Factors involved in minority influence

Question 1

What are the 3 factors that are involved in minority influence?

Answer 1

• Consistency
• Commitment
• Flexibility

Question 2

What does consistency refer to?

Answer 2

The idea that the minority is more likely to influence the majority if their views are consistent.

Question 3

What are the two forms of consistency?

Answer 3

• Synchronic consistency

- Diachronic consistency

Question 4

What is synchronic consistency?

Answer 4

The minority group are all saying the same thing.

Question 5

What is diachronic consistency?

Answer 5

The minority group have been saying the same things for a long time.

Question 6

What are the two evaluation points for consistency?

Answer 6

+ Moscovici (1969)

+ Wood et al (1994 - meta analysis).

Question 7

What does commitment refer to?

Answer 7

This is the idea of how minority groups sometimes engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views; these activities demonstrate risk or inconvenience to the minority group.

Question 8

What is commitment also referred to as?

Answer 8

The augmentation principe.

Question 9

What are the two evaluation points for commitment?

Answer 9

+ Xie et al (2011)

- Based on research with low ecological validity

Question 10

What does flexibility refer to?

Answer 10

The willingness of a minority group to adapt and accept counter-arguments and be willing to compromise.

Question 11

What are the 2 evaluation points for flexibility?

Answer 11

+ Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987).

- Real-life minority groups are more complicated.

Question 12

Evidence to support the role of ‘consistency’ comes from Moscovici (1969)

Answer 12

E: It was found that, when a minority of confederates consistently said blue slides were green (the incorrect answer), they had a larger influence over the majority group of participants (8.42%) than when the confederates were inconsistent (1.25%)
L: +ve suggests minorities have more influence over the majority when they are consistent.

Question 13

Who carried out a meta-analysis on the role of consistency.

Answer 13

Wood et al 1994

Question 14

How may studies did wood et al carry out his meta analysis on?

Answer 14

100 studies

Question 15

What did wood et al find in his meta analysis?

Answer 15

HE found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential.

Question 16

What does this meta analysis suggest?

Answer 16

There is a great deal of evidence to support the role of consistency in minority influence.

Question 17

Evidence to support the role of commitment comes from Xie et al (2011)

Answer 17

They found that, when participants communicated on a social network with people who were committed to an alternative POV to their own, this had the most significant influence on them adopting this new POV.
+ve supports the importance of commitment in minority influence.

Question 18

One problem with understanding factors involved in minority influence is that our understanding is based on research that is low in ecological validity.

Answer 18

E: Seen as controlled but can be viewed as artificial setting doesn’t represent real life.
E: In real life minority groups are usually arguing in favour of important social issues rather then more trivial tasks such as colour judgement or discussions on social networks.
L: -ve the findings may not generalise to real-life minority influence situations.

Question 19

Evidence to support the role of ‘flexibility’ comes from Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987)

Answer 19

E: They tested a mock jury situation where group members discussed the amount of compensation to be paid to someone involved in a ski-lift accident.
E: they found that when a confederate put forward an alternative POV and refused to change his position, this had no influence on the group, but when they showed flexibility and compromised, they did have an influence on the group.
L: +ve as it suggests flexibility might play an important role in minority influence.

Question 20

A major limitation of minority influence research is that real life minority groups are more complicated than much of the research suggests.

Answer 20

E: more involved in the difference between a minority and a majority than just numbers.
E: majorities usually have much more power and stays then minorities whilst minorities can be tight-knit groups whose members know each other well and turn to each other for support.
L: minority influence research may over-simplify the processes involved.