Social change Flashcards
What is social change?
It is the process by which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and behaviours which can be done through obedience, conformity and minority influence.
How do minorities cause social change?
- They have to draw attention to their cause, message and behaviours to create conflict in the majorities mind and this can be done through protests, campaigns and rallies
- They have to create cognitive conflict between what the majority believe in and the views of the minority so the majority think more deeply about the issue.
- They have to consistent
- They must display the augmentation principle
- they use the snowball effect to slowly change the behaviours and beliefs of the majority to accept the minorities views and behaviours.
- Social cryptoamnesia will occur which means the majority will not remember how or when they adopted the changes in their behaviours or beliefs to match the minorities behaviours and beliefs.
AO3 for Social change
- Moscovici/Mackie
- Nolan (energy consumption)
- Alcohol campaigns (not all campaigns lead to social change) dejeong
Outline Nolans research
-Nolan conducted an experiment where he hung messages on the doors of houses in a community in sand diego that stated that majority of people in the community were trying to reduce their energy usage. He then found that their was a decrease in energy usage in that community. which shows us conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence
Outline how not all campaigns can lead to social change
Social norm campaigns have their limitations, not all social campaigns have led to social change. Dejeong conducted an study to test the effectiveness of campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption through perception correction strategies.
He would gather information on students alcohol consumption after the campaign had occurred which highlighted majority of students agree with alcohol policies at universities and do not regularly consume it and found that their was no reduction in alcohol consumption which shows us normative social influence does not always lead to social change.
Outline how moscovici and Mackie contradict each other
- Moscovici argues that minority influence causes individuals to think more deeply as the majority have to think about conflicting views. Conformity does not cause people to think as deeply as they will just change their behaviours to be accepted rather than actually think of the issue at hand.
- Mackie disagrees as he suggests the majority do actually get people to engage in deeper thinking processes if they don’t agree with the majority, this is due to them having to evaluate why so many people hold the same belief which can lead to social change if they find the reasoning for the majority having certain beliefs acceptable and valid. This contradicts Moscovicis claim as he suggests the majority can persuade other groups in society to adopt their beliefs and behaviours by causing cognitive conflict in their minds.
What are perception correction strategies?
-People usually behave in the way the perceive the majority to behave as that would be the social norm, however campaigns will advertise the actual norm and majority’s behaviour to alter their behaviours and beliefs
