L11: Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
When a very persuasive small or even individuals change the way the majority behave and think.
What did Moscovici (1985) believe minority influence leads to, and it’s definition?
Conversion.
- when individuals change their private and public beliefs and views because of minority influence
What three factors are involved in letting minority influence happen?
- committed- when members of the minority show their dedication to their belief, perhaps by making sacrifices or being inconvenienced, proving their are not acting out of self interest.
- consistent : when a minority continually repeats their message, allowing the majority to reassess their belief and consider their issue more.
- flexible: when a minority shows they are willing to consider the other viewpoints, the majority will then listen to the minority point of view and take their argument more seriously
Process of minority influence
An initial small effect, then it spreads more and people become converted to the minority belief and viewpoint. Then there is a tipping point where the minority becomes the majority : snowball effect
What is social crypto-amnesia?
This is when an individual is not aware of where a new idea originated from, for example accepting a minority influence behaviour but does not remember it came from there.
Evaluation- (+) Moscovici (1969)
Moscovici told 172 female participants that they would be doing a colour perception task. They were placed in groups of 6 and shown 36 slides with varying shades of blue. 2 out of 6 confederates were confederates. The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide. In the consistent condition the confederates said the slides were green 36 times. In inconsistent the confederates said the slides were green 24 times and blue 12 times. Consistent= 8.2%, inconsistent= 1.25%. This shows consistent minority is more effective than inconsistent minority
Evaluation - (-) : gender bias
Moscovici’s experiment is gender biased as he only uses women. As a result, we cannot generalise this to men and confirm they would react the same way. After conducting research it was found that women are more likely to conform than men. This means further research must be done on the effect of minority infkuence on men.
Evaluation (-) -cultural bias
Moscovicis sample was culturally biased as all participants were from America. The findings cannot be generalised to other populations.
Evaluation (-) -ecological validity
Ecological validity can be questioned in Moscovicis experiment because it was conducted in a laboratory. The participants were strangers who do not know each other and may never meet again.
Evaluation (-) - deception
Moscovici deceived participants by saying they were doing a colour perception test, however they were actually doing an experiment on minority influence. This goes against a participants informed consent and is seen as unethical. However, this was necessary as it avoided chances of demand characteristics and the experiment being invalid.
