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Some say might makes right. But does it really? One thing is certain – society is in a constant state of change. But how do these changes come about? Are they the result of organic social movements? Here, we explore the concepts of social change and minority influence in psychology, highlighting their determinants and providing useful examples.
So what do we mean by social change?
Social change is when a society’s values, beliefs, norms and ways of operating change over time.
A famous example of social change is the gay rights movement in the United States. Decades of consistent gay rights advocacy and campaigning has led to a massive shift in the way the majority of society views and treats LGBTQIA+ people. In 2015, every state legalised gay marriage.
![Minority Influence and Social Change [+] LGBTQ+ march social change example [+] StudySmarter](https://studysmarter-mediafiles.s3.amazonaws.com/media/1865576/summary_images/pride-parade.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4OLDUDE42UZHAIET%2F20220627%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220627T203256Z&X-Amz-Expires=90000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=60ff0c5295cb64b39ed2a34ac72e3ad40d676ae22a07853fcae73cd5cdd0e314)
Another example is the Ramblers’ campaign for free access to private lands. One of their most consequential actions was the mass trespassing on Kinder Scout. Many Ramblers were injured, detained, and even imprisoned. However, the action resulted in a steady shift in public perception, which influenced policy. As a result, we can now enjoy national parks and trails, as well as entirely unfettered access to numerous landscapes throughout the UK.
Minority influence occurs when a minority group impacts the majority’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. According to Moscovici (1968), minority influence is a long process in which the minority group must gradually persuade the majority that its ideas and beliefs are correct and not just tolerable.
Minority influence is the polar opposite of conformity. Instead of a bigger majority group influencing the behaviours and beliefs of a smaller minority group, the minority group must gradually attempt to persuade the majority that it is correct. Moscovici referred to this as a conversion process, which essentially means internalisation (when someone changes their private beliefs and behaviour in response to social influence).
The process of minority influence leading to social change is as follows:
![Minority Influence and Social Change [+] Process of social change [+] StudySmarter](https://studysmarter-mediafiles.s3.amazonaws.com/media/1865576/summary_images/Slika_zaslona_2022-01-11_u_18.25.59.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4OLDUDE42UZHAIET%2F20220627%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220627T203256Z&X-Amz-Expires=90000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=d10772f1c2bd729e53df1bcfa38876af74744b48b5e4e6826ef6ca299e825df4)
A closer look at some famous studies provides further insights into how minorities influence social change.
Moscovici asked a group of six people to look at 36 coloured slides. All of the slides were different shades of blue. Participants had to indicate whether they thought each slide was blue or green, with two confederates (participants secretly part of the research team) choosing green each time. This approach resulted in the majority changing their answer to green 8.5% of the time. In a second group with less consistent teammates, the majority answered that the slides were green only 1% of the time. The study results show that a more consistent minority is more likely to influence the majority.
In this experiment, the investigator asked groups of four participants to estimate the compensation that a ski lift accident victim should receive. Each group had one confederate who represented the minority and argued that the victim deserved less compensation.The confederate would not compromise in one situation and would rigidly hold to their position. In another situation, the confederate allowed some compromise by meeting the rest of the group halfway and offering the victim a slightly higher compensation than initially proposed. The experiment results showed that the inflexible confederate had far less influence on the views of the majority group than the flexible confederate. This finding highlights the importance of the minority group being flexible when trying to change the opinions and ideas of the majority group.
Wood et al. is a meta-analysis of about 100 studies on minority group behaviour. The analysis found that the minority group has more influence when it is consistent in its beliefs and actions. As a result, the minority group needs to be consistent when influencing a majority group.
The three most important factors that determine the effectiveness of minority influence are consistency, flexibility, and commitment. Let us take a closer look at these factors.
A consistent minority group believes in a clear set of values and beliefs that do not suddenly change or contradict. The beliefs seem fixed, which gives the majority group the impression that they are well thought out and defensible.There are two types of minority influence consistency:
Diachronic consistency describes the consistency of ideas over time, and synchronic consistency describes the consistency of ideas among those who hold them.
