Social change

Question 1

What are the ways through which minority groups can achieve social change?

Answer 1

Getting attention, consistency, augmentation principle, flexibility, social cryptoamnesia deeper processing, snowball effect

Question 2

Getting attention

Answer 2

• the minority can seek to improve status through protests, marches and campaigns to address inequality or discrimination.
• This brings about attention to the issue

Question 3

Consistency

Answer 3

• minorities can bring about social change by being consistent and persistent about their message

Question 4

Deeper processing

Answer 4

• many people who simply accept the status quo will start to think further

Question 5

Augmentation principle

Answer 5

• the minority will be more influential if they act from principle and make sacrifices in order to maintain their position

Question 6

Flexibility

Answer 6

• sticking rigidly to the same arguments is off putting. Minorities need to be open to negotiating with the majority

Question 7

Cryptoamnesia

Answer 7

• minority ideas are taken up by the majority without them remembering where the ideas came from

Question 8

Snowball effect

Answer 8

• the influence of the minority starts to gather momentum as more and more people pay attention

Question 9

Research support for normative influences

Answer 9

P: investigated whether social influence processes led to reduction in energy consumption
E: hung messages on doors regularly saying that most residents were trying to reduce their energy
E: a control group had no reference to other residents. Significant decrease in energy usage of first group.
L: conformity can lead to social change

Question 10

Weakness - minority influence is only indirectly effective

Answer 10

P: minority influence is only indirectly effective
E: social changes happen slowly. Nemeth argued minorities have an indirect influence
E: the majority is influenced on matters only related to the issue at hand and not the issue itself
L: the effects of minority influence are fragile and have a limited role in social influence

Question 11

weakness - different role of deeper processing

Answer 11

P: Moscovici introduced a different explanation of deeper processing - different cognitive processing
E: Minority influence causes individuals to think more deeply about an issue than majority influence
E: Diane Mackie disagrees and presents evidence that majority influence may create deeper processing because if a majority believes something else we are forced to think long and hard about their reasoning
L: a central element of the processing of minority influence has been challenged, doubting the validity of this theory