities can’t.

Question 16

Role of deeper processing

Answer 16

Weakness- deeper processing may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change.
Some people are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about the minority’s view.

Question 17

Diane Mackie (1987)

Answer 17

Disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views.
This is because we like to believe that other people share our views and think in the same way as us.
When we find that a majority believes something different, then we are forced to think about their argument and reasoning.
This means that a central element minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change.

Question 18

Barriers to social change

Answer 18

Nadia Bashkirs et al. (2013) people still resist social change.
Bashir et al found that their participants were less likely to behave in environmentally-friendly ways because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical and minority ‘environmentalists’.
They described environmental activists in negative ways (eg. Tree huggers).
Despite the resistance, the researchers were still able to suggest ways in which minorities can overcome barriers to social change.