An example of diachronic consistency is that gay rights advocates took more than a hundred years to organise and campaign for the legalisation of gay marriage in many Western countries. Their belief that people should treat same-sex relationships the same as heterosexual relationships has survived today.
One example of synchronous agreement is that the LGBTQIA+ community and its advocates share many of the same beliefs, including freedom of expression and freedom for people to have relationships with whomever they choose. This gives them greater collective power and strengthens their message in the eyes of the majority group.
Commitment refers to the perception that a group is serious about its beliefs and willing to initiate and implement change.
There are numerous ways in which a minority group can demonstrate commitment to their cause:
This is effective because of the augmentation principle.
The augmentation principle states that if a person or movement is carried out action despite great opposition, obstacles, or difficulties, their beliefs are perceived as ‘stronger than those obstacles’ and therefore appear more valid.
An example of this is the LGBTQIA+ movement, which has persisted in its demonstrations since its inception despite repeated examples of persecution and violence against its members. The augmentation principle can lead members of the majority group to show respect or understanding for the minority group as they see their sacrifice and true beliefs being expressed and defended.
Flexibility means that the minority is willing to compromise.
When the majority group sees that the minority group is willing to compromise or engage in honest discussion to satisfy everyone, they are taken more seriously and treated with more care and respect. If a minority group is seen as dogmatic (rigid in their views) or too demanding, this can put people off.
There are other insights on social change that Moscovici did not address but are still worth discussing. Let us look at some notable studies and explain what they found.
Maass et al. (1982) found that a homosexual minority was less successful in persuading a heterosexual member of the majority to support gay rights than a heterosexual minority would be. The reason is that the heterosexual member of the majority identifies more with the heterosexual minority and they see themselves as more similar and understanding of each other. For the heterosexual majority, the homosexual minority is an ‘other’, and this could make it appear that they are only trying to advance their interests.
Bashir et al. (2013) found that people sometimes resist social change, even when they believe it is necessary because they do not want to be associated with negative stereotypes attributed to proponents of these ideas.
For example, some people reject feminism because feminists are often portrayed as ‘man-haters’ (misandrists). For example, because men cannot identify with women’s experiences, they find it more difficult to identify with feminism, and misrepresentations can influence their judgment more easily.
Diane Mackie (1987) counters Moscovici’s original claim that minority influence compels members of the majority group to think long and hard about their own views and opinions rather than just following the crowd. According to Mackie, due to conformity and our desire to assume that everyone thinks the same way we do, discovering that the majority does not think the same way we do can force us to think hard and embrace a similar viewpoint. Moscovici did not mention this idea, which may question the validity of his proposals.
You may recall Asch’s research on social influence described earlier in this chapter.
In one of his famous line study variants, he examined the effect that deviation from the majority group had on people’s actions by instructing one of the fellow participants to give correct answers in the experiment. This approach reduced the participants’ conformity because the confederate’s dissenting opinion encouraged them. This idea could also apply to social change, where cultural norms are broken, and unjust government actions are more likely to be challenged when there is healthy dissent against them.
Public health and environmental campaigns also take advantage of normative social influence to drive positive social change.
For example, campaigns have pointed to the low number of teens who smoke today as a way to discourage teens from smoking. Environmental movements such as ‘Bin it. Others do it’ also use normative social influence to change people’s behaviour across society.
Zimbardo (2007) suggested that it is possible to achieve social change through obedience due to gradual commitment. Gradual commitment means that when someone is given a series of commands with progressively higher demands, they can be persuaded to do things they would not normally do if asked to do them immediately. It becomes more difficult to refuse to take the ‘next step’ with each new command.
Minority influence affects social change via conversion, the snowball effect and social cryptomnesia.
Examples of minority influence are the LGBTQIA+ movement and the Ramblers campaign in the UK.
The role of minority influence in social change is its ability to affect the beliefs and behaviour of the majority group, which can ultimately lead to conversion, the snowball effect, and social cryptomnesia.
The three most important factors that determine the effectiveness of minority influence are consistency, flexibility, and commitment. Let us take a closer look at these factors.
Social media gives minority groups an easy way to access a large audience and put the information across in various ways that can be easily read and shared.
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