Social Influence Processes and Social Change
Social change is a large-scale shift in the attitudes, beliefs or behaviour of a society, which social influence research explains through several routes. Minority influence can create change through a sequence from drawing attention to an issue to consistency, commitment and a snowball effect of conversion, while majority processes such as descriptive social norm messages, shown by Nolan et al. (2008) to reduce household energy use, also contribute.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn the sequence often used to describe how minority influence produces social change: drawing attention to an issue, creating cognitive conflict in the majority, showing consistency (both synchronic and diachronic), demonstrating commitment through the augmentation principle (costly or risky action increases perceived sincerity), the snowball effect (as more individual converts appear, the minority view gradually gains momentum and becomes the majority view), and social cryptomnesia (once the view is mainstream, people forget or misremember that it originated with a minority).
- Learn how normative social influence contributes to social change through descriptive social norms: Nolan et al.'s (2008) field study found that giving households feedback on how much energy their neighbours used reduced the households' own energy consumption more than standard financial or environmental appeal messages.
- Learn how obedience research contributes to understanding social change: in Milgram's variation studies, the presence of a disobedient confederate who refused to continue giving shocks sharply reduced the genuine participant's obedience, showing that seeing another person resist authority can give others 'social support' to dissent, which can gradually shift what is seen as an acceptable response to an unjust order.
- Learn the related idea of gradual commitment: small initial steps, as in Milgram's escalating shock levels, can commit a person to a course of action they would have refused if asked outright; real-world campaigns for social change sometimes use this same foot-in-the-door principle deliberately.
- For an AO2 application question, read the described scenario and identify which mechanism, or combination of mechanisms (minority influence steps, descriptive social norms, or a disobedient/dissenting model), best explains the change taking place, justifying the choice with the specific named feature present.
- For an AO3 evaluation question, plan two or three points before writing, such as: the real-world, practical value of social-norm messaging, supported by field research like Nolan et al.'s; the limited ecological validity of some of the underpinning lab evidence (e.g. Moscovici's blue-green slide study used an artificial task with no real consequences); and the difficulty separating minority and majority influence in real social change, since a minority view that gains enough supporters effectively becomes a form of majority influence itself.
- Build each evaluation paragraph using point, evidence, elaboration, link back (PEEL): state the evaluative point, support it with the relevant study or reasoning, elaborate on why it matters for how well the research explains real-world social change, then link the sentence explicitly back to the question.
- For a full 'discuss' essay, open with an AO1 outline of the relevant process(es), minority influence steps and/or descriptive norms and/or disobedience findings, follow with AO3 evaluation paragraphs, and finish with a conclusion weighing how well laboratory-derived processes explain gradual, real-world change.
Worked example
A small group of students starts a campaign for their school canteen to stop using single-use plastic packaging. They repeat the same request at every student council meeting for a year, and two of them personally give up buying any packaged snacks to show they mean it. Over time, more students start supporting the idea, and eventually the school changes its policy. A year later, most students simply think of the plastic-free canteen as 'how things have always been'. Using the minority influence route to social change, identify and explain the stages shown in this scenario.
- Identify the initial campaign itself as drawing attention to the issue, making other students aware of the plastic packaging problem.
- Identify repeating the same request at every meeting for a year as consistency (diachronic consistency, the same position held over time).
- Identify the two students giving up packaged snacks as demonstrating commitment through the augmentation principle, since this personal cost increases how sincere the group appears.
- Identify more students gradually supporting the idea, leading to a policy change, as the snowball effect.
- Identify students later seeing the plastic-free canteen as simply 'how things have always been' as social cryptomnesia, since the origin of the change, a small dissenting minority, has been forgotten.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What is meant by 'social cryptomnesia'?Show answer
Answer: People forgetting, or misremembering, that a now-mainstream attitude or behaviour originally came from a minority group.
Q2What is the 'snowball effect' in relation to minority influence and social change?Show answer
Answer: As a minority view gradually gains more individual converts, its influence builds momentum until it eventually becomes the majority view.
Q3What is the augmentation principle, and why is it relevant to social change?Show answer
Answer: The idea that a costly or risky action makes a person's or group's commitment seem more sincere; minorities who take on personal risk or cost for their cause are taken more seriously, helping their view to spread.
Q4What did Nolan et al. (2008) find about descriptive social norm messages and household energy use?Show answer
Answer: Telling households how much energy their neighbours used reduced their own energy consumption more effectively than standard financial or environmental appeal messages.
Q5What effect did the presence of a disobedient confederate have on obedience in Milgram's variation studies?Show answer
Answer: It sharply reduced the genuine participant's obedience, since seeing someone else resist gave them social support to disobey too.
Q6Give one reason a real-world social change might be better explained by normative social influence than by minority influence.Show answer
Answer: If the change spreads mainly because people conform to what they believe most others around them are now doing (a descriptive norm), rather than because a small, consistent minority converted them, normative social influence may be the more accurate explanation.
Q7What is meant by the 'foot-in-the-door' principle of gradual commitment in relation to social change?Show answer
Answer: Getting a person to agree to a small initial step first makes them more likely to later agree to a larger request they might otherwise have refused.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a A Level Psychology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Outline how minority influence can lead to social change.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 4 available
A city council wants to reduce the amount of water people waste at home. One campaign puts up posters simply saying 'save water to help the environment'. A second campaign instead tells residents the exact percentage of their neighbours who have already switched to shorter showers. Using your knowledge of social influence processes, predict which campaign is likely to be more effective, and explain why.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 6 available
Discuss how psychological research into social influence processes can help explain social change. (16 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 16 available
See real A Level Psychology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the social influence processes and social change worksheet pack - 5 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
Next topics
Not quite what you needed?
Tell us what is missing on social influence processes and social change, or which topic to write up next. Every request is read, and we reply to every one.
Build a full practice pack.
This topic is one of hundreds in the library - pick the ones a student needs and generate a printable PDF in minutes.