minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence?

Answer 1

• situations where one person or a small group of people (minority) influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people
• basically the opposite from conformity, were the majority do the influencing
• most likely leads to internalisation, where both public and private beliefs and behaviours are changed
• real life examples include small groups of protesters such as just stop oil

Question 2

consistency in minority influence

Answer 2

• minority must be consistent in views
• overtime this increases the amount of interest from others
• makes other people start to rethink their own views

synchronic consistency - they’re all saying the same thing
diachronic consistency - they’ve been saying the same thing for a long time now

Question 3

commitment in minority influence

Answer 3

• must demonstrate commitment to their views
• sometimes minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views, often present some risk to show greater commitment (just stop oil sitting in middle of f1 track or throwing soup at van gogh painting), willing to get injured or prosecuted
• others then start to pay more attention
• this is called the augmentation principle (cognitive process where thinking of majority individuals is challenged)
• leads to identification, change in disposition

Question 4

flexibility in minority influence

Answer 4

• charles nemeth argued that consistency is not the only important factor as it can be off-putting
• may make someone seem rigid, unbending and dogmatic
• members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their views and accept valid counterarguments
• need to find a balance between flexibility and consistency

Question 5

explaining the process of change

Answer 5

• hearing something you already agree with doesn’t usually make you stop and think, but if you hear something new then you may think more about it
• this deeper processing is important in the process of conversion to a new, minority viewpoint
• overtime increasing numbers of people will switch from the majority to the minority, becoming ‘converted’ (internalisation)
• the more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion
• this is called the snowball effect

Question 6

application - moscovi’s ‘the blue-green slides’

Answer 6

• she had 172 female participants in total, split into three groups whom she showed a series of 36 slides that were all blue but different shades (they all had eye test beforehand)
• 6 participants in a group, asked one at a time
• in the first group there were 4 participants and 2 confederates who consistently both said the slides were green, and the true participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials (agreed with the confederates)
• in the second group the 2 confederates acted as an inconsistent minority and both said green for 24 slides and blue for 12, agreement with the colour green fell to 1.25%
• for the third control group there were no confederates and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slides, and they got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials

Question 7

evaluation - research support for consistency (moscovi and wood’s meta-analysis)

Answer 7

• demonstrates the importance of consistency
• shows that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing views of others compared to an inconsistent opinion
• wendy wood carried out meta-analysis (looking at a large group all with similar methodologies) of 100 similar studies and found that consistent minorities were most influential, this increases validity and reliability
• overall suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement when trying to influence a majority

Question 8

evaluation - artificial tasks, mundane realism, group setting

Answer 8

• limitation is that tasks are often just as artificial as Asch’s line judgement, likely wouldn’t have to state colours of slides, task has no meaning
• eg. with moscovi, research is far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour in real life
• in cases such as jury decision making etc., outcomes are vastly more important and more passionate about causes
• studies lack in external validity, effects of consistent minority cannot be generalised to real life examples
• all participants were strangers, in real life it is likely that you would know other people so there is social support and influence, especially if someone has something you value so you are more likely to listen to them and agree with them

Question 9

evaluation / conclusion from the study

Answer 9

• minority can influence a majority in certain circumstances
• consistency found to be the most important factor
• however the influence of the majority appears to be much more influential, could be as majority tends to have more power and creates a larger normative social pressure, so people more likely to conform]
• may however be different in real life situations where minority is fighting for a worthwhile cause, and something they are passionate about (such as women’s rights, climate change, civil rights movement etc.) minority influence may lead to large social change