Social change
Saturday, 20 September 2025 13:43
Social change
- Minority influence on a larger scale
- Occurs when whole societies, rather than individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things
How minority influence creates social change:
1. Drawing attention
- Through social proof
- E.g. 1950s America there were black neighbourhoods with places such as schools and restaurants exclusive to whites.
Civil rights marches drew attention to the situations providing social proof of the problems.
2. Consistency
- The more consistent the minority, the more likely change is to occur
- E.g. even though it was the minority of the American population taking part in the civil right marches, they displayed
consistent of the message and intent
3. Deeper processing
- Of the issue
- E.g. this attention meant many people who had accepted the status quo began reconsidering the unjustness of it
4. Augmentation principle
- The act of doing something that is an inconvenience or risk
- E.g. freedom riders got on buses to challenge the fact that black people still had to sit separately on buses, with many
of them being beaten
5. Snowball effect
- The process of the minority becoming the majority
- E.g. Martin Luther King continued to press charged that gradually got the attention of the US government
6. Social cryptomnesia
- When people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened
Conformity research
Asch’s research
- In one variation, one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure, this broke the power of the
majority and encourages others to dissent
- Dissent has the potential to lead social change
- Environmental and health campaigns increasingly exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI, they do this by
providing information about what others are doing
Obedience research
Milgram’s research
- Demonstrated the importance of disobedient role models
- In one variation where the confederate teacher refuses to give shocks, the rate of genuine ppts dropped
Zimbardo (2007)
- Suggests how obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment
- Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger instruction
Evaluations
Research support for NSI
Nolan et al (2008) -
- Investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption
- Hung messages on front doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month, with the key message being that more
residents were trying to reduce their energy use age
- As a control, some residents had a different message that asked them to save energy but made no reference to others
- Found significant decrease in energy usage in the 1st group
- Strength as it shows the conformity can lead to social change through NSI
Minority influence is only indirectly effective
- Social change happens slowly when it happens at all
Nemeth (1986) - argues the effects of minority influence are likely to be mostly indirect and delayed
- They are indirect are the majority is influenced in matters only related to the issues at hand, and not the central issue
itself
- Delayed as the effects may not be seen from some time
- Could be considered a limitations of using minority influence to explain social change, it shows the effect are fragile
and its role of social influence is very limited
Role of deeper processing
- Moscovici’s conversion explanation of minority influence argues that the minority and majority influence involve
different cognitive processes
- Minority influence causes individuals to think deeply about an issue than majority influence
Mackie (1987) - disagrees and presents evidence that it’s the majority influence that may create deeper processing if
you don’t share their views
- Because we believe that others share our views and think in the same way as us
Saturday, 20 September 2025 13:43
Social change
- Minority influence on a larger scale
- Occurs when whole societies, rather than individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things
How minority influence creates social change:
1. Drawing attention
- Through social proof
- E.g. 1950s America there were black neighbourhoods with places such as schools and restaurants exclusive to whites.
Civil rights marches drew attention to the situations providing social proof of the problems.
2. Consistency
- The more consistent the minority, the more likely change is to occur
- E.g. even though it was the minority of the American population taking part in the civil right marches, they displayed
consistent of the message and intent
3. Deeper processing
- Of the issue
- E.g. this attention meant many people who had accepted the status quo began reconsidering the unjustness of it
4. Augmentation principle
- The act of doing something that is an inconvenience or risk
- E.g. freedom riders got on buses to challenge the fact that black people still had to sit separately on buses, with many
of them being beaten
5. Snowball effect
- The process of the minority becoming the majority
- E.g. Martin Luther King continued to press charged that gradually got the attention of the US government
6. Social cryptomnesia
- When people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened
Conformity research
Asch’s research
- In one variation, one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure, this broke the power of the
majority and encourages others to dissent
- Dissent has the potential to lead social change
- Environmental and health campaigns increasingly exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI, they do this by
providing information about what others are doing
Obedience research
Milgram’s research
- Demonstrated the importance of disobedient role models
- In one variation where the confederate teacher refuses to give shocks, the rate of genuine ppts dropped
Zimbardo (2007)
- Suggests how obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment
- Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger instruction
Evaluations
Research support for NSI
Nolan et al (2008) -
- Investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption
- Hung messages on front doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month, with the key message being that more
residents were trying to reduce their energy use age
- As a control, some residents had a different message that asked them to save energy but made no reference to others
- Found significant decrease in energy usage in the 1st group
- Strength as it shows the conformity can lead to social change through NSI
Minority influence is only indirectly effective
- Social change happens slowly when it happens at all
Nemeth (1986) - argues the effects of minority influence are likely to be mostly indirect and delayed
- They are indirect are the majority is influenced in matters only related to the issues at hand, and not the central issue
itself
- Delayed as the effects may not be seen from some time
- Could be considered a limitations of using minority influence to explain social change, it shows the effect are fragile
and its role of social influence is very limited
Role of deeper processing
- Moscovici’s conversion explanation of minority influence argues that the minority and majority influence involve
different cognitive processes
- Minority influence causes individuals to think deeply about an issue than majority influence
Mackie (1987) - disagrees and presents evidence that it’s the majority influence that may create deeper processing if
you don’t share their views
- Because we believe that others share our views and think in the same way as us
