minority influence

Question 1

define minority influence

Answer 1

when a minority changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority leading to social influence

Question 2

what are the 3 factors that can enhance the effectiveness of a minority?

Answer 2

consistency
commitment
flexibility

Question 3

example of a study into minority influence:

Answer 3

Moscovici’s study (1969)

Question 4

what were the aims of Moscovici’s study

Answer 4

to observe how minorities can influence a majority
participants were randomly selected participants and confederates
used 172 female participants

Question 5

explain the procedure of Moscovici’s study

Answer 5

• lab experiment
• participants told that they were taking part in a colour perception task.
• in groups of 6, participants were shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue and had to state out loud the colour of each slide.
• 2 out of 6 participants were confederates and in one condition (consistent) the two confederates said that all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.

Question 6

explain the findings of Moscovici’s study

Answer 6

Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials, whereas in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials. This shows that a consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority and that consistency is an important factor in minority influence for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority

Question 7

explain Nemeth’s study into flexibility (1986)

Answer 7

Nemeth investigated the idea of flexibility in which participants in groups of 4 had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski-lift accident
one of the participants in each group was a confederate and there were two conditions
1) when the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change his position - inflexible
2) when the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation - flexible
Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little to no effect on the majority whereas in the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to compromise and change their view
Nemeth’s research highlights the importance of flexibility but questions the idea of consistency
Moscovici shows the minorities need to be consistent, whereas Nemeth shows that minorities need to be flexible

Question 8

explain the role of consistency in minority influence

Answer 8

the majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is consistent in their views.
this is because it makes the opposition think that the views of the minority are real and serious enough to pay attention to (the augmentation principle) as they are so determined to stay consistent
however being too consistent can suggest that the minority is inflexible, uncompromising and irrational, making their argument less appealing to the majority

Question 9

what are the two types of consistency

Answer 9

diachronic and synchronic consistency

Question 10

explain diachronic consistency

Answer 10

diachronic consistency is when the group remains consistent over time - this forces the opposition to rethink their own views repeatedly over time and generates more doubt due to the conflicting views, which allows more opportunity to be influenced

Question 11

explain synchronic consistency

Answer 11

synchronic consistency is when the group is consistent between all members of the group - because every has the same views, they can support and agree with each other - then it can convince the majority that there is something worth agreeing with

Question 12

explain the role of commitment in minority influence

Answer 12

the majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is committed because the minority have more passion and confidence in their point of view which suggests to the majority that their view must somehow be valid and it encourages them to explore why; offering more opportunity to be influenced

Question 13

explain the role of flexibility in minority influence

Answer 13

the majority is more likely to be influenced by the minority when the minority is flexible
if the minority appear flexible, compromising and rational, they are less likely to be seen as extremists and attention seekers and more likely to be seen as reasonable, considerate and cooperative

Question 14

evaluations of Moscovici’s study

Answer 14

• used a bias sample of 172 female American participants so the results cannot be generalised e.g. we cannot conclude that male participants would respond in the same way - furthermore, research suggests that females are more likely to conform so further research is required to determine the effect of minority influence on male participants
• deception took place as the participants were told they were taking part in a colour perception test so Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent - however in order to achieve valid results deception was required as if they knew the true aim of the experiment, they might have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently

Question 15

evaluations for minority influence

Answer 15

+ Martin et al demonstrated that there is a greater degree of internalisation of a minority view, compared to a majority view - in his study one group heard the opinion of a minority group and the other heard the opinion of a majority group - after both groups were exposed to the opposing opinion, the group who’d heard the minority view were significantly less likely to change their own views suggesting that a minority is more powerful as it holds risk and so forces the audience to reconsider their own views
+ the emphasis of consistency, commitment and flexibility have a real-life application because they can inform minority groups about the best way to behave in order to exert a maximum amount of influence - however the majority often has greater connections and power so the 3 techniques are not always enough to change the opinion of an audience
- Moscovici’s study lacks ecological validity as it relied on artificial tasks and stimuli meaning that such methodology lacks mundane realism because the tasks do not reflect the scenarios that minority groups would act in real life - so the results cannot be generalised