Minority influence Flashcards
what is minority influence?
a type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms
how is minority influence achieved?
through conversion - majorities gradually won over to a minority viewpoint
what is conversion?
the new belief being accepted both publicly and privately and can be seen as a type of internalisation
how does conversion usually occur?
through informative social influence - where minority provide new info and ideas to the majority
what is social cryptoamnesia (snowball effect)?
the gradual process by which minority opinions become majority ones - at first minority viewpoint is small, then more people change their attitude so pace picks up and minority gain status and power
what are the 3 factors that affect how successful minority influence will be?
consistency, commitment, flexibility
explain how commitment and consistency leads to minority influence being more convincing
if the minority is consistent with its opinion, it shows confidence in its beliefs and appears unbiased - consistency shows the minority are committed especially if they have had to resist social pressures and abuses against their viewpoint
what is the procedure for Moscovici et al’s research on minority influence?
4 real pp & 2 confeds in each group
each group was shown 36 blue slides with filters varying the intensity of the colour
in the consistent condition, confeds answered wrongly that the slides were green
in the inconsistent condition, the confeds said that 24 slides were green & 12 were blue
what are the findings for Moscovici et al’s research on minority influence?
8.2% agreement with the minority in the consistent condition, 32% agreeing at least once
only 1.25% agreement in the inconsistent condition
what are the conclusions for Moscovici et al’s research on minority influence?
the consistent condition finding is significantly higher than the inconsistent condition and so shows that although minority influence is relatively small, consistency is the important variable
evaluate Moscovici et al’s research on minority influence
he only used female pp’s as he thought they would be more interested in colours and so results can’t be generalised to males
unethical - deceit - no informed consent
doesn’t identify important factors in minority influence, like group size, status etc.
how does flexibility leads to minority influence being more effective?
if they are able to moderate, be co-operative and reasonable then they will be more persuasive - so may compromise
what is Nemeth’s research on minority influence?
3 pp & 1 confed who had to decide how much compensation to pay a victim of a ski-lift accident, when the confed compromised and moved to offering a slightly higher amount, the majority changed their opinion vs when he wasn’t like that
