Social influence - social influence and social change Flashcards
Social influence
The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence
Social change
This occurs when whole societies rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things
6 lessons from minority influence research
- explain each one
Drawing attention - Minorities can bring about social change by drawing attention of the majority to an issue
Consistency - If the minority continue to maintain their position then the majority may reassess the situation and consider the matter again
Commitment and flexibility - If the minority are willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and will be taken more seriously by the majority
Snowball effect - There is a ‘tipping point’ in any group, where after some members have started to agree with the minority. The minority then turn into the majority
Social cryptoamnesia - Society are aware that social change has occurred but forgets the origins of it. The majority does not give credit to the minority for the change taking place
Lessons from conformity research: Dissenters make social change more likely
Asch’s research - variation where one confederate always gave correct answers. This broke the power of the majority encouraging other to dissent - demonstrates potential for social change
Lessons from conformity research: Normative social influence
Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity by appealing to NSI
They provide info about what others are doing, e.g reducing litter by printing normative messages on bins
Milgram - disobedient models make change more likely
Milgram’s research - disobedient models in the variation where a confederate refused to give shocks. Obedience rate in genuine participants plummeted
Zimbardo - gradual commitment leads to ‘drift’
Zimbardo - once a small instruction is obeyed is becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one. People ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour
Two strengths for social influence and social change
Support for NSI in social change
Minority influence explains social change
EVALUATION: Support for NSI in social change
Nolan et al hung messages on front doors of houses. The key message was most residents are trying to reduce energy usage
Significant decreases in energy use compared to control group who saw messages to save energy with no reference to other people’s behaviour
This shows conformity can lead to social change through the operation of NSI
EVALUATION: Minority influence explains social change
According to Nemeth, minority arguments lead to divergent thinking (broad, active information search, more options)
Thinking like this helps make wiser decisions and come up with original solutions to societal issues.
This demonstrates the value of minorities as thought-provoking and mind-opening individuals.
COUNTERPOINT TO SUPPORT FOR NSI
People’s behaviour does not always alter when they are exposed to social norms. 70 studies regarding actions that use social norms to lower alcohol intakeuse were examined by Foxcroft et al.
The amount of alcohol consumed was barely affected, and the frequency of drinking was unaffected. This demonstrates that NSI does not always result in sustained societal change.
Two limitations for social influence and social change
Deeper processing may apply to majority influence
Research into minority influence lacks population validity
EVALUATION: Deeper processing may apply to majority influence
Mackie disagrees with the view that minority influence causes individuals in the majority to think deeply about an issue
Majority influence creates deeper processing - we believe others think as we do. When majority thinks differently, creates pressure to think about their views
Therefore a central element of minority influence has been challenged, casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change
EVALUATION: Research into minority influence lacks population validity
P - A weakness of the research used to support minority influence is that it lacks population validity
E - For example, Moscovici’s study on consistency only included female students as participants. Research suggests that women worry more than males do about fitting in and being accepted in social situations (Neto).
E - According to this, they might be more conformist than men, and findings from studies involving women can’t be applied to studies involving men
L - Since population validity is lacking, factors like consistency on minority influence may not have the same effects on the larger population, which lowers the factor’s overall validity.
