social influence - social change Flashcards
What is meant by social change?
Social change is when whole societies, not just individuals, adopt new attitudes/beliefs/behaviours, for example changing attitudes on issues such as women’s suffrage, views on homosexuality and ethnicity, or beliefs about the importance of recycling or environmental issues.
Outline the role of minority influence on social change
Social change can happen if a minority is consistent, committed and flexible (for example- the actions of the suffragettes).
By doing this, the minority draws attention to the issue, causes deeper processing of their arguments amongst the majority, and persuades people to change their views, a process which is accelerated by the snowball effect.
How does conformity research relate to social change?
This shows the importance of a dissenter, who encourages other people to not conform and therefore lead to social change.
The role of normative influence can also be used to affect social change, for example by suggesting that others are behaving in a certain way.
How does obedience research relate to social change?
This shows the power of a disobedient individual, for example in Milgram’s variation.
A real-life example would be Rosa Parks, who was used as a disobedient role model. She encouraged many other people to refuse to give up their seat in white-only areas of buses during the era of segregation in the USA, eventually leading to the civil rights movement.
What does group membership mean in terms of social change?
We are more likely to have our view changed by someone who shares charachteristics with us e.g. age, gender, sexuality.
What is meant by social cryptoamnesia?
The concept of ‘social cryptoamnesia’ is the idea that the population does not remember how/why the change has happened- because it has become accepted as ‘the norm’.
It also means individuals who held the old view refuse to admit they held the unpopular view or resisted the new view.
Why is ISI often used by minorities?
ISI is often used by minorities, as they use reasoned arguments to convince members of the majority.
This often leads to internalisation.
Who can bring about social change quickly?
Governments can bring about social change in the majority population quickly by changing laws and then enforcing those laws.
Evaluation of group membership in social change - heterosexuals
A study found that a heterosexual minority group were more able than a homosexual minority group to change the opinion of a heterosexual majority group about the importance of gay rights.
As straight men had better success than gay men at convincing straight men, this demonstrates the importance of group membership in minority influence.
Evaluation of social change - suffragettes
Suffragettes suffered forced feeding in order to show committment to votes for women via the augmentation principle (the majority value the importance of the cause – as the minority are risking their lives for it). This impacted on the attitudes and behaviours of the majority.
Outline research that shows how NSI can impact social change
Nolan et al (2008) found that displaying messages encouraging less energy use were more effective when they suggested that other people were doing the same thing. This supports that normative influence can be a factor in effecting social change.
