Minority influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
A type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms
What is conversion?
The process by which majorities are gradually won over to a minority viewpoint and this being accepted both publicly and privately (internalisation) through informational social influence
Why does minority influence take longer to achieve?
Time is needed for individuals to re-examine their beliefs and behaviour in light of the new information and beliefs that the minority are advocating
What is social cryptoamnesia?
The gradual process by which minority opinions become majority ones - also known as the snowball effect; as more and more people change their attitude the pace picks up and the minority gain status, power and acceptability
What are important factors in helping minority groups achieve influence?
Behavioural style; consistency, commitment and flexibility
What is consistency and how does this help minority influence?
Showing confidence and appearing unbiased in their beliefs seems to be the most important feature of minority influence, as it shows that the minority are committed, especially if they have suffered abuse for their views, which creates enough doubt about established norms to get individuals to re-examine their own beliefs and behaviour
How did Moscovici investigate minority influence?
Through showing 36 blue slides in varying intensities, which Confederates claimed were green verbally in front of the group
What did Moscovici find?
The consistent condition of 8.2%, compared to 1.25% in the inconsistent condition shows that consistency is a crucial factor in minority influence, and in a separate private condition, even more conformed in the consistent condition, showing minority influence is greater on private opinions
What is flexibility and how does this influence minority influence?
Demonstrating an ability to be moderate, co-operative and reasonable makes minority influences more persuasive
What did Nemeth find?
When debating how much compensation to give to the victim of a ski-lift accident, a consistent confederate who argued for a low amount and refused to negotiate his position had no effect on the majority, but when he negotiated to a slightly higher amount the majority changed their opinion to a lower amount
What other factors are important in achieving minority influence?
Style of thinking - Getting the majority to systematically process minority viewpoints prevents the instant dismissal of the ideas through superficial processing
Identification - The minority will be more persuasive in getting the majority to convert if they share characteristics of the majority
Define diachronic consistency
Consistency in minority organisations over time, e.g. the Women’s Rights movement was established in the 1840s but has maintained its message
Define synchronic consistency
Agreement with the rest of the group is consistent
What is the augmentation theory?
Engaging in extreme actions to demonstrate your cause - there will always be a minority willing to take greater risks for a cause
What is diachronic consistency?
They’ve been saying the same thing for some time
