Minority influence Flashcards
How minority influence is achieved: explanation
-through process of conversion where majorities gradually convert to a minority viewpoint.
-type of internalisation as belief/behaviour is accepted privately and publicly
-usually through ISI, provides new info for majority, so takes longer than majority influence based on compliance
How minority influence is achieved: the augmentation principle
-when majority PAYS ATTENTION to selfless and risky actions taken by a minority group, the more likely it is to integrate groups opinion into personal viewpoints
How minority influence is achieved: the snowball effect
once the minority viewpoint has the attention of some members of the majority group, more and more people will begin paying attention, and the minority viewpoint will gather momentum
How minority influence is achieved: social cryptoamnesia
although majority knows that social change has occurred they sorget how it happened and that once it was a minority view or behaviour
Factors influecing minority influence: consistency
If the minority is consistent with its opinion/behaviour ->shows confidence in its beliefs and appear unbiased
-Creates enough doubt about established norms to get individuals to re-examine their own beliefs and behaviour
-demonstrated by Moscovici
Moscovici (1969) experiment: aims+procedure
whether consistent minority could influence a majority to give innocent answer
-172 female participants believed doing colour perception task
-Participants were put into groups of six and shown 36 slides of varying shades of blue -> state out loud colour
-2/6 in group confederates
-consistent condition, the two confederates said that all the slides were green
-inconsistent condition, the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue
Moscovici (1969) experiment: findings + conclusion
consistent condition: 8% agreement with minority
inconsistent condition: 1.25%
Thus, a consistent minority is more effective in terms of social influence than an inconsistent minority
Moscovici (1969) experiment: Lim 1
GENDER+CULTURE BIAS only female participants from America -
Moscovici (1969) experiment: Lim 2
LACK OF ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY: artificial situation, so results are not applicable to real life
Factors influecing minority influence: flexibility: explanation
If seen to be flexible by demonstrating an ability to be moderate, co-operate and be reasonable -> will be persuasive
-Requires minority to compromise and be slightly inconsistent in its position
Factors influecing minority influence: flexibility: strength
Nemeth (1986) created groups of 3 participants and 1 confederate who had to decide how much compensation to pay to the victim of a ski-lift accident.
-When the confederate, acting as a consistent minority, argue for a low amount and refused to change his position-> no effect on majority
However, when he compromised a little and moved to offering a higher amount ->majority changed their opinion to a lower amount
Factors influecing minority influence:commitment
Minorities can engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their cause
- must be at some risk to the minority to show commitment to their cause
-e.g Emily Davidson threw herself in front of a horse at the 1913 Epson derby , fatally injured for the Suffragettes
