The Role of Social Influence Processes In Social Change Flashcards
What is social change?
When a society adopts a new belief or way of believing that then becomes widely accepted as the norm
Example of social change
Attitudes towards homosexuality as being gay was a criminal offence until 1967 but it is now a normal variation of human behaviour and laws have been changed to reflect this.
Moscovici - What are the 6 stages that are necessary first change to occur (conversion process where the majority are persuaded by the minority)
Drawing attention to the issue
Cognitive dissonance - mental conflict when assumptions are contradicted by new information
Consistency of message
The augmentation principle - minority taking risks
The snowball effect - minority view becomes the majority view
Social crypto amnesia - loss of memory of the event leading to the change
How can NSI create social change
Through the perception of a majority social norm. Eg if people think binge drinking is the norm they will drink more
What is the perceived and actual norm
The perceived norm is what people believe the norm is whereas the actual norm is the reality
What is the social norms intervention
The gap between the perceived and actual norm is the misconception. Correcting this misconception is the basis for a majority approach to social change - know as the social norms intervention
Evaluation of research on social change
LIMITATION - most social change through minority influence is more gradual - suffragette movement took 7 years to create change. People are more likely to go with majority to maintain status quo as it is easier therefore suggesting that minorities don’t really have that much of an influence and it may be more indirect and delayed as the effects of social change can not be seen very quickly. however, it does support. The snowball effect has been gradual therefore creating social crypto amnesia. This therefore supports the important diachronic consistency as even though it takes a long time it leaves to internalisation.
LIMITATION - social changes, less likely to happen as the majority avoids aligning themselves with the minority - Bashier et al found that people resist social change, even when they agree is necessary because of the negative perceptions of the minority - therefore social change may not be able to happen in the six stages may not be valid as people in the majority don’t want to associate with the minority - however, this stereotypes, the majority in the minority because some people do change and social change is effective in some circumstances
STRENGTH - social norms intervention has had many positive results - Montana USA a social norms intervention on drink driving was used and found after correcting misconceptions on it, it reduced by 14% and positive changes to attitudes on drink driving - applicable to real life - however evidence of boomerang effect eg someone sees the average person drinks 3 pints a week but they used to drink one
