Kincaid D Lawrence
Center for Communication Programs, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
J Health Commun. 2004;9 Suppl 1:37-57. doi: 10.1080/10810730490271511.
Every innovation begins as a deviation from existing social norms. Given the strong effect of social norms and pressure, how can any innovation ever diffuse to the point where it becomes a new social norm? The seeming paradox of how a minority can influence the majority has not been explained well by prevailing social science theory. Computer simulations of the diffusion of a new behavior within the social network of a Bangladesh village led to the discovery of a new principle of social change that resolves this paradox. The results revealed the important but overlooked role played by boundaries that emerge within a social network and how such local boundaries affect the creation of a new social norm. A minority position can become the social norm by means of the process of bounded normative influence. As long as a minority maintains its majority status within its own, locally bounded portion of the network, then it can survive, recruit converts in the near surround, and establish its behavior as the norm for the network as a whole. The process is accelerated when the minority subgroup is centrally located in the network and communicates more frequently and persuasively than the majority.
每一项创新都始于对现有社会规范的背离。鉴于社会规范和压力的强大影响，任何创新如何能够传播到成为一种新的社会规范的程度呢？少数群体如何能够影响多数群体这一看似矛盾的现象，尚未得到主流社会科学理论的充分解释。对孟加拉国一个村庄社会网络中新行为传播的计算机模拟，促成了一项新的社会变革原则的发现，该原则解决了这一矛盾。结果揭示了社会网络中出现的边界所发挥的重要但被忽视的作用，以及这种局部边界如何影响新社会规范的形成。少数派立场可以通过有限规范影响的过程成为社会规范。只要少数群体在其自身网络中局部受限的部分保持多数地位，那么它就能生存下来，在周边地区招募皈依者，并将其行为确立为整个网络的规范。当少数子群体位于网络中心位置，且比多数群体更频繁、更有说服力地进行交流时，这一过程就会加速。
