Social Change and Minority Influence

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Social Change and Minority Influence

Social Change = when society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm

Minority Influence = a form of social influence where people reject the established norm of the majority and move to the position of the minority

Moccovci(1976) - Argued that minority influence is essential for social change, as without a minority advocating an alternative, we would have no innovation or change in beliefs.

Factors that will enhance the minority influence on Social Change:Attention: The minority must draw attention to the issue being raised by for example protesting.

Conflict: This creates conflict we need to resolve, but if the issue does't seen abnormal we examine it more closely, thinking deeper about the issue.

Consistency: If members remain consistent in their views and regularly express them then they are more likely to be taken seriously

Augmentation Principle: if there are risks in putting a view forward, the group will be taken more seriously as they are willing to suffer for their views - shows dedication, making the message more credible.

Flexibility: The minority cannot be rigid (narrow minded) in their opinion, otherwise will seem arrogant.

Snowball Effect: When the minority gain a small group of members, then this group also bring new members, etc,etc. The minority will increase more and more until it becomes the majority.

Social Cryptoamnesia: when minority opinions are adopted into the majority viewpoint, without those in the majority remembering where the ideas came from.

Evaluation

Effectiveness Of Minority Influence - Suffragettes:

In 1918, the persistence of the suffragettes paid off, when women were given the right to vote. They were consistent(fight continued for 15 years) and they followed the augmentation principle (willing to risk imprisonment).

Real world Application - Terrorism:

Can be argued that terrorism could be considered a form of social change through minority influence. They show their commitment through persistent bombings and sacrificing their own lives, like the pilots of 9/11 attack - shows how minority terrorist groups try to bring about social change.

Limitations to idea of social change - Latent change

It is difficult for minorities to bring about social change due to lack of social power - majorities wont want to be seen a deviant and therefore disagree with the minority. Could be argued that the minority bring about potential change (latent change) rather than actual change - majority won't completely agree.

Minority Influence as important role:

Maass & Clarke(1983) - found people publicly followed majority viewpoint on gay right but privately followed minority viewpoint - minority influence has important role of achieving social change as it cannot be done by majority influence.

Nemeth & Wachtler (1983) - found people exposed to both majority and minority viewpoints converged to majority views - BUT presence of minority view stimulated more creative thinking, leading people to question their views over time.

Research lacks Ecological Validity - Lab experiments

Being influenced by a minority group of stranger in an artificial setting is very different from a real life minority group who would know each other, who would have more committed opposition, and be advocating a moral issue. Therefore the factor mentioned above may not be applicable in the real world.