minority influence Flashcards
what is minority influence
a situation where a person or small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people.
what type of conformity is minority influence most likely to lead to.
internalisation - both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed.
Moscovici study on minority influence
group of 6 people asked to review 36 blue coloured slides that varied and then state if the slides were blue or green.
In each group there were 2 confederates who consistently said the slide was green. 32% of the pps gave the same wrong answer in at least one trial. Pps gave wrong answer on 8% of the trials
A second group of pp’s were exposed to an inconsistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%
three main processes in minority influence
commitment, consistency, flexibility.
what is consistency
consistency may be agreement between people in the minority (synchronic consistency) or consistency over time (diachronic consistency)
what is commitment
Minorites may engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that some of these activities are a risk to the minority group because this demonstrates commitment to the cause.
what is flexibility
nemeth argued that being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments over and over can be seen as rigid and inflexible. This is offputting to the majority.
Minority members need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter-arguments. Key to balance between consistency and flexibility.
the process of change
the snowball effect - over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the majority position. Soon the majority view becomes the minority view and a change has occurred.
research support for consistency
Moscovici study shows the consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion.
weakness of Moscovici’s study
artifical task - identifying colours of a slide. Not accurate to how minority change occurs in real life. Lacks external validity.
