Minority influence Flashcards
Minority influence
Definition
a form of social influence where a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
Minority influence
Leads to…
└leads to internalisation or conversion
└private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours
Minority influence
Person + study
Moscovici
└studied this process in his ‘blue slide, green slide’ study
Factors that affect minority influence
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
Factors that affect minority influence
Consistency
└minority influence is more effective if minority keeps same beliefs
└diachronic consistency: over time
└synchronic consistency: between individuals that form the minority
└effective as it draws attention to the minority view, makes them rethink their own views
Factors that affect minority influence
Commitment
└minority influence is more effective if minority demonstrates dedication to their position
└e.g. making personal sacrifices
└effective as shows minority isn’t acting out of self interest
└majority group members pay more attention (augmentation principle)
Factors that affect minority influence
Flexibility
└minority influence is more effective if minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise
└relentless consistency could be counter productive
└could be seen as unbending and unreasonable
└Nemeth (1986)
Minority influence
The process of change
└deeper processing important for conversion
└snowball effect: over time more people convert from the majority position to the minority position. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion.
└gradually the minority view becomes the majority view and the change has occurred
Minority influence
Strengths
Summary
Research support for consistency - Moscivici et al (1969), Wood et al (1994)
Research support for depth of thought - Martin et al (2003)
Research support for internalisation - Moscivici et al (1969)
Minority influence
Strengths
Research support for consistency
└Moscivici et al (1969)
└demonstrated minority influence
└6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether slides were blue or green
└2 confederates in each group
└consistently said slides were green on two-thirds of the trials
└participants gave same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials, 32% gave the same answer as the minority on at least one trial
└second group were exposed to an inconsistent minority and agreement= 1.25%
└third group there were no confederates= wrong on 0.25% of trials
└consistent minority opinion had greater effect on other people than inconsistent minority opinion
└Wood et al (1994)
└meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies
└minorities that were consistent were most influential
Minority influence
Strengths
Research support for depth of thought
└Martin et al (2003)
└gave participants a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support
└one group heard a minority group agree with the initial view and the other heard a majority group agree
└participants exposed to conflicting view and attitudes measure again
└people less willing to change their opinions if they listened to a minority group rather than a majority group
└suggests minority message more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect
Minority influence
Strengths
Research support for internalisation
└in a variation of Moscivici et al (1969) blue green slide study participants could write their answers down privately rather than state them out loud
└private agreement with minority position was greater
└members of majority were being convinced by minority but were reluctant to admit this publicly
└fear of being awkward or weird
Minority influence
Limitations
Artificial tasks
└artificial tasks e.g. identifying colour of a slide
└outcomes more important in real life
└e.g. jury decisions and political campaigning (life or death)
└Moscivici et al (1969) lacks external validity
└doesn’t tell us about real life situations
