Social influence & social change Flashcards
Lessons from minority influence research
Social influence & Social change
Steps in how minority social influence creates social change
1. Drawing attention through social proof
2. Consistency
3. Deeper processing of the issue
4. Augmentation principle
5. Snowball effect
6. Social cryptomnesia (people have memory that change has occured but don’t remember how it happened)
Lessons from conformity research
Social influence & Social change
Asch highlighted importance of dissent in one of his variations where 1 confed gave correct answers throughout procesure
This broke power of majority, encouraging others to do likewise
Such dissent has potential to ultimately lead to social change
Diff app is used by environmental & health campaigns which exploit conformity by appealing to NSI
They provide info about what other people are doing (i.e. reducing litter by printing normative messages on bins)
Social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what majority are actually doing
Lessons from obedience research
Social influence & Social change
Milgram’s research clealry demonstrates importance of disobedient role models
In variation where confed teacher refuses to give shocks to leaner, rate of obedience in genuine ppts plummeted
Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change though process of gradual commitment
Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one
People essentially drift into a new kind of behaviour
Evaluation: Research support for normative influence
Social influence & Social change
Strength: research has shown social influence processes based on psychological research do work
Nolan et al aimed to see if they could change people’s energy use habits
Researchers hung messages on front doors of houses in San DIego every week for 1 month
Key message was the most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage
As control, some resident had a diff message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour
There were sig decreases in energy usage in 1st group compared to 2nd
Therefore, conformity can lead to social change through operation of NSI
Evaluation: Research support for normative influences
Social influence & Social change
However, some studies show people’s behaviour isn’t always changed exposing them to social norms
Foxcroft et al reviewed social norms interventions as part of ‘gold standard’ Cochrane Collaboration
This review included 70 studies where social norms app was used to reduce student alc use
Researchers found only a small reduction in drinking quantity & no effect on drinking frequency
Therefore, it seems using normative influence doesn’t always produce long-term social change
Evaluation: Minority influence explains change
Social influence & Social change
Strength: psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change
Nemeth claims social change is due to type of thinking that minorities inspire
When people consider minority arguements, they engage in divergent thinking
This type of thinking is broad rather than narrow, where thinker actively searches for info & weighs up more options
Nemeth argues this leads to better decisions & more creative solutions to social issues
Therefore, shows why dissenting minorities are valuable - they stimulate new ideas & open minds in way that majorities cannot
Evaluation: Role of deeper processing
Social influence & Social change
Limit: deeper processing may not play role in how minorities bring about social change
Some people are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about minority’s views
Mackie disagrees & presents evidence that it’s majority influence that may create deeper processing if you don’t share their views
This is because we like to believe other people share our views & think the same as us
When we find that a majority believe something diff, then we are forced to think long & hard about their arguements & reasoning
Therefore, a central element of minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change
