Minority influence

Question 1

What is ‘minority influence’?

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes one person) persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours.

Question 2

What does minority influence lead to?

Answer 2

Internalisation - both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed.

Question 3

Minority influence consists of what 3 processes?

Answer 3

1. Consistency
2. Commitment
3. Flexibility

Question 4

Explain the process ‘consistency’

Answer 4

The minority must be consistent with their view. Overtime, this consistency increases the interest from other people and might make them rethink their views: (“If they keep saying it, then maybe they have a point”)

Question 5

Consistency can take the form of agreement between what two?

Answer 5

Synchronic consistency (people in the minority group) - “they’re all saying the same things”

Diachronic consistency (consistency over time) - “they’ve even saying the same thing for a while now”

Question 6

What does ‘synchronic consistency’ mean?

Answer 6

The people in the minority group - “they’re all saying the same things”

Question 7

What does ‘diachronic consistency’ mean?

Answer 7

Consistency over time - “they’ve been saying the same thing for a while now”

Question 8

Explain the process ‘commitment’

Answer 8

The minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause/ view. Sometimes extreme activities are used to draw attention to the cause/ view. These must present some risk in order to show greater commitment. Augmentation principle - majority pay even more attention.

Question 9

Explain the process ‘flexibilty’

Answer 9

Nemeth (1986) argued that being consistent and repeating the same argument and behaviours could be off-putting to the majority. Because of this, members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments.

Question 10

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 10

All three factors make people think about the minority influence. Over time, increasing numbers of people switch for the majority position to the minority position. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. Gradually the minority view has become the majority view and social change has occured.

Question 11

What did Moscovici et al. (1969) do?

Answer 11

A group of 6 people all viewed 36 blue-coloured slides of varied intensity - they then had to state the colour, blue or green
There were 3 seperate groups:
Group 1: the confederate consistently said the slides were green
Group 2: confederates were inconsistent about the colour of the slides
Group 3: a control group - no confederates

Question 12

What were the findings of group 1?

Answer 12

Consistent minority condition - participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials, 32% gave the same answer on atleast one trial.

Question 13

What were the findings of group 2?

Answer 13

Inconsistent minority condition - agreement fell to 1.25%

Question 14

What were the findings of group 3?

Answer 14

Control group - participants wrongly identified colour 0.25% of the time.

Question 15

What were Moscovici’s conclusions?

Answer 15

A consistent minority is far more influential than an inconsistent one. A change is at a private level showing internalisation.

Question 16

Give 2 strengths of Moscovici’s experiment

Answer 16

1. Research support - Wood et al. (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of 97 studies of minority influence and found that: “Minorities that were percieved as being consistent in expressing their position were particularly influential” This suggests that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
2. Research support 2 - Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987) asked a mock jury, groups of 3 participants and one confederate, to decide on compensation for a ski-lift accident. When the confederate argued for a very low amount and refused to change his position he had no influence. However, when he compromised and moved some way towards the majority position, the majority also changed their view. This also suggests that flexibility is important.

Question 17

Give 2 limitations of Moscovici’s experiment

Answer 17

1. Research involves artificial tasks. Moscovici’s task was to identify the colour of a slide - nothing to do with how minorities try to change majority opinion in real life. In cases such as jury decision making and political campaigning, the outcomes of minority influence are vastly more important than those in laboratory studies. Finding of studies lack external validity.
2. Minority research is limited. Studies make a clear distinction between majority and minority but real-life situations are more complicated. Majorities have much more power and status. Minorities may be committed and tight-knit groups whose members know and support each other. Research rarely reflects the dynamics of the group so finding may not apply to real-life situations.