Minority Influence

Question 1

Describe Moscovici’s procedure

Answer 1

• A group of six people viewed a set of 36 blue-green coloured slides, varying in intensity, then states whether the slides were blue or green.

There were three conditions
- Confederates consistently said the slides were green
- Confederates were inconsistent about the colour of the
slides
- A control group – there were no confederates

Question 2

What were Moscovici’s findings?

Answer 2

Consistent minority condition
- Participants gave the same
wrong answer on 8.42% of trials; 32% gave the same answer on at least one trial

Inconsistent minority condition
- Agreement fell to 1.25%

Control group
- Participants wrongly identified the colour 0.25% of the time

Question 3

What is minority influence?

Answer 3

Where one person or small group of people influence the majority over time

Question 4

What are the 3 processes within minority influence?

Answer 4

• Consistency
• Commitment
• Flexibility

Question 5

Explain Consistency

Answer 5

• People consistently repeat their views
• Gain majority interest
• Two types:
• Synchronic consistency = the minority are all repeating the same thing
• Diachronic consistency = the majority have been saying this for a while

Question 6

Explain Commitment

Answer 6

• Helps the minority gain attention (often through extreme activities)
• Activities must create some kind of risk for the minority in order to gain attention
• Known as the augmentation principle

Question 7

Explain Flexibility

Answer 7

• The minority group should balance consistency and flexibility in order not to appear rigid
• Nemeth argued that being consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours is off-putting to the majority
• Instead, the minority should adapt their view and accept reasonable counter-points

Question 8

Explain the Snowball Effect

Answer 8

• When the minority becomes the majority as more and more people join
• Social change can occur

Question 9

What is a strength of minority influence theory?

Answer 9

• Moscovici’s study showed that when the minority are consistent in their responses they can influence the majority
• When the minority are inconsistent they are ignored by the majority

Question 10

What is a strength of depth of thought?

Answer 10

• Martin et al
• Found that people are less willing to change their opinions to the new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group

Question 11

What is a weakness for minority influence

Answer 11

• Artificial tasks
• Studies make clear distinctions between minority and majority influence but the tasks are artificial
• Real life situations
• Are more complicated so the finding lack external validity