Minority Influence (AO1)

Question 1

What is Minority Influence?

Answer 1

refers to situations where one person or a small group of people (a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people
+
most likely to lead to internalisation

Question 2

What are the 3 Variables Affecting Minority Influence?

Answer 2

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

Question 3

Variables Affecting Minority Influence: Consistency

Answer 3

• consistency in a viewpoint can increase the amount of interest from other people
• synchronic consistency = agreement BETWEEN people within a minority (everyone saying the same thing)
• diachronic consistency = agreement within a minority OVER TIME (the view doesn’t change)
• this consistency can make other reconsider their own views

Question 4

Variables Affecting Minority Influence: Commitment

Answer 4

• sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views, this demonstrates commitment to their cause
• this gives the minority’s message more credibility because people are unlikely to be prepared to suffer for a cause which is not worthwhile
• this increase in credibility is known as the augmentation principle, we assign greater importance to a cause because they have fought against strong external “roadblocks”

Question 5

Variables Affecting Minority Influence: Flexibility

Answer 5

• consistency on its own can be interpreted negatively by others, minority groups could be seen as too rigid or dogmatic
• this can be off-putting to the majority and is unlikely to result in any conversions to the minority position
• instead members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view + accept reasonable counterarguments

Question 6

Minority Influence: Moscovici’s Aim

Answer 6

• to see how minorities can influence a majority to change their minds
• to see how consistency can affect the outcome

Question 7

Minority Influence: Moscovici’s Procedure

Answer 7

• 138 female ppts in groups of 6
  (4 naive ppts and 2 confederates)
• ppts were shown a series of coloured slides + asked to identify if they were blue or green in colour
• all slides were obviously blue (unambiguous task)
• there were 3 conditions (independent groups)

Question 8

What were the 3 Conditions in Moscovici’s experiment?

Answer 8

Consistent Minority - confederates called all 36 slides green

Inconsistent Minority - confederates called 24 slides green (2/3)

Control Condition - 6 genuine ppts & no confederates

Question 9

Minority Influence: Moscovici’s Findings

Answer 9

condition 1/ consistent minority = 8.4% of the genuine ppts moved to adopt the minority position

condition 2/ inconsistent minority = 1.3% of the genuine ppts moved to adopt the minority position

condition 3/ control group = 0.3% of the genuine ppts moved to adopt the minority position

Question 10

Minority Influence: Moscovici’s Conclusions

Answer 10

minorities have the power to influence a majority, as long as they are consistent in their approach