Social influence processes in social change

Question 1

what is the role of social influence processes in social change

Answer 1

Research into social influence tells us how individuals change their beliefs and behaviours, and how whole societies might change

Question 2

what are the steps in how minority influence creates social change:

Answer 2

• Drawing attention to the issue - highlighting a concern
• Consistency of position - displaying a unswerving message and intent
• Deeper processing - many people who simply accept the status, start thinking further
• The augmentation principle - minorities take risks to further the cause
• The snowball effect - people switch from a majority position to a minority one
• Social cryptomnesia occurs - people have a memory that change has occurred but some people have no memory of the events leading to that change - e.g. people remember before smoking is banned and after smoking is banned, but not the actions that lead to smoking being banned

Question 3

what are the lessons from conformity research

Answer 3

Dissenters make social change more likely:
- Asch’s research demonstrated that when one confederate always gave the correct answer, this broke the power of the majority – this enabled others to dissent.
- This demonstrates the potential for social change
Majority influence and normative social influence:
- Environmental and health campaigners exploit conformity by appealing to NSI.
- They provide information about what others are doing.
- Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to the majority’s behaviour

Question 4

what are the lessons from obedience research

Answer 4

Disobedient models make social change more likely:
- Milgram’s research demonstrated the importance of disobedient role models. In his variation.
- When one confederate refused to give shocks, the rate of obedience in genuine pps dropped significantly
Gradual commitment leads to ‘drift’:
- Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change – once a smaller commitment has been made it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one.
- People ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour

Question 5

what is the +ve AO3 point, for social influence processes in social change

Answer 5

Research support for role of NSI in social change:
- Nolan (2008) investigated whether majority influence led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community: researchers hung messages on front doors of houses in San Diego, California every week for one month.
- The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage.
- As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy, it made no reference to other people’s behaviour.
- Findings showed significant decreases in energy usage in the group that were informed ‘most residents’ were trying to reduce energy usage –> showing how conforming to a majority group can lead to social change

Question 6

what are the -ve AO3 points for social influence processes in social change

Answer 6

• minority influence is only indirectly effective
• The nature of deeper processing has been questioned
• Identification is overlooked
• Methodological issues

Question 7

expand on the -ve AO3 point, minority influence is only indirectly effective

Answer 7

• Nemeth (1986) suggests that the effects of minority influence may only be indirect and delayed:
• indirect because the majority is only influenced on matters related to the specific issue (recycling),not the central issue itself (global warming).
• delayed because the effects may not be seen in society for some time.
• This suggests that minority influence has limited effect in the short-time and genuine social changes caused by minority influence only occur after long periods of time:
• minority influence is frequently more latent than direct as it creates the potential for social change rather than actual social change.

Question 8

expand on the -ve AO3 point, the nature of deeper processing has been questioned

Answer 8

• The potential for minorities to influence social change is often limited - they are seen as ‘deviant’ in the eyes of the majority.
• Members of the majority may avoid aligning themselves with the minority position - they don’t want to be seen as deviants. –> The message of the minority would then have very little impact because the focus of the majority’s attention would be the source of the message (i.e. the deviant minority) rather than the message itself.
• In trying to bring about social change, minorities face the double challenge of avoiding being portrayed as deviants + also making people directly embrace their position.

Question 9

expand on the -ve AO3 point, Identification is overlooked

Answer 9

• Being able to identify with a minority group is just as important as agreeing with their views
• minorities can never be influential unless they can attract the attention of the majority.
• It is the majority that holds the power. - If they find the minority too off-putting, they will never be in a position to consider its message, which is a crucial first step in the process of minority influence.
• This is why it is so important that minorities behave in ways that will put their case right ‘under the nose’ of the majority.

Question 10

expand on the -ve AO3 point, methodological issues

Answer 10

• The explanations based on social influence research is limited in what it can tell us about social change due to methodological issues.
• For example, trivial tasks used in some studies do not reflect real-life situations of social influence.
• However, practical steps based on research studies have proven effective in bringing about change, suggesting the link with social influence is at least partly valid.