social infouence and social change

Question 1

lessons from minority influence research

Answer 1

drawing attention through social proof

consistency

deeper processing

augmentation principle -risk

snowball effect

social cryptomnesia - know that a change has happened but don’t remeber how

Question 2

lessons from conformity research

Answer 2

asch - dissent in society has potential to lead to social change

appealing to normative social influence - providing info about what other people are doing so social change is encouraged as it draws attention to what majority are actually doing

Question 3

lessons from obedience research

Answer 3

milgram- importance of disobedient role models

zimbardo - obednce can be used to create social change through gradual commitment

Question 4

strength

Answer 4

research support for normative influences

Nolan - aimed to see if he could change people engergy use habits

hung messages saying that other residents were trying to reduce their energy usage

as a control group some residents had different messages that just asked them to reduce engery

significant decrease in energy usage compared to the second control group

shows that conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence - valid explanation

Question 5

strength

Answer 5

minority influence explains

psychologists brings about social change

Nemeth- claims social change is due to the type of thibking minorities inspire

when people consider minority arguments they engage in divergent thinking

searches and weighs up more options

argues this leads to better decisions and more creative solution

shows - dissenting minorities are valuable

stimulate new ideas and open minds in a way that majorities are not

Question 6

limitation

Answer 6

role of deeper processing

may not play a role in how minorities bring about social roles

people are supposedly converted because they think more deeply about the minority’s views

Mackie- disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views

this is because we like to believe that other poole share our views

when we we find thsy a majority believes something different so forced to think king and hard about arguments and reasoning

means that a central element of minority had been challenged casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change