Minority influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
It refers to a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt the beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
What are the three processes of MI?
Consistency:
- The minority must be consistent in their views; by agreement between people in the minority (synchronic) or being consistent over time (diachronic)
Commitment:
- Being willing to suffer or give up something, displaying risk in your protests demonstrates commitment
Flexibility:
- The minority’s beliefs should not be rigid or dogmatic; the minority should be ready to adapt their view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments
What was the procedure of Moscovici’s slide study (1969)?
A group of 6 people were asked to view blue coloured slides that varied in intensity, they were then asked to state whether the slides were blue or green. In each group there were 2 confederates who consistently said the slides were green on 2/3 of the trials. 32% of ppts conformed to the minority on at least 1 trial. A second group was exposed to an inconsistent minority, this lead agreement to fall to 1.25%. In the third group, there were no confederates and the ppts identified the color wrong on 0.25% of the trials.
