Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
Where one person or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people. Overtime, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position. They become converted and the behaviour becomes internalised. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion (snowball effect).
Who did a study on minority influence?
Moscovici et al
Describe Moscovici et al’s study
A group of 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue-coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether the slides were blue or green. In each group there were 2 confederates who consistently said the slides were green. The true participant gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of the trials which had been agreed upon with confederates.
What happened with the second group of participants (Moscovici et al’s study)
The second group was exposed to an inconsistent minority (the confederates said ‘green’ 24x and ‘blue’ 12x). In this case, agreement with the answer ‘green’ fell to 1.25%.
What happened with the third group of participants (Moscovici et al’s study)
Third control group there were no confederates and all the participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. They got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials.
What three behavioural styles of influential minorities did Moscovici find?
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
What is consistency?
The way in which minority influence is more likely to occur if the minority members share the same belief and retain it over time. This then draws the attention of the majority to the minority.
What are the 2 types of consistency?
Synchronic Consistency
Diachronic Consistency
What is Synchronic Consistency?
they’re all saying the same thing /agreement between people in the minority group
What is Diachronic Consistency?
Consistency over time / they’ve been saying the same thing for some time
What is commitment?
This is the way that minority influence is more likely to occur if the minority shows dedication to their position. Majority group members then pay more attention, which is called the augmentation principle.
What does commitment typically involve?
Some form of personal sacrifice, which shows the majority that the minority is not just acting out of self-interest.
What is flexibility?
The minority need to be willing to compromise; therefore, not being seen as dogmatic and unreasonable.
