Social Influence/Change Flashcards
Outline social change
Occurs when a society or section of society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm
List the 6 stages in the conversion process
- Drawing attention to issue
- Cognitive conflict
- Consistency
- Commitment
- The snowball effect
- Social cryptomnesia
What is conversion?
When an individual who is exposed to a persuasive argument under certain conditions changes their view to match those of the minority both privately and publically – a prerequisite for minority influence leading to social change
What is social cryptomnesia?
When people have a memory that social change has occurred but the new belief takes form without a conscious understanding of where it came from or the processes involved.
Explain gradual commitment
Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one - people drift into a new kind of behaviour.
Explain social norms intervention
An attempt to correct misperceptions of the normative behaviour of peers in order to change the risky behaviour of a target population
What are misperceptions in relation to social norms
The gap between a persons perceived norm and the actual norm
Describe how social change can happen by challenging obedience
We need disobedient, positive role models to enable us to think independently and resist the gradual commitment to obey.
Describe the Montana campaign as evidence for social norms intervention.
Called “MOST of us don’t drink and drive campaign”. This campaign was designed to reduce drinking and driving among young adults in Montana, USA. Survey found that 92% of respondents believed that their peers would drink and drive. Created a simple advertisement with the message that ‘MOST Montana young adults (4 out of 5) don’t drink and drive’. After the campaign concluded, the prevalence of reported driving after drinking was reduced by 13.7%
1 strengths for social change
Research support:
Montana campaign support for social norms intervention.
Nolan et al. (2008) investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community. Hung messages outside front doors with the message that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. The control group displayed a message that just asked them to save energy. They found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group. COUNTER - DeJong et al (2009) tested the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns to drive down alcohol consumption. Despite receiving normative info correcting misperceptions of drinking norms, students didn’t lower alcohol consumption.
2 Limitations for social change
Indirectly not directly effective:
The power of minority influence may be limited since minorities rarely bring about social change quickly. As there is a strong tendency for human beings to conform to the majority position, people are more likely to engage in the status quo. For example, it has taken decades for attitudes against drunk driving and smoking to shift. Therefore, it has been argued that the effects of minority influence creates the potential for change rather than actual social change.
‘Deviant’ perception limits influence:
The majority may avoid aligning themselves with them as they do not want to be seen as deviant themselves. This limits the impact of the minority because focus of the majority’s attention would be the source of the message (the deviant minority) rather than the message itself. For example, people less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways because they don’t want to be associated with minority ‘environmentalists’ as they are often referred to as ‘tree huggers’ and ‘man haters’. COUNTER - minorities can overcome this by avoiding coming across as deviants when portraying their message. For example, the birth of communism. To avoid being portrayed as deviants, early communists made it clear in their Communist Manifesto that they were really part of the majority (i.e the working class).
