Minority Influence Flashcards
What is the limitation of the study of minority influence in terms of where the study was conducted
Most of the research on minority influence is based on experiments conducted in laboratories. This raises the question of ecological validity. Edward Sampson (1991) is particularly critical of laboratory research on minority influence. It is also more difficult to generalise
What is the second limitation of the study on minority influence in relation to the type of tasks
P: Tasks involved are artificial
E: Task involves identifying the colour, research is far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life.
E: Decision making, political campaigning, the outcomes are very different L: This means the studies lack external validity and are limited about what they tell us in real world social situations
What is the 3rd limitation of the study on minority influence based on ppt gender and ability to generalise
Also Moscovici (1969) used female students as participants (i.e. unrepresentative sample), so it would be wrong to generalize his result to all people – they only tell us about the behavior of female students.Also, females are said to be more conformist than males, therefore there might be a gender difference. Another critic could be that four people are not enough for a group and could not be considered as the majority.
What is the strength of minority influence research
There is research support
Explain research support as a strength of minority influence research
P: One strength is research evidence demonstrating the importance of consistency
E: Moscovici study showed a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than an inconsistent opinion. Wood carried out a meta analysis of 100 similar studies
E: found that minorities who were seen as consistent were most influential L: Presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for minority trying to influence the majority
What is minority influence
Where there is a group who rejects the established norm of the majority and tries to persuade the majority to change their position to the minority belief
What type of conformity is minority influence typically lead by
Internalisation
What is internalisation in terms of changes
both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed in the process
What are the 5 aspects of minority influence
.opinion changes through internalisation
.consistency which gains more interest
.commitment which helps gain attention
.flexibility which balances consistency
.snowball effect which turns the minority into a majority
What are the 5 aspects of minority influence
.opinion changes through internalisation
.consistency which gains more interest
.commitment which helps gain attention
.flexibility which balances consistency
.snowball effect which turns the minority into a majority
