Minority Influence

Question 1

What did Moscovici say you needed to be in order to influence a minority?

Answer 1

Committed
Flexible
Consistent

Question 2

Give an example of what COMMITTED minorities may do.

Answer 2

Engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views because his demonstrates commitment to the cause.

Question 3

What is it called when COMMITTED minorities do in order to get the majorities attention and to be taken more seriously? Give an example.

Answer 3

Augmentation principle

Fathers for justice

Question 4

Why might committed minorities sometimes not be very effective?

Answer 4

If they are inflexible and rigid they might not be persuasive, repeating the same argument again and again can be off putting.

Question 5

Who carried out research into flexible minorities?

Answer 5

Nemeth

Question 6

What did Nemeth do and find in his research into flexible minorities?

Answer 6

had groups of 3 pots and one confederate, who had to decide how much compensation to pay a victim of a ski lift accident, when the confederate (minority) argued for a low amount and refused to budge this had no effect on the minority. When he agreed to comprise and increased his amount a little bit the minority moved theirs down a lower amount. This supports the idea that minorities need to be flexible and are less likely to be seen as extremists.

Question 7

How do you be a consistent minority?

Answer 7

If you are consistent with opinions or behaviours, it shows you have confidence in your beliefs and makes us rethink our own views. “Maybe they are right, they keep saying it…”

Question 8

What was moscovici’s aim?

Answer 8

To investigate the role of a consistent minority on the opinions of the majority in an unambiguous situation

Question 9

Give 5 features of the procedure of moscovici’s study.

Answer 9

Ppts were in 32 groups of 6
In a group of 4 real ppts and 2 confederates
They were told it was an investigation into perception
Each group was shown 36 blue slides which varied in intensity
Ppts give their answers infront of the group

Question 10

What were the two different conditions in moscovici’s study?

Answer 10

The consistent condition and the inconsistent condition

Question 11

What happened in the consistent condition of moscovici’s study?

Answer 11

Confederates answered that the slides were green on 36/36 LG the trials, they were consistent

Question 12

On the inconsistent condition of moscovici’s study what happened?

Answer 12

Confederates answered wrongly that the slides were green on 24/36 trials, they were inconsistent

Question 13

What percentage of answers given by the naive ppts were “green” in inconsistent conditions?

Answer 13

8.4%

Question 14

What percentage of ppts agreed at least once in the consistent conditions?

Answer 14

32%

Question 15

What percentage of answers were “green” in the consistent conditions by naive ppts?

Answer 15

1.25%

Question 16

What was Moscovici’s conclusions from his research?

Answer 16

Although 8.2% seems a small figure, it is much higher than 1.25% which shows that although minority influence is small, behaviour style is the important variable

Question 17

Give 2 criticisms of Moscovici’s study.

Answer 17

It was an unrepresentative sample as only women were used so it would be wrong to generalise his results to all people when it only tells us how women behave.
It was an artificial task- people in pressure groups operate in different settings and face much more determined opposition, so it doesn’t reflect how they would behave in real life, and they weren’t real pressure groups

Question 18

What should we take into account about minority influence when evaluating lab based research studies?

Answer 18

Most cases of minority are much more important than whether a slide is blue or green, it’s a matter between life or death, jury and political campaigns are two examples where minority influence may be small yet dramatic if it’s successful.

Question 19

What does conversion mean when discussing minorities?

Answer 19

When a new beliefs or behaviour is publicly and private accepted, like internalisation, and then you change your beliefs and behaviour. This can take some time for people to re-examine their beliefs.

Question 20

How does a minority try and persuade people to change their views and agree?

Answer 20

Motivate people to reject norms, this is achieved through conversion.

Question 21

What is the gradual process of the minority becoming the majority?

Answer 21

The snowball effect

Question 22

What is it called when we can’t remember how change has come about?

Answer 22

Social cryptomnesia

Question 23

What is social change?

Answer 23

The process by which society adopts new beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.

Question 24

Name 5 steps in how people may win the majority over

Answer 24

Be committed, consistent and flexible
Cause conflict in the mind of the majority 
Gain momentum (snowball effect)
Social cryptomnesia
Draw attention to the cause

Question 25

How may a minority draw attention to the cause?

Answer 25

A viewpoint that opposes the majority becomes more public and then the majority is forced to think about the minority view which could make them feel conflicted

Question 26

How may the minority cause conflict in the mind of the majority?

Answer 26

Conflict means you have to think more deeply about the minorities view and may end up internalising it- being genuinely converted to the minority viewpoint

Question 27

How may the minority gain momentum (snowball effect)

Answer 27

The message is passed through many majority memebers, this happens quicker than conversion. Until the minority becomes the majority