Minority Influence

Question 1

What is meant by minority influence?

Answer 1

Situations where 1 person/small group(minority)of people influences beliefs & behaviour of others
Distinct from conformity where majority doing influencing - both cases 1 + people being influenced
Minority influence most likely to lead to internalisation

Question 2

Why is consistency important for minority influence?

Answer 2

Consistency in minority’s views increases amount of interest from others
Synchronic consistency - all saying same thing
Diachronic consistency - saying same thing for some time
Makes others start to rethink own views - “maybe heave got a point if they keep saying it”

Question 3

Why is committment important for minority influence?

Answer 3

Minorities may engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views
It’s important these extreme activities cause risk for minority to demo commitment to cause
Majority group members then pay more attention - AKA Augmentation principle
Therefore, more likely to integrate it into personal viewpoints of majority, augmenting its importance
“He must really believe in what he’s saying so maybe I should consider his view”

Question 4

Why is flexibility important for minority influence?

Answer 4

Nemeth (1986) argued consistency isn’t only important in minority influence bc it can be interpreted negatively
Being extremely consistent & repeating same arguments & behaviours can be seen as rigid & inflexible
This is off-putting to majority & unlikely to result in any conversions to minority position
Instead members need to be able to adapt their POV & accept reasonable & valid counter-arguments

Question 5

Evaluate research into minority influence

Answer 5

Strength - Research support for importance of consistency
E.g. - Moscovici et al. (1969) - showed consistent minority opinion had greater effect on other people than inconsistent opinion.
Ex. - Supports idea of minority influence as displays consistency as major factor in minority influence

Strength - Research support for depth of thought to change to minority position
E.g. - Martin et al. (2003) gave parties message supporting particular viewpoint & measured their support. 1 group of parties then heard minority group agree with initial view while another group heard this from majority. Parties finally exposed to conflicting view & attitudes measured again.
They found that people less willing to change opinions if they’d listened to minority group rather than if shared with majority group.
E.g. - Suggests minority message more deeply processed & had more enduring effect, supporting central argument about how minority influence process works

Limitation - Artificial tasks
E.g. - Identifying size of line (Asch). Thus research far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour of majorities irl. In cases such as jury decision making & political campaigning, outcomes vastly more important, sometimes life or death.
Ex. - Means findings of minority influences such as Moscovici et al.’s lacking external validity & limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works irl situations.