minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence?

Answer 1

• refers to situations where one person/small group influences beliefs/behaviour of other people
• distinct from conformity (majority doing influencing)
• most likely to lead to internalisation

Question 2

what are the three main processes in minority influence?

Answer 2

• consistency
• commitment
• flexibility

Question 3

what is commitment?

Answer 3

• minority must demonstrate commitment to their views/cause
• sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views
• important these extreme activities present some risk to minority - shows greater commitment
• majority group members pay even more attention - augmentation principle

Question 4

what is consistency?

Answer 4

• minority must be consistent in their view - overtime increases amount of interest from other people
• can take form of agreement between people in minority group (synchronic - all saying same thing) and/or diachronic consistency - been saying same thing for some time now
• consistent minority makes other people start to rethink own views

Question 5

what is flexibility?

Answer 5

• nemeth argued onsistency not only important factor in minority influence - can be off-putting
• if seen as dogmatic + rigid - minorities may not be persuasive
• members of minority need to be prepared to adapt their pov + accept reasonable + valid counterarguments
• they key is to strike a balance between consistency + flexibility

Question 6

how does the process of change happen as done by the three processes of minority influence?

Answer 6

• if you hear something new - think more deeply about it - especially is source of this view consistent, committed + flexible
• this deeper processing - important in process of conversion to different minority view
• increasing numbers of people switch from majority position to minority position - become ‘converted’ - called ‘snowball effect’ - minority view has become majority + change has occurred

Question 7

evaluate minority influence

Question 8

what is research support for consistency?

Answer 8

• moscovici et al’s 1969 blue/green slide study
• ptp’s shown 36 slides clearly different shades of blue + asked to state each slide out loud
• group of 6 people - each group 2 conf said green - 8.42
• other group inconsistent - fell 1.25 agree green
• found in consistent majority had bigger effect on majority views compared to inconsistent

Question 9

what can back up moscivici?

Answer 9

wood et al carried out meta-analysis of almost of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent most influential

Question 10

what is research to support deeper processing?

Answer 10

• martin et al - presented message supporting particular viewpoint + measured ptp’s agreement
• one group heard majority agree, other heard minority group agre
• ptp’s finally exposed to conflicting view + attitudes measured again
• people less willing to change if listened to minority - suggests minority message more deeply processed + more enduring effect - supporting central argument of minority influence

Question 11

what is a counterpoint to deeper processing?

Answer 11

• real-world social influence situations much more complicated like majorities often have lots of power and status
• minorities are very committed to their causes due to hostile opp
• such features usually absent from minority influence research - minority simply smallest group
• may lack ecological validity

Question 12

how is the true power of minority influence a drawback of it?

Answer 12

• moscovici et al figure for agreement with a consistent minority very low on average being 8%
• minority influence may be quite rare and not a useful concept

Question 13

what is a methological drawback of moscovici?

Answer 13

• artificial task, lacks ecological validity
• changing an opinion on colour is not as impactful as political opinion
• mundane realism cannot be applied to real life situations unknown whether people would act similarly in day to day life

Question 14

what is social change?

Answer 14

• change that happens in a society and not an individual level
• minorities can change the positions of members of the majority via consistency, flexibility + commitment

Question 15

what are the social change processes?

Answer 15

• drawing attention
• consistency
• deeper processing
• augmentation principle
• snowball effect
• social cryptomnesia

Question 16

what is social cryptomnesia?

Answer 16

• happens after societal change
• individuals who previously held old view refuse to admit they held the now unpopular view/resisted the new view
• do not give credit to minorities who changed society

Question 17

what is deeper processing

Answer 17

deeper processing of issue - think deeply - cognitive conflict

Question 18

what is the augmentation principle?

Answer 18

personal risk indicating strong belief + reinforces (or augments) their message

Question 19

what is the snowball effect

Answer 19

• when members of majority slowly convert to minority
• but as minority grows attracts new members faster - until grows so large now the majority

Question 20

how did asch show conformity to lead to social change? how is NSI used to lead to this?

Answer 20

• highlighted importance of dissent in unanimity variation when one conf gave correct answer throughout
• broke power of majority - encouraging others
• such dissent potential to lead to social change
• environmental + health campaigns exploit conformity processes by appealing to NSI - do this by providing info about what others are doing
• social change encouraged by drawing attention to what majority are doing

Question 21

how do milgram and zimbardo show how obedience (or lack of) can lead to social change?

Answer 21

• milgram - demonstrates importance of disobedient role models
• in variation where conf teacher refuses to give shocks to learner - rate of obedience in genuine ptps plummeted
• zimbardo - suggested obedience can lead to social change through process of gradual commitment - once small instruction obeyed - becomes much more difficult to resist bigger one - people essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour

Question 22

evaluate social change

Answer 22

-

Question 23

what is research support for normative influences impact on social change?

Answer 23

• research has shown social influence processes based on psychological research do work
• nolan et al aimed to see if they could change people’s energy-use habits
• hung messages on front doors of houses every week for a month message was most residents trying to reduce their energy uses
• as control some residents had different message that just asked them to save energy - no reference to others
• significant decreases in energy usage in first group compared to second
• shows conformity can lead to social change through NSI - valid explanation

Question 24

what is a counterpoint to nolan’s et al research on NSI being a valid influence on social change?

Answer 24

• some studies show people’s behaviour not always changed through exposing them to social norms
• foxcroft et al reviewed social norms interventions - included 70 studies where social norms approach used to reduce student alcohol use
• researchers only found small reduction in drinking quantity + no effect on frequency - seems NSI does not always produce long-term social change

Question 25

how is the ability to explain a strength of minority influences’ affect on social change?

Answer 25

• psychologists can explain how minority influence brings about social change
• nemeth claims social change due to type of thinking minorities inspire - when people consider minority arguments - engage in divergent thinking - type of thinking broad rather than narrow (thinker searches for info + weighs opts)
• nemeth argues leads to better decisions + more creative solutions to social issues
• shows why dissenting minorities valuable - stimulate new ideas + open minds in a way majorities cannot

Question 26

what is a limitation of deeper processing when it comes to social change?

Answer 26

• may not play a role in how minorities bring about social change
• mackie disagrees + presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views
• when you find out a majority believes something different - forced to think long and hard about their arguments + reasoning
• means central element of minority influence challenged - casting doubt on its validity as an explanation of social change