social influence and social change

Question 1

6 step process for how social influence creates social change (when whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things)

Answer 1

1. drawing attention through social proof - risk taking and commitment
2. consistency, commitment and flexibility
3. the augmentation principle caused by deeper processing
4. increasingly large minority of people are converted
5. the snowball effect - minority becoming majority
6. social cryptomnesia - people have a memory change that has occurred but don’t remember how it happened

Question 2

examples of real life social change

Answer 2

• civil rights movement
• votes for women, suffragettes
• climate change and global warming
• attitudes toward smoking, recycling, healthy eating
• lgbtq+, same sex marriage
• behaviours linked to covid, mask wearing etc.

Question 3

link between Asch conformity research and social change

Answer 3

• importance of dissent, breaks power of majority and encourages others to do likewise
• such dissent has potential to lead to social change
• conform for normative reasons, we need to tell people in public what the majority are doing
• for example, high % of neighbours are now recycling (this is the norm)
• conform for informational reasons, providing people with more information may result in social change
• for example , facts about dangers of smoking, facts about coronavirus

Question 4

link between Milgram and Zimbardo obedience research and social change

Answer 4

• importance of disobedient role models, rate of obedience decreased with presence
• zimbardo suggests how obedience creates social change through gradual commitment
• small instruction is obeyed, then becomes more difficult to resist bigger instruction
• drifting into new behaviour
• obedient to authority figures, messages need to come from valid and trustworthy sources
• awareness of changes in policy / law reinforces change, people aware of consequences
• for example, smoking bans