Minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence?

Answer 1

a type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject the norms of the majority.

Question 2

What is social cryptoamnesia?

Answer 2

• also known as the snow ball effect.
• only a few convert to the minority at first but then more people change their attitudes and the minority gain status. Gradually more join and then minority become the majority

Question 3

What is consistency in terms of minority influence?

Answer 3

• Demonstrated by Moscovici et al (1969) testing the colour perception of groups of 6 women.
• 2 confederates consistently incorrectly names the 36 blue slides as green.
• on 8.42% of trials, participants agreed with the minority in order to resolve conflict.

Question 4

How does commitment affect minority influence?

Answer 4

• suggests certainity and confidence.
• greater costs for the individuals in the minority- Xie (2011) only 10% of committed opinion holders were enough to change the majority opinion.

Question 5

How does flexibility affect minority influence?

Answer 5

• minorities who are less rigid and uncompromising in their beliefs are less persuasive.
• key to success is being inconsistent and flexible.

Question 6

Give supporting evidence for minority influence.

Answer 6

+Nemeth (2010) the real value of minority opinions is that it helps the majority search fro new information and consider more opinions.
+Van Dyne and Saavedra (1996) Decisions improved when work groups were exposed to minority perspective.

Question 7

Give limiting evidence against minority influence.

Answer 7

• Nemeth (2010) still difficult to convince people of the value of dissent, prefer social norms.
• Mackie (1987) deeper processing occurs if our view differs from the majority; just dismiss minority views if they are different.