minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence?

Answer 1

• Minority influence refers to situations where one person or a small group influences the beliefs and behaviours of others.
• internalisation
• Minority to Majority

Question 2

what are the 3 processes of minority influence?

Answer 2

• The minority must be consistent in their views = people will take them more seriously
• Consistency makes others rethink their own views → Means the minority’s views gain more interest
• Synchronic consistency - saying the same thing
• Diachronic consistency - saying the same thing for some time

Question 3

commitment

Answer 3

• Show dedication to the cause
• Helps gain attention (e.g. through extreme activities)
• Augmentation principle: majority pay even more attention

Question 4

flexibility

Answer 4

• Nemeth (1986) = need to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility
• It needs to be adaptable
• minority should adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counterarguments.
• Snowborarding compensation
• All this leads to the process of change: deeper processing, conversion, and snowball effect
• Snowball effect: Over time, the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred

Question 5

Moscovici et al (1969)

Answer 5

A group of 6 people viewed a set of 36 blue-green coloured slides varying in intensity and then stated whether the slides were blue or green.

The study had three conditions:
1. Confederates consistently said the slides were green
2. Confederates were inconsistent about the colour of the slides
3. A control group - no confederates

● Consistent minority condition - Ps gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of trials, 32% gave the same answer on at least one trial
● Inconsistent minority condition - agreement fell to 1.25%
● Control group - Ps wrongly identified colour 0.25% of the time