Minority influence

Question 1

Define minority influence

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which a person or small group of people influences the majority to adopt their ideas, beliefs and attitudes. Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation -both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed by the process.

Question 2

what are the main processes in minority influences?

Answer 2

consistency, commitment, flexibility

Question 3

Consistency

Answer 3

Over time the consistency in the minority’s views increases the amount of interest from other people.Such consistency makes other people start to rethink their own views .

Question 4

explain the two different types of consistency

Answer 4

synchronic consistency - theyre all saying the same thing

diachronic consistency -theyre all saying the same thing for some time now.

Question 5

Explain commitment

Answer 5

Minority influence is more powerful if the minority dedicates dedication to their position, eg by making personal sacrifices. This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest

Question 6

Flexibility

Answer 6

Relentless consistency could be counter-productive if its seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore, minority influence is more effective if the minority shows flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise.

Question 7

explain the process of change

Answer 7

It is the deeper processing which is important in the process of conversion to a different. minority viewpoint. Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position. They have become ‘converted’ . The more that this happens the faster the rate of conversion. This is called the snowball effect. Gradually the minority view has become the majority view an change has occurred.

Question 8

AO3- Research support for consistency

Answer 8

Moscovici et al.’s study showed that a consistent minority opinion ha a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion. Wood et al. carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were the most influential.

Question 9

AO3- Artificial

Answer 9

A limitation of minority influence research is that the tasks involved such as identifying the colour of a slide - are as artificial as Asch’s line judgement task. Research is therefore far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life. Therefore studies lack external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influences work in real-life situations.

Question 10

AO3-limited real-world application

Answer 10

Research studies usually make a very clear and obvious distinction between the minority and the majority. To be able to do this in a controlled way is a strength of much minority influence research. But a significant limitation is that real-life social influence situations are much more complicated than this. There’s more involved in the different between the majority and minority than just numbers. For example, majorities usually have a lot more power and status. Minorities are very committed to their cause - they have to be as they face very hostile opposition