Minority Influence

Question 1

When does minority influence occur

Answer 1

When very persuasive small groups / individuals can change the way the majority behaves and thinks.

Question 2

What did Moscovici (1985) think minority influence leads to

Answer 2

Conversion
-> this is when individuals change their private beliefs & views because of minority influence

Question 3

Minority groups are most likely to be convincing when they are what 3 factors

Answer 3

• committed
• consistent
• flexible

Question 4

Why is commitment important (minority influence)

Answer 4

Commitment is show when members of the minority demonstrate their dedication to their belief, either by taking risk / being inconvenienced some way, or by making sacrifices (augmentation principle)
-> this shows that the minority isn’t acting out of self interest

Question 5

Why is consistency important (MI)

Answer 5

Consistency occurs when the minority repeatedly gives the same message over time
-> this makes a majority reassess their belief and consider the issue more carefully

Question 6

Why is flexibility important (MI)

Answer 6

This is when a minority shows that they are willing to listen to other viewpoints
- the majority will then listen to the minority point of view & take them more seriously

Question 7

What is the snowball effect

Answer 7

This is when minority influence spreads more, and as more people consider the issue being raised, more & more are converted to the minority viewpoint

Question 8

What is social crypto-amnesia

Answer 8

When an individual isn’t even aware of where the new idea originated from, as MI is a slow process, which may even be unconscious

Question 9

MI (+) - female colour perception task (Moscovici - 1969) method

Answer 9

• 172 female participants told they were taking part in a colour perception task
• placed in groups of 6, & shown 36 slides, with varying blue shades
• 2/6 pp’s = confederates
• pp’s had to state out loud the colour of each slide

Question 10

MI (+) - female colour perception task (Moscovici - 1969) results

Answer 10

• consistent condition = confederates said slide was green in all 36 trials
  -> 8.2% of pp’s were swayed by minority
• inconsistent = said slide was green in 24, and that 12 were blue
  -> 1.25% of pp’s were swayed
  Showed that a consistent minority is more effective than an inconsistent one

Question 11

(-) about Moscovici (1969) MI study
- gender biased

Answer 11

Only used women so we can’t conclude that men would respond the same way + research suggests that women are more likely to conform than men, so further research needed

Question 12

(-) about Moscovici (cultural bias)

Answer 12

• all pp’s from America, so findings can’t be generalised to other populations

Question 13

Moscovici (-) & other MI studies (lack of ecological validity)

Answer 13

• most are lab experiments
• therefore most pps don’t know each other
• real life is a bit different, so ecological validity not there

Question 14

Moscovici (1969) (-) ethical issues

Answer 14

• deception about what the study was really about
• therefore a lack of informed consent
• therefore unethical
  But it was required to get rid of risk of demand characteristics

Question 15

Research support for commitment- xie et al 2011

Answer 15

Xie et al. (2011) discovered a ‘tipping point’ where the number of people holding a minority position is sufficient to change majority opinion. In fact Xie found that you
need about 10% of the minority population to influence the majority.

Question 16

support for flexibility
: Nemeth (1986)

Answer 16

Nemeth 1986:
-> pps. in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski-lift accident. One of the participants in each group was a confed and there were two conditions: When the minority argued for a low rate ot compensation and retused to change their position (inflexible. 2) When the minonty argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible).
Results: Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority, however, in the flexible condition, the majority members were much more likely to also
compromise and change their view.