Minority Influence

Question 1

What is Minority Influence and what are the 3 key variables?

Answer 1

• Minority influence is a type of social influence which results in a change of views amongst the majority of members within a group.
• It involves an individual or minority of a population persuading other members to accept their argument, even if this contradicts the more popular view held by the majority.

There are 3 key variables which affect MI:

1. Consistency
2. Commitment
3. Flexibility

(also draw attention. g the suffragettes)

Question 2

A03 - Skiing

Answer 2

-There is research support for the importance of flexibility.
- Nemeth and Brilmayer studied the flexibility in a simulated jury situation where group members discussed the amount of compensation to be paid to someone involved in a ski-lift accident.

-When a confederate put forward an alternative point of view and refused to change his position, this had no effect on other group members.

-A confederate who compromised and therefore showed some degree of shift towards the majority did exert an influence on the rest of the group.

Question 3

Other factors of social change

Answer 3

MI- - If an individual is exposed to a persuasive argument under certain conditions, they may change their views to match those of the minority.
Snowball Effect - Minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but this then spreads more widely as more and more people consider the Issues being promoted, until it reaches a ‘tipping point’, at which point it leads to wide-scale social change.

Question 4

A03 - Moscovi

Answer 4

• Moscovici et al. provides support for the importance of consistency in minority influence.
  -They developed two conditions: consistent and inconsistent.
  
  • Participants were asked to name the colour of 36 slides, all of which were blue of varying brightness.
• In the consistent condition, 8.4% of participants gave the incorrect answer of green and 32% gave the incorrect answer at least once. - - - Whereas, in the inconsistent condition, 1.25% of participants gave the answer as green.
  -Therefore, this supports the notion that when consistency is displayed, minority influence can have an effect on the majority.