Minority influence

Question 1

What is minority influence?

Answer 1

A form of social influence where a persuasive minority changes the attitudes and behaviours of the majority and is also a form of internalisation.

Question 2

What are key behaviours of successful minorities?

Answer 2

They are consistent, committed and flexible.

Question 3

What does consistency mean?

Answer 3

A minority must be stable in their opinion and there must be an agreement among the minority

Question 4

What does commitment mean?

Answer 4

A minority must be dedicated to their cause and the greater their dedication, the greater their influence

Question 5

What does flexibility mean?

Answer 5

A minority must be consistent but they must show a willingness to compromise when expressing their opinions

Question 6

What are the two types of consistency?

Answer 6

Diachronic and synchronic

Question 7

What is diachronic consistency?

Answer 7

They have all been saying the same thing for a while

Question 8

What does synchronic consistency mean?

Answer 8

They all say the same thing

Question 9

What is the importance of consistency?

Answer 9

Over time, it suggests sincerity, firm convictions and good reasons for the beliefs but also agreement within the group conveys unity

Question 10

What is the important of flexibility?

Answer 10

Being too rigid and inflexible suggests unwillingness to compromise and feels to bossy or narrow minded but flexibility suggest rationality

Question 11

What is the importance of commitment?

Answer 11

It involves willingness to sacrifice something valuable, suggesting sincerity, conviction and a good reason for the beliefs

Question 12

What are two supporting studies?

Answer 12

Nemeth and Moscovici

Question 13

What was the aim of Nemeth’s study?

Answer 13

To investigate whether a flexible minority could influence a majority

Question 14

What was Nemeth’s method?

Answer 14

Participants were in groups of 4 with a confederate in each group and they had to agree on an amount to give a victim of ski-lift accident. There were two conditions - one with the minority arguing a low rate and not changing or the minority arguing a low rate but compromising

Question 15

What were Nemeth’s finding?

Answer 15

In the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect but in the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to compromise and change their view

Question 16

What was Moscovici’s aim?

Answer 16

To see if a consistent minority can influence a majority?

Question 17

What was Moscovici’s method?

Answer 17

172 female American participants were told they were taking part in a colour experiment with 6 particpants asked to estimate the colour out loud of 36 slides of shades of blue with 2 of them being confederates. There were two conditions - consistent with two confederates calling all slides green and inconsistent with two confederates called the slides green 24 times

Question 18

What were Moscovici’s findings?

Answer 18

Participants in the consistent condition were influenced by the minority on 8.42% of the trials and participants in the inconsistent conditions were influenced 1.25%