THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE PROCESSES IN SOCIAL CHANGE

Social Cryptoamnesia – when social change occurs in a society, the attitude or opinion becomes an integral part of the society’s culture, but the source is usually forgotten

In-groups – used to describe people similar to you (e.g social class)

Outgroups – used to describe people who do not share the same characteristics as you
Vaughan (1998) argued that we are more likely to be influenced by members of our ‘in-group’ than members of our ‘outgroup’

The Snowball Effect – Describes the way in which minorities convert majorities; smaller actions can cause bigger and bigger actions, ultimately resulting in a large impact.
– members of the majority slowly move towards the minority
– as the minority grows in size, it gradually picks up momentum
– more and more majority members convert to the minority opinion
– eventually the minority grows into a ‘snowball’ so large that it becomes the majority

Social Change – when a society adopts a new belief or way of behaving, and this becomes widely accepted as the ‘norm’
examples: racism, smoking, women’s rights, climate change

Social Influence – process by which individuals / groups can change each other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience, and minority influence

Step by Step – small group has a minority view
– minority spreads influence (Snowball Effect and Informational Social Influence)
– minority views become majority views (Social Cryptoamnesia)
– people comply with the majority (Normative Social Influence)

How do minorities become majorities?

– when a minority has an effective message, it creates conflict in the minds of the majority
– the majorities are then forced to examine the minority message, and may internalise it
– when the message is internalised by majority members, they are also said to have been converted
– the message is then passed onto many other majority members through the snowball effect, until the minority becomes the majority
– overtime, the source of the message is forgotten and all that remains is the new social norm – this is called ‘Social Cryptoamnesia’ (Perez et al 1995)