Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence ??
A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours
Evidence for minority influence:
Moscovici et al
192 woman participants
In groups of six at a time participants judged the colour of 36 slides.
(All were blue - brightness varied)
In one condition all confederates called the slides green
In another 24 said green where 12 said blue
+Control group with no confederates
Results:
Control = 0.25% said ‘green’
In consistent condition 8.4% said green
(32% of the participants said green at least once )
In inconsistent group only 1.25% of the time green was said
Conclusion:
The confederates were in the minority but their views appear to have influenced the real participants.
The use of the two conditions illustrated that the minority had more influence when they were consistent in calling the slides ‘green’
What are the key attributes of a successful minority influence????
Consistency, commitment and flexibility
How does consistency affect minority influence????
If the minority is consistent in approach more of the general public will consider their view
Synchronic consistency: they’re all saying the same thing
Diachronic consistency: they’ve all been saying the same thing for some time
Consistent action is key
How does commitment affect minority influence??
When the minority adopts a committed approach their pov will become more difficult to ignore (extreme example - terrorism)
E.g Green Party (core principles remain intact)
Augmentation principle - majority pays attention
How does consistency affect minority influence????
Minority must negate their position with the majority - compromise and make changes to have a better reputation
Balance between consistency and flexibility
Nemeth - “consistency can be interpreted negatively”
The process of change:
- consistent and passionate about something new
- deeper processing is important in the process of conversion to a different minority view point
- over time the majority is converted (as minority increases so does the rate of conversion)
Minority influence - Evidence for Consistency :
Wood et al - meta analysis (97 similar studies)
Minority influence - Evidence for commitment:
Martin et al
- minority group endorsing the same view (group 1)
- minority group endorsing the initial view (group 2)
- participants were then exposed to a conflicting view
*participants were less willing to change their opinions if they listened to a minority group (Based on initial attitude scene)
- suggests a more enduring effect (off the back of deeper thought)
Minority influence - Evidence for flexibility :
Nameth et al - Moscavici replication (36 blue sheets)
Variation - they could list any colours within the sheet e.g (blue-green)
1st all confederates said green
2nd confederates stated different answers green and blue
3rd all confederates stated they were all blue green
This 3rd trial was v effective due to it opening up to options that seemed reasonable given the task
Evidence against minority influence:
Tasks are often artificial, not generalisable and lacked external validity
- in reality the majority is not a passive group ( they have the numbers, money and most political authority/power)
