Minority influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
When a minority changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority
Who conducted research into minority influence?
Moscovici (1969) wanted to see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task
What was Moscovici’s sample?
172 Female ppts who were told that they were taking part in a colour perception task
What was Moscovici’s procedure?
Ppts placed in groups of 6 with two confederates and shown 36 slides with varying shades of blue, and asked to say out loud what colour it was
In one condition, confederates would say green for every slide, in the other confederates said that 24 were green and 12 were blue
What did Moscovici find?
In consistent condition, real ppts agreed on 8.2% of trials, whereas in inconsistent condition real ppts only agreed on 1.25% of trials
What factors make Minority influence more effective?
Consistency, commitment and flexibility
Generalisability?
172 female American ppts so difficult to generalise
Also, research often suggests that women are more likely to conform
Ethical issues?
Deception- ppts were told that they were taking part in a colour perception task
Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent
However, it required deception to gain valid results
