Minority Influence

Question 1

define minority influence

Answer 1

form of social influence - in which a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs/attitudes/or behaviours

leads to internalisation or conversion - private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours

Question 2

define consistency

Answer 2

minority influence is most effective if minority keeps all the same beliefs

both over time and between the individuals in the minority

consistency is effective as it draws attention to minority views

Question 3

define commitment

Answer 3

minority influence more powerful if minority demonstrates dedication to their position

e.g. by making personal sacrifices

this is effective as it shows the minority is not acting out of self interest

Question 4

define flexibility

Answer 4

relentless consistency could be counter productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending an unreasonable

therefore, minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 5

what does minority influence refer to?

Answer 5

situations where one person or a small group of people (minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people

distinct from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing - thus called majority influence

Question 6

what is minority influence likely to lead to?

Answer 6

internalisation

both in public behaviour and private beliefs are changed in the process

Question 7

who first studied this process?

Answer 7

Serge Moscovici in his ‘blue slide green slide’ study

this study and others have drawn attention to three main processes in minority influence

Question 8

consistency increased the amount of interest from other people - what are the two ways it can take place?

Answer 8

synchronic consistency and diachronic consistency

Question 9

what is synchronic consistency?

Answer 9

they are all saying the same thing

Question 10

what is diachronic consistency?

Answer 10

they have been saying the same thing for some time now

Question 11

what does a consistent minority do to people?

Answer 11

it makes others start to rethink their own views

‘maybe they have got a point’

Question 12

what do minority groups do to show commitment?

Answer 12

sometimes they engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views

it is important that these activities present some risk to the minority because this shows the greater commitment

Question 13

what does commitment do?

Answer 13

majority group members pay even more attention

this is called the augmentation principle

Question 14

what did Charles Nemeth argue 1986?

Answer 14

that consistency is not the only important influence as it can be off putting

someone who is extremely consistent and repeats the same old arguments and behaviours may be seen as rigid and unbending

this on its own is unlikely to gain many converts to the minority position

Question 15

what should members of the minority be prepared to do?

Answer 15

they should be prepared to adapt their point of view and reasonable and valid counter arguments

Question 16

what is the key?

Answer 16

to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility

Question 17

what is important to the conversion?

Answer 17

deeper processing

over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position

they have become ‘converted’

Question 18

what is the snowball effect?

Answer 18

like a snowball gathering snow as it rolls, the faster the rate of conversion, gradually the minority view becomes the majority view and change has occurred

Question 19

what is a strength for consistency?

Answer 19

there is research evidence which demonstrates the importance of consistency

Question 20

what is the research evidence which supports the importance of consistency?

Answer 20

Moscovici’s blue green slide study

it showed that a consistent opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than inconsistent opinion

Question 21

what did wendy wood 1994 do?

Answer 21

she carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies

she found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential

Question 22

what does this suggest?

Answer 22

that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority

Question 23

what is another strength?

Answer 23

is evidence showing that a change in the majority’s position does involve deeper processing of the minority’s ideas

Question 24

what did Robin Martin 2003 do?

Answer 24

he presented a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured participants’ agreement

Question 25

what happened in this study?

Answer 25

one group of participants then heard a minority group agree with the initial view while another group heard a majority group agree with it

participants were then exposed to a conflicting view - attitudes were measured again

Question 26

what were the findings of the study?

Answer 26

people were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group

Question 27

what does this suggest?

Answer 27

that minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect

supporting the central argument about how the minority influence works

Question 28

what is a counterpoint of this strength?

Answer 28

research studies - such as Martin’s , make clear distinctions between the majority and minority

doing this in a controlled way is a strength of minority influence

but real world social influence situations are much more complicated

Question 29

give an example of how real world social influence is more complicated?

Answer 29

majorities usually have a lot more power and status that minorities

minorities are very committed to their causes (because they often face very hostile opposition)

these features are usually absent from minority influence research - the minority is simply the smallest group

Question 30

therefore how useful are Martin’s research?

Answer 30

very limited, in what they can tell us about minority influence in real world situations

Question 31

what is a limitation of minority influence research?

Answer 31

the task’s involved are often just as artificial as Asch’s line judgement task

this includes Moscovici’s task of identifying the colour of a slide

Question 32

therefore, research for minority influence is?

Answer 32

far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life

in cases such as jury decision making and political campaigning, the outcomes are vastly more important

Question 33

so what does this mean?

Answer 33

that findings of minority influence studies are lacking external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real world social situations