minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence? what does it lead to?

Answer 1

form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changes as well as public behaviours.

Question 2

what is social change?

Answer 2

a whole society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm

Question 3

what are 3 factors which enhance the effectiveness of a minority?

Answer 3

• consistency
• commitment
• flexibility

Question 4

what is consistency?

Answer 4

a minority must be stable in their opinion over time and there must be agreement among the members of the minority.

Question 5

what is commitment?

Answer 5

a minority must be dedicated to their cause. the greater their dedication, the greater their influence.

Question 6

what is flexibility?

Answer 6

although a minority must be consistent they must show a willingness to compromise when expressing their opinions.

Question 7

supporting evidence - commitment

Answer 7

nelson mandela - put lots of hard work/time/effort into spreading beliefs - went to prison and regardless of suffering he continued fighting for the cause

Question 7

supporting evidence - flexibility

Answer 7

nemeth - in inflexible condition minority had little/no effect on the majority whereas in the flexible condition the majority was much more likely to compromise

Question 8

supporting evidence - consistency

Answer 8

moscovici - shows that the more consistent the minority (estimating green) the more influence they have on the majority

Question 9

what was the aim of moscovici’s study?

Answer 9

to see if a consistent minority can influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task

Question 10

what was moscovici’s method?

Answer 10

• 172 female participants were told they were taking part in an experiment on colour perception
• 6 participants at a time were asked to estimate the colour out loud, of 36 slides (which were all different shades of blue)
• 2 of the 6 participants were confederates
• there were 2 conditions:
  C1 - consistent 2 confederates called the slides green on all trials
  C2 - inconsistent 2 confederates called the slides green 24 times and blue 12

Question 11

what were moscovici’s results?

Answer 11

participants in the consistent condition were influenced by the minority as they called the slides green on 8.4% of trials compared to 1.3% in the inconsistent condition.