Minority influence Flashcards
What is the definiton of minority influence?
When one person or a smaller group influence the beliefs and behaviour of the majority.
This means that their behaviour has been INTERNALISED by the maj. and they have been converted. The more this happens the higher the rate (Snowball effect)
What was moscovicis procedure to investigate minority influence?
*show a group of 6 participants 36 slides of shades of blue, and ask what colour they see.
*1ST GROUP: 2 confeds, CONSISTENTLY said green and the wrong answer rose to 8.42%
*2ND GROUP: 2 confeds INCONSISTENTLY said green (24 times) and blue (12) and agreement with green fell to 1.25%
*3RD GROUP: No confeds, just identifying the colour on the slides. They got it wrong 0.25%
How does consistency help minority influence?
*Synchronic consistency= minority are all saying the same thing, this draws ATTENTION.
*Diachronic consistency= minority have been saying the same thing for a long TIME. this makes the maj. rethink their views.
how does commitment help minority influence?
*Minority is more likely to influence others if they show DEDICATION to their position, drawing attention.
*This may involve a personal SACRAFICE, proving their passion.
How does flexibility help minority influence?
*minority need to be willing to COMPROMISE and be reasonable.
*a lack of flexibility can be off-putting.
*must find a balance.
AO3: Research support for CONSISTENCY
“Moscovicis study supports, as in the first group with the consistent confeds, they were influenced 8.4%, but when the confeds were inconsistent, they were influenced 1.25%.”
This supports that…
This supports the fact that consistency is an important factor in minority influence.
AO3:Research support (part II)
Further supported when the 3rd group had no confeds, and 0.25% said the wrong answer.
What does this show?
This shows that in the original conditions, the majority were INFLUENCED by the min. and it would not just have happened anyway if the min. hadn’t been there.
HOWEVER..
it can be said that the min. did not have a large influence as the value of 8.4% is very low and only shows a SMALL influence.
AO3: research support for INTERNALISATION.
“In a variation of moscovicis study, they wrote the answers down, so they were private. Private agreement with the minority was greater in this circumstance.”
What does this show?
this shows that members of the maj. were being convinced by the min. but didn’t want to ADMIT it publicly.
This therefore supports that those in this variation did agree privately, which supports that the min. influence had lead to INTERNALISATION as the theory suggests.
AO3: Issues
“One problem is that the task is very artificial, as being asked to identify coloured slides is not realistic.”
What does this mean?
This means that it lacks MUNDANE REALISM, as it doesn’t represent real life tasks, therefore this creates a lack of external validity.
(Talk about having no real life consequences unlike Jury.)
