social change ao3

Question 1

drawbacks

Answer 1

Social change, as argued by Nemeth (1986) is a slow process and produced fragile effects.
- He argues that the majority are not exposed to the main issue at hand and so this main issue is not resolved.
- The process takes a long time, meaning that the effects (i.e. social change) are also delayed.
- social change through minority influence cannot be relied upon to bring about long-standing changes in society

Question 2

drawback

Answer 2

Mackie suggests that the role of minority influence is very limited because we are more likely to change our own views if the majority view is different to our own. This is because we often take comfort in knowing that so many other people also share our view that when they don’t, we become unsettled and are forced to deeply process this change!

Question 3

evaluation

Answer 3

— Social change is not always as simple as portrayed above, with many being quite settled in their views and unwilling to change. Bashir suggests that these social barriers are largely due to the stereotypes which many have. For example, despite the obvious perks to recycling, many are still unwilling to admit that they recycle in fear of being labelled ‘weird’ or a ‘tree-hugger’. This suggests that minority influence and social influence are not always completely effective because they cannot tackle these kinds of issues.