social influence and social change Flashcards
what are the different steps involved in minority influence that creates social change
1) DRAWING ATTETION THROUGH SOCIAL PROOF
2) CONSISTENCY -
3) DEEPER PROCESSING OF THE ISSUE
4) THE AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE -
5) SNOWBALL EFFECT
6) SOCIAL CRYPTOMNESIA
what is an example of social change by minority influence in the real world
The African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s
DRAWING ATTENTION THROUGH SOCIAL PROOF
1) DRAWING ATTETION THROUGH SOCIAL PROOF - in the 1950s in America, black separation reapplied to all parts of America
There were black neighbourhoods and, in he southern states of America, places such as schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites
The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation by providing social proof
CONSISTENCY
2) CONSISTENCY - there were many people taking part - even though they were a minority of the population, the civil rights activists displayed consistency of message and intent
DEEPER PROCESSING OF THE ISSUE
3)DEEPER PROCESSING OF THE ISSUE - this attention meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think about the unjustness of it
THE AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE
4) THE AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE -
There were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives
e.g. the “freedom riders” were racial groups who got on buses in the south to challenge the fact that black people still ha to sit separately on the bus.
Many freedom riders were beaten and there were incidents of mob violence
THE SOWBALL EFFECT
5) SNOWBALL EFFECT
- civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King continued to press for changes that gradually got the attention of the US government.
In 1964, the US Civil Rights Act was passed, which prohibited discrimination This represents a change from minority to majority support for civil rights
6) SOCIAL CRYPTOMNESIA
6) SOCIAL CRYPTOMNESIA
people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.
Social change did come about and the south is a different place now but some people have no memory of the event that leads to the change
what are some of the lessons that we learn from research into conformity
In Asch’s research, he highlights the importance of dissenter in one of his variations, in which one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure
This broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent
This dissent had he power to lead to social change
how do health and environmental campaigns exploit normative social influence
Environmental and health campaigns increasing exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence
They do this by providing info about what other people ae doing e.g. reducing litter by printing normative message on litter bins - “Bin it others do”or telling young people that others do not smoke
In other words social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing
what are some of the lessons we have learned from obedience
Milgram’s research clearly demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. In the variations where a confederates teacher refuses to give shocks to the learner, the rate of obedience of in the the genuine participants plummeted
Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be is to create social change through the process of gradual commitment
Once a small instruction is obeyed, it comes much more difficult to resist a bigger one - people essentially drift into a new kind of behaviour
