Processes In Social Change

Question 1

What are the steps in how minority influence creates social change?

Answer 1

1. Drawing attention (through social proof) - minority group bring ideas to majority so they’re aware for need for change. E.g. - Civil rights marches in 1950s USA for segregation
2. Consistency - consistent message appears more credible & can convince majority
   E.g. - many marches with many people taking part
3. Deeper processing - attention meant many people who’d simply accepted status quo began to think about unjustness of it
4. Argumentation principle - majority pays attention to selfless & risky actions taken by minority. Majority more likely to accept minority’s opinion as own personal viewpoint when they focus on personal sacrifice made. E.g. ‘Freedom Riders’ were mixed racial group who sat on buses to challenge segregation on buses in south.
5. Snowball effect - once minority viewpoint got attention of some of majority, more & more people people begin paying attention & they gather momentum. E.g. - MLK continued to press for changes that got government’s attention to make Civil Rights Act (1964)
6. Social cryptomnesia - people have memory change occurred but don’t remember how it happened.
   ACDASS

Question 2

How can NSI influence social change?

Answer 2

Asch’s research highlighted importance of dissent in variation - confederate gave correct answers throughout procedure, this broke power of majority encouraging others to dissent
Environmental & health campaigns exploit this by providing info on what majority are doing
E.g. reduce litter by saying “Bin it - others do”

Question 3

How can obedience influence social change?

Answer 3

Milgram’s research shows importance of disobedient role models:
Variation where confederate teacher refuses to give shocks to learner, rate of obedience in genuine parties dropped

Zimbardo (2007): obedience used to create social change through process of gradual commitment: Once small instruction obeyed, becomes more difficult to resist bigger one
People ‘drift’ into new behaviour

Question 4

Evaluate social processes/minority influence involved in social change

Answer 4

Strength - Research support for normative influences
E.g. - Nolan et al. (2008) hung messages on front doors of houses in San Diego very week for month. Key message was most residents trying to reduce energy usage. Control group had different message just asking them to save energy but no reference to others.
Ex. - Found significant decreases in energy usage in first group - shows conformity can lead to social change through operation of NSI

Limitation - Minority influence only indirectly effective
E.g. - Nemeth (1986) argues effects of minority likely to be mostly indirect & delayed
Indirect - majority only influenced on matters related to issue at hand
Ex. - shows effects fragile & role in social influence limited

Limitation - Role of deeper processing
E.g. - Mackie (1987) disagreed that minority influence causes people to think deeper about issue then majority influence.
Majority influence may create deeper processing if you don’t share views as we like to believe others share our views & think same way as us. When we find out they don’t, were forced to think long & hard about their arguments & reasoning
Ex. - Central element of process of minority influence has been challenged & may be incorrect, casting doubt on validity of Moscovici’s theory.