minority influence Flashcards
what is minority influence
Situations where one person or a small group of people (a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour
of other people (the majority).
Contrasting to conformity where the majority is doing the influence (which is why conformity can also be called majority influence)
minority influence is most likely to lead to…
internalisation - both public and private beliefs are changed by the process
what is synchronic consistency?
People in the minority are all saying the same thing
what is diachronic consistency
They’ve been saying the same thing for some time now
How does commitment affect minority influence?
Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that these extreme activities are at some risk to the minority because it demonstrates commitment to the cause as people are unlikely to be prepared to suffer for a cause that is not worthwhile.
What is the augmentation principle?
The majority paying attention to the minority due to them performing a drastic action.
what is the snowball effect
over time more people become converted
What is meant by a control group and why was it used in the ‘blue-green slides’ study?
A control group is to refer to the control of variables but we also use it for the purpose of comparison. It was used in the ‘blue-green slides’ study to measure if the changes in the experimental group is significantly greater than that of the control group, and it was, meaning that Moscovici could conclude that the cause of this effect was likely minority influence.
What type of sample was Moscovici’s experiment
self-selected
Who were the participants in Moscovici’s experiment?
172 female volunteers
evaluation (strength)
In addition to Moscovici’s study, there is further research that demonstrates the importance of consistency. For example, Wood et al conducted a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were the most influential. This supports the suggestion that consistency is a major factor in minority influence
what is meta-analysis
A review of different studies all with a similar topic
