Minority influence Flashcards
Minority influence
Minority influence
Refers to situations where a minority influences beliefs & behaviour of other people
Distinct from conformity where majority is doing in the influencing
In both cases, people being influenced may be 1 person, a small group or large group
Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation
Moscovici studied this process in his ‘blu slide, green slide’ study
Consistency
Minority influence
Minority must be consistent in their views
Over time, consistency increases amount of interest from other people
Consistency can take form of agreement between people in minority (synchronic) or consistency over time (diachronic)
A consistent minority makes other people rethink their own views
Commitment
Minority influence
Minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause or views
Sometimes minorities enage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views
Important that these extreme activities present some risk to minority because this shows greater commitment
Majority group members pay even more attention
This is called augmentation principle
Flexibility
Minority influence
Nemeth argued that consistency is not only important factor in minority influence because it can be off-putting
Someone who is extremely consistent may seem rigid, unbending & dogmatic
This app on its own is unlikely to gain many converts to minority position
Instead, members of minority need to be prepared to adapt their POV & accept reasonable & valid counterarguements
Key is to strike balance between consistency & flexibility
Explaining the process of change
Minority influence
All 3 factors outlined above make people think about minority’s view
Hearing something you already agree w/ doesn’t usually make you stop & think
If you hear something new, then you may think more deeply about is, especially is source is consistent, committed & flexible
Deeper processing is important process of conversion to diff, minority view
Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from majority position to minority position
The more this happens, faster rate of conversion
This called the snowball effect
Gradually, minority view has become majority view & change has occured
Evaluation: Research support for consistency
Minority influence
Strength: research evidence demonstrating importance of consistency
Moscovici et al’s blue/green slide study showed a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing views of other people than an inconsistent opinion
Wood et al carried out meta-analysis of 100 similar studies & found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential
Therefore, presenting consistent view is minimum requirement for minority trying to influence a majority
Evaluation: Research support for deeper processing
Minority influence
Strength: evidence showing a change in majority’s position does involve deeper processing
Martin et al presented message supporting particular view & measured ppts agreement
A group of ppts heard a minority group agree w/ inital view while another group heard a majority group agree w/ it
Ppts were finally exposed to conflicting view & attitudes were measured again
People were less willing to change opinions if they heard a minority group than if they heard a majority group
Therefore, minority message had been more deeply processed & had more enduring effect, supporting central arguement & how minority influence works
Evaluation: Research support for deeper processing (Counterpoint)
Minority influence
However, studies like Martin et al’s make clear distinctions between majority & minority
Doing this in controlled way is strength of minority influence research
But real-world social influence situations are much more complicated
E.g. majorities usually have more power & status than minorities
Minorities are very commited to their causes because they’re often faced by hostile opposition
These features are usually absent from minority influence research - minority is simply the smallest group
Therefore, Martin et al’s findings are very limited in what they can tell us about minority influence in real-world situations
Evaluation: Artifical tasks
Minority influence
Limit: tasks involved are often artificial
This includes Moscovici et al’s study
Research is therefore far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour of majorities in real life
In cases such as jury decision-making & political campaigning, the outcomes are vastly more important, sometimes even literally a matter of life or death
Therefore, findings or minority influence studies are lacking in external validity & are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-world social situations
