minority influence Flashcards
what is minority influence
A form of social influence where a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours.
who studied the process of minority influence
Moscovici et al. (1969) with his blue slide green slide study.
A group of 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and state whether they were blue or green In each group there were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green. The true participants gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of the trials therefore agreeing with the gonfederates
A second group of participants were exposed to an inconsistent minority (confederates said green 24 times and blue 12 times. Agreement with the answer green fell to 1.25%. For a third control group there were no confederates and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. they got this wrong on just 0.25%of the trials.
what are the three main processes in minority influence
- consistency
- commitment
- flexibility
explain the role of commitment in minority influence
what are the two types
sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. Over time this increases the amount of interest from other people.
Can take the form of agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consisyency - they’re all saying the same thing). And or consistency over time (diachronic consistency - they’ve all been saying the same thing for some time now).
A consistent minority makes other people start to rethink their own views
explain the role of commitment in minority influence
The minority must demonstrate commitment to their views. Sometimes they engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. The risk shows greater commitment. Majority group members may even pay more attention. This is called the augmentation principle.
explain the role of flexibility in minority influence
Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency is not the only important factor in minority influence because it can be off putting. Someone who repeats the same old arguments may be seen as rigid and dogmatic. Members who are prepared to adapt their views and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments are better. The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.
explain the process of change with minority influence
- if all three party’s of minority influence happens it makes an individual think more deeply on a topic. This is important for conversion to a different viewpoint.
- the more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. This is called the snowball effect. Gradually the minority view becomes the majority.
