Minority Influence Flashcards
what are the factors that affect minority influence?
consistency
commitment
flexibility
what was Moscovici et al’s (1969) study?
blue slide green slide study
pps were shown 36 slides which were clearly different shades of blue and asked to state the colour of each slide out loud.
In the first part of the experiment the two confederates answered green for each of the slides. They were completely consistent in their responses.
in the second part of the experiment, they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. In this case they were inconsistent in their answers.
A control group was used for comparison with the experimental group therefore the factors expected to influence the experimental group are removed. The control group did not include confederates.
what did moscovici find?
Only 0.25% of the control group’s responses were green, the rest were blue
For the experimental group, 1.25% of the participants’ answers were green when the confederates gave inconsistent answers (i.e., 24 green, 12 blue).
this rose to 8.42% responding with green when the confederates were consistent in their responses (i.e., 36 green)
what is consistency?
over time, consistency in the minority’s views increases the amount of interest from other people
consistency makes others rethink their own views
what is synchronic consistency?
people in the minority are all saying the same thung
what is diachronic synchrony?
people in the minority have been saying the same thing for a long time
what is commitment ?
sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their cause
it is important that these extreme activities are at some risk to the minority because this demonstrates commitment to the cause
this increases the amount of interest further from other majority group members - the augmentation principle
what is flexibility?
Relentless consistency could be counterproductive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise.
what did Nemeth (1986) study?
argued that if the minority is seen as being inflex and uncompromising then the majority are unlikely to change.
they constructed a mock jury in which there were three genuine participants and one confederate
they had to decide on the amount of compensation to give a ski I accident victim.
When the confederate would not change from a low amount whic seemed unreasonable, the majority stuck together at a much high amount. However, when the confederate changed his compensat offer a bit, so did the majority.
This therefore shows that the minority should balance consistency flexibility so they do not appear rigid
what is snowball effect?
over time people become converted and switch from the minority to the majority
the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion
what are strengths of minority influence ?
research support - moscovici studied consistency
real life application- suffragettes
research support - Martin et al (2003)
what did Martin et al (2003) study
research support for minority influence
gave pps a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support. One group of pps then heard a minority group endorsing the same view. Another group of pps heard a majority group endorsing the initial viewpoint.
•Pps were then exposed to a conflicting view and their support was measured again.
•People were less willing to change their opinions to the new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group
•This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect
what are limitations of minority influence?
artificial tasks
the effect of the minority may not be apparent if people are reluctant to admit their conversion public ally
moscovici only tested female pps
lacks mundane realism
what is the augmentation principle?
whichever is stronger
