Social Influence
- Social Influence and Social Change
Process of Social Change (AO1)
1. Drawing Attention- such as civil right marches drew attention to white exclusive
areas
2. Consistency- regularly expressing your viewpoint
3. Deeper Processing- make people think deeply about the issue
4. The Augmentation Principle- the majority will look up to the minority
5. Snowball Effect- more and more people start to believe the minority
6. Social Cryptomnesia- people have no memory of how they transitioned to the
minority
Research Support for Normative Influence (Strength) (AO3)
- Nolan et al (2008) aimed to see if they could change people energy-use habits
- So the researchers hung messages on house doors in San Diego every week for 1
month
- As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save
energy but didn't reference other people’s behaviour
- There was a significant decrease in energy usage in the 1st group compared to the
2nd
- This shows that majority influence can lead to social change through Normative
Social Influence
Minority Influence explains change (Strength) (AO3)
- Nemeth (2009) says Social Change is due to the type of thinking that minorities
inspire
- Because when people consider the minority’s argument, they engage in broader
thinking
- This leads to better decisions for social issue, which shows why minorities create
ideas that majorities cannot
Limitation of Deeper Processing (AO3)
- Deeper Processing may not play a role in how minorities bring Social Change
- Mackie (1987) disagrees and presents evidence that majority influence creates
deeper processing
- This is because we like to believe that other people share our views, so when the
majority doesn't think the same as us, we have to think long and hard about why that
is
- This shows more deeper processing
Barriers to Social Change/Influence (Limitation) (AO3)
- Bashir et al (2013) said that lots of people still avoid social change
- For example, they found that their participants were less likely to behave in an
environmentally-friendly way because they didn't want to be associated with
stereotypes like ‘environmentalists’ and ‘tree huggers’
- This shows their is still boundaries to achieving social change which may been
overlooked in society
- Social Influence and Social Change
Process of Social Change (AO1)
1. Drawing Attention- such as civil right marches drew attention to white exclusive
areas
2. Consistency- regularly expressing your viewpoint
3. Deeper Processing- make people think deeply about the issue
4. The Augmentation Principle- the majority will look up to the minority
5. Snowball Effect- more and more people start to believe the minority
6. Social Cryptomnesia- people have no memory of how they transitioned to the
minority
Research Support for Normative Influence (Strength) (AO3)
- Nolan et al (2008) aimed to see if they could change people energy-use habits
- So the researchers hung messages on house doors in San Diego every week for 1
month
- As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save
energy but didn't reference other people’s behaviour
- There was a significant decrease in energy usage in the 1st group compared to the
2nd
- This shows that majority influence can lead to social change through Normative
Social Influence
Minority Influence explains change (Strength) (AO3)
- Nemeth (2009) says Social Change is due to the type of thinking that minorities
inspire
- Because when people consider the minority’s argument, they engage in broader
thinking
- This leads to better decisions for social issue, which shows why minorities create
ideas that majorities cannot
Limitation of Deeper Processing (AO3)
- Deeper Processing may not play a role in how minorities bring Social Change
- Mackie (1987) disagrees and presents evidence that majority influence creates
deeper processing
- This is because we like to believe that other people share our views, so when the
majority doesn't think the same as us, we have to think long and hard about why that
is
- This shows more deeper processing
Barriers to Social Change/Influence (Limitation) (AO3)
- Bashir et al (2013) said that lots of people still avoid social change
- For example, they found that their participants were less likely to behave in an
environmentally-friendly way because they didn't want to be associated with
stereotypes like ‘environmentalists’ and ‘tree huggers’
- This shows their is still boundaries to achieving social change which may been
overlooked in society
