Social influence and social change

The role of social influence processes in social change

The role and process of minority influence on social change

• Drawing attention- to the minority view through marches/protests
• Consistency- display a consistent message through each protest
• Deeper processing- people start to think about the message
• Augmentation principle- members of the minority put themselves at risk to show commitment
• Snowball effect- gradually members of the majority start to accept the minority view
• Social cryptoamnesia- people have a memory that change has occurred but don't remember how it happened

Lessons from conformity research

• Asch highlighted the importance of dissent in one of his variations, in which one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure
• This broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent
• Such dissent has the potential to lead to social change

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