minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence?

Answer 1

where members of a majority group are converted to the views of the minority.

Question 2

what are the three main processes involved in minority influence.

Answer 2

consistency
commitment
flexibility

Question 3

what is commitment?

Answer 3

engaging in quote extreme/risky activities to draw attention to their views.

Question 4

what is consistency?

Answer 4

everyone in the minority saying the same thing (synchronic consistency) or them saying the same thing for a long time (diachronic consistency) - to make others rethink their views.

Question 5

what is the snow ball effect?

Answer 5

minorities changing majority opinions, starting as a slow process, with conversion rate picking up speed as more majority convert.

Question 6

describe the procedure of Moscovici’s study.

Answer 6

• each group consists of 4 participants and a minority of two confederates.
• they were shown series of blue slides and asked to judge the colour.
• in the consistent condition the two confederates repeatedly called blue slides green throughout.
  in the inconsistent condition the confederates only called them green for 2/3 of the trial.
• in control condition there were no confederates saying green.

Question 7

describe the findings of of his study.

Answer 7

the consistent minority influenced participants to say green for over 8% of trials, and inconsistent minority exerted very little condition - didn’t differ from control group.

Question 8

what are the strengths (evaluation)?

Answer 8

• research support for flexibility, shows its only effective at changing majority opinion.
• has real life applications, high in external validity, can be generalised to real behaviours in real settings.

Question 9

what are the weaknesses (evaluation)?

Answer 9

• study lacks mundane realism as tasks do not reflect scenarios within which minority groups would act in real life.
• so findings lack ecological validity as they cant be generalised.