Arbitrary norms and social change in high- and low-authoritarian societies

Following Jacobs and Campbell's methodology for replacing confederates and naive subjects over 11 successive generations, this study considered the impact of authoritarianism on the rate of social change of arbitrary norms in laboratory societies. Subjects were 116 college students scoring high and low on the California F scale who participated in an autokinetic experiment either with no confederates (control), confederates who made estimates in a range of 9 to 15 inches (22.86-38.10 cm) (moderately arbitrary), or those who estimated in a range of 15 to 21 inches (38.10--53.34 cm) (extremely arbitrary). Results indicated: (a) High-F societies perpetuated arbitrary norms (both 9-15 and 15-21) for more generations than low-F societies; (b) in low-F societies, the 9-15- and 15-21-inch norms rapidly declined; and (c) in high-F societies, the 15-21-inch norms gradually declined, while the 9-15-inch norm declined very little. Overall, the results suggested that an interaction model would better described social change than do presently existing theories of social change.