Minority Infuleunce

Question 1

What is minority influence ?

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours

Question 2

What can minority influence lead to ?

Answer 2

• internalisation

Question 3

What is consistency ?

Answer 3

• This increases the interest of other people

Question 4

What are the two types of consistency and what do they mean ?

Answer 4

• synchronic consistency - agreement with the minority group
• diachronic consistency - agreement over time

Question 5

What is commitment ?

Answer 5

• the minority can engage in extreme activities
• it is the risk of these behaviours that demonstrate the importance of of the minorities behaviour
• this is also known as the augmentation principle

Question 6

What is flexibility ?

Answer 6

• overly confident behaviour could not go down well
• sometimes it is important for the minority to adapt their behaviour
• they therefore show that they are willing to listen to other opinions

Question 7

Describe the result of the process of change ?

Answer 7

If the source you listen to is flexible, committed and consistent you are more likely to process what they are saying more deeply.
This can create a snowball effect.

Question 8

What was the procedure of Moscovici ?

Answer 8

• each group had: 4 participants, 2 confederates
• show blue slides and asks what colour
• consistent: confederate so-called the blue slide green
• inconsistent: confederates called 2/3 of the blue slides green
• in the control 6 participants called the blue slides blue

Question 9

What were Moscovici’s findings ?

Answer 9

• consistent - wrong answer conformity on 8.42% of trials but 32% gave the minority answer at least once (green)
• inconsistent - conformity fell to 1.25%
• control condition 0.25% incorrect answer

Question 10

What is a supporting study of minority influence ?

Answer 10

• conducted a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies
• found minority groups had the biggest influence on majority groups if they were consistent

Question 11

What are factors of social change ?

Answer 11

• drawing attention
• consistency
• deeper processing
• augmentation principle
• snowball affect
• social cryptomnesia

Question 12

What is a limitation of minority influence ?

Answer 12

Lacks external validity
- The tasks involved like in Moscovivi’s experiment are all artificial
- Can’t be generalised to real-life