Social Influence: Social change Flashcards
What is social change?
When whole societies adopt new attitudes and behaviours such as Gay rights
What is the first step of social change?
Drawing attention - Eg. Civil rights marches which drew attention to 1950s American segregation by providing social proof of the situation
What is the second step of social change?
Consistancy - Even though minority, civil activists displayed consistancy of message and intent
What is the third step of social change?
Deeper processing - The activism meant that many people who had accepted the status quo began to think of the unjustness of it
What is the fourth step of social change?
Augmentation principle - number of incidents where people risked their lives. Eg. Freedom Riders were mixed racial groups who got on buses to challenge segregation and many were beaten up
What is step five of social change?
Snowball effect - Change happens bit by bit like a rolling snowball grows and gathers more snow. Eg. Civil rights activists gradually got the attention of US government and 1964 civil rights act was passed
What is social cryptomnesia?
People have a memory that change has occured but don’t remember how it happened
What do lessons from conformity suggest in regards to social change?
Dissenters make social change more likely as in Asch’s research, the confederate who always gave the wrong answer broke the power of the majority and encouraged others to dissent
Environmental and health campaigners exploit conformity by appealing to NSI and provide information about what others are doing
What do lessons from obedience suggest in regards to social change?
Disobedient models make change more likely such as in Milgram’s study where a ppt refused to give shocks and the rate of obedience decreased
What did Zimbardo argue in regards to social change?
Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one and people drift into a new type of behaviour
What is the strength that suggests there is support for normative influence in social change?
- Nolan et al hung messages on front doors of houses and the key message was that most residants are trying to reduce energy use
- Significant decreases in energy use compared to control who had no reference to other people’s behaviour
- Conformity can lead to social change through operation of NSI
What did Nolan et al suggest as a strength of social change?
NSI can lead to social change bc he hung messages on peoples front door saying that others are trying to reduce energy usage and their usage decreased significantly compared to control group with no reference to anyone elses behaviour
What is the strength of social change that suggests the minority influence explains social change?
- Nemeth says that minority arguments can cause ppl to engage in divergent thinking such as active information search
- This thinking leads to better decisions and creative solutions to social problems
- Minorities are valuable bc they stimulate new ideas and open ppls minds
What did Nemeth argue as a strength of social change?
Minority influence can cause ppl to engage in divergent thinking such as active information search that leads to better decisions and creative solutions to social problems
What is the limitation of social change that suggests deeper processing may actually apply to majority?
- Mackie disagrees that minority influences majority to think deeply
- Majority causes deeper processing bc we believe that others think as we do and when majority behaves differently it pressures people to think about their views
- Central element of minority influence is challenged, casting doubt and decreasing validity
