MINORITY INFLUENCE Flashcards
WHAT IS MINORITY INFLUENCE?
refers to situations where one person or a smalle group influences the beliefs of other people.
what type of conformity does minority influence lead to?
internalisation
what factors effect a minority influence?
their commitment, consistency and flexibility
why does consistency influence wethr people are influenced y the minority group
- consistency increase the amount of interest
- this consistency is expressed in two ways
- this consistency makes people rethink their own views and challenges their own beliefs
two forms of concistency
synchronic and diachronic
what is synchronic consistency?
they all say the same thiing (the minority group)
what is diachronic consistency
they’ve been saying the same thing for a long time
why does commitment of minority help?
- they engage in risk taking behavior which shows commitment to their cause
- majority group members then pay even more attention
- this is the augmentation principle
why is flexibility important?
- being too consistent = rigid and risks being seen as dogmatic and inflexible
- this is off putting to the majority
- minority memebrs should be prepared to adapt and change how they think the majority to change
what is the key balance between
consistency and flexibility
explain the role of deeper processing
- flexibility, consistency and commitment of a view make the majority think about the topic, especially because its knew
- the passion and risk taking behaviour means they have a key deeper level of processing which starts the conversoin to the minorty
explain snowball effect
- over time people swicth from minority to majority
- they have been converted
- this is the snowball effect
what was moscovicis research
- 172 females
- say whether 36 blue-colored slides were green or blue
- there was two confederates who were consistent with their views to see the effects of the minority influence
- controlled group who had zero confederates
- third group with an inconsistent minority
moscovicis findings
consistent minority had the most influence
32% of P.P gave same answer as minority on at least one trial. a second group had inconsistent minority = 1.25%
control group who had no confed got it wrong on 0.25%
evaluate minority influence
- research support from moscovici
- artifical task - doesnt actually reflect how minorities influence majorities in the real world- lack external validity
- further research support from wood
- practical applications, know how to change majority viewpoint
- clarke - two groups - one argument - one changed mind of jury - argument influenced jury group - snowball effect
