minority influence

Question 1

minority influence

Answer 1

one person/ small group influences other people eg individuals in a bigger group

Moscovici

leads to internalisation

Question 2

consistency

Answer 2

minority stays united - synchronic - and keeps same views over time - diachronic

• draws attention to the minority view

Question 3

commitment

Answer 3

augmentation principle - dedication to their position eg personal sacrifices

• personal sacrifices show minority not acting out of self-interest

Question 4

flexibility

Answer 4

minority should accept reasonable counterarguments from majority

• more effective if it shows flexibility by accepting possibility of compromise

Question 5

process of change

Answer 5

majority thinks deeply about minority view then snowball effect - minority view becomes majority

Question 6

research support for consistency

Answer 6

P - strenght is research evidence demonstrating importance of consistency
E - Moscovici et al - blue/green slide study - consistent minority opinion can effect views of other people than inconsistent opinion
E - Wood et al - meta-analysis and found minorities being consistent were most influential
L - suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority

Question 7

research support for deeper processing

Answer 7

P - strength is evidence showing that a chance in majority’s position does involve deeper processing
E - Martin et al - presented message supporting a viewpoint and measured agreement
E - one group then heard minority agree while another group heard majority agree - then exposed to conflicting view - people less willing to change opinion if heard minority than majority
L - minority message had been more deeply processed so more enduring effect

P - studies make clear distinctions between majority and minority
E - real-life more complicated - majorities have more power and status
E - minorities face hostility - these features absent from research
L - findings limited in what they can tell us about real-life situations

Question 8

artificial tasks

Answer 8

P - limitation is tasks involved often just as artificial as Asch’s line task
E - Moscovici et al - identifying colour - far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour
E - eg jury, political campaigns - more important sometimes matter of life or death
L - minority influence studies lacking external validity