minority influence

Question 1

What type of conformity is minority influence likely to lead to?

Answer 1

Internalisation

Public and private beliefs are changed

Question 2

Who studied minority influence?

Answer 2

Moscovici

Question 3

What are the three main processes involved in minority influence?

Answer 3

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

Question 4

How does consistency affect minority influence?

Answer 4

Makes people rethink their own views

Increases interest

Question 5

What are two types of consistency?

Answer 5

Synchronic - all saying same thing

Diachronic - across time

Question 6

How does commitment affect minority influence?

Answer 6

Extreme activities demonstrate commitment
Majority pay attention
Augmentation principle

Question 7

How does flexibility affect minority influence?

Answer 7

Nemeth - consistency can be interpreted negatively
Consistency can be seen as dogmatic, off putting
Adapt views and accept counter arguments

Question 8

How does minority influence lead to change?

Answer 8

Hearing something new means you have to process it
Deeper processing = conversion
Increasing numbers convert
Faster rate of conversion
Snowball effect
Minority becomes majority

Question 9

Describe Moscovici’s study

Answer 9

Group of 6 view 36 blue slides
State whether they’re blue or green
Two confederates say they’re green
Pps gave same wrong answer 8.42% of trials
32% gave same wrong answer at least once

Question 10

Describe Moscovici’s second study

Answer 10

Exposed to inconsistent minority
Agreement fell to 1.25%
Control group - 0.25% wrong

Question 11

Evaluation - research support for consistency

Answer 11

Moscovici - consistent minority has greater effect
Wood - meta analysis of 100 studies
Consistent minorities most impactful

Question 12

Evaluation - research support for depth of thought

Answer 12

Martin - gave pps messages and measured their support
One group heard minority agree
Another heard majority agree
Pps exposed to conflicting view
Less willing to change opinions after listening to minority

Question 13

Evaluation - artificial tasks

Answer 13

Slide tasks
Research removed from how real minorities change behaviour
Political campaigns - outcome more important
Lacks external validity

Question 14

Evaluation - research support for internalisation

Answer 14

Moscovici variation - pps allowed to write down answers
Private agreement with minority was greater
Reluctant to admit publicly - didn’t want to be considered radical or weird

Question 15

Evaluation - limited real world applications

Answer 15

Research - clear distinction between majority and minority

Real life is more complicated, more than just numbers that make minority or majority