Minority influence Flashcards
Moscovici et al procedure
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 color of the
slides
A control group – there were with confederates
Moscovici findings
Consistent minority condition = Pp 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
What can we conclude from Moscovici
That consistency in a minority influence is an important factor in getting majority agreement
Minority influence is when
one person or a
small group of people (the minority)
influences the beliefs and/or behaviors of
other people.
This most often leads to internalization.
What is minority influence not
conformity, because conformity can only be an influence from the majority
What are the three processes within minority influence
Consistency, commitment and flexibility
Consistency
-Helps gain interest in the views of the minority by making them rethink their on views
What are the two types of consistency
Synchronic consistency - people within the minority all saying the same thing
Diachronic consistency - The minority have been saying this for a while
Commitment
-Helps the minority gain attention vie the use of extreme activities which must create some kind of risk
-This causes the majority to pay even more attention because your potentially risking our life for your view
-eg. the suffragette jumping Infront of the horse
-This is known as the augmentation principle
Flexibility
The minority should make an effort to balance consistency and flexibility as not to appear too rigid
-Nemeth argues that repeating and consistent behaviors can often come across as off puting
-The minority should be able to adapt its views and accept reasonable counterpoints
Snowball effect
Once the minority becomes the majority, the rate of conversion quickens and social change occurs
Social cryptomesia
Failure to remember the point of social change
AO3 neg
-Moscovici’s research was gynocentric
-All the participants were female only
-Not generalisabe