Minority influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
A type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms
How must the minority behave in order to be effective?
Consistency and commitment in behaviour
Flexibility
Style of thinking
Identification
How does consistency and commitment relate to minority influence?
They will be persuasive if they are unchanging in their behaviour as it shows confidence in their belief and appears unbiased.
It creates enough doubt about established norms that the individual will re-examine their own beliefs and views.
How does flexibility relate to minority influence?
When they are seen to be flexible and demonstrate the ability to be moderate, co-operative and reasonable, then they will be persuasive.
To be successful the minority may need to compromise
How does style of thinking relate to minority influence?
A consistent, committed minority stands an increased chance of getting individuals to engage in systematic processing, where the minority viewpoint will be considered carefully and over time, rather than being instantly dismissed
How does identification relate to minority influence?
When a majority identifies with a minority, then the minority will be more persuasive in getting the majority to convert.
What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?
To investigate the role of a consistent minority upon the opinions of a majority in an unambiguous situation
What was the procedure of Moscovici’s study?
The participants were placed into 32 groups of 6.
4 real participants in each and 2 confederates
They were told it was an experiment on perception
They were each shown 36 blue slides, with filters varying the intensity of the colour
Consistent condition - The confederates answered wrongly that the slides were green,
Inconsistent condition - They said 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue
Answers were given verbally
What were the results of the study?
There was a 8.2% agreement with the minority in the consistent condition with 32% agreeing at least once
There was a 1.2% agreement with the minority in the inconsistent condition
What conclusions can be drawn from moscovici’s study?
Shows consistency is an important variable
What are some evaluation points for Moscovici’s study?
Consistent minorities have even greater influence on private attitudes
Only used female participants - gynocentric, cant be generalised to males
It is unethical as it involves deceit so informed consent can’t be given, also endured mild stress
The study doesn’t identify important factors in minority influence like group size, status or degree of organisation.
