moscovivi's study Flashcards
procedure
in groups of 6, 2 individuals called 24 blue slides ‘green’ and 12 slides blue. in 1 condition, they called 2/3 of the slides ‘green’ and the other 1/3 blue. this means they agreed to majority 1/3 of the time
predictions
most researchers though that no participant would call the slides green. they predicted the 2 confederates would be laughed at. they predicted that if any condition got the pts to call the slides green it would be where the minority of the 2 were correct on 1/4 of the trials
findings
the condition where the confederates called the slides ‘green’ every time persuaded pts the most. 8% of the judgments by the minority were ‘green’.
in the condition where 2/3 were ‘green’ and 1/3 blue, it had no influence. fell to 1.25%
what did the findings prove?
consistency was stronger than accuracy
what is minority influence?
a form of social influence where a minority of people (sometimes one person) persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes/ behaviours.
leads to internalisation or conversion in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours
what is meant by consistency?
the minority must consistent in their views. consistency can take the form of agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consistency)
consistency over time (diachronic consistency).
what is meant by commitment?
the minority must demonstrate commitment to their views. sometimes minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views. it is important that these activities present some risk to the minority because it shows great commitment. majority group members then pay more attention - augmentation principle
what is Charles Nemath’s view?
he argued that consistency isn’t the only important factor. someone who is always consistent and repeats the same behaviours may be seen as rigid. consistency alone won’t get many converts to minority position.
what is meant by flexibility?
members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their view and accept counter arguments. Strike a balance between consistency and flexibility
what is meant by a process of change?
hearing something you already agree with doesn’t usually make you stop an think.
if you hear something new, you might stop and think more about it especially if one of the 3 factors applies.
it is the deeper processing which is important in the conversion to minority viewpoint.
what is meant by the snowball effect?
the more something happens, the faster the rate of conversion to minority viewpoint.
eventually minority becomes majority
one strength
P: consistency can be supported by research. E: moscovici’s study showed that a consistency minority opinion had a greater effect on the changing views of individuals than in an inconsistent position. T: this suggests that for minority influence to happen, consistency must be a primary requirement to influence individuals
one limitation
P: the studies carried out consisted of artificial task. E: for example, moscovici’s study in identifying ehat colour slides were is not a situation that is likely to happen everyday making the pts more likely to change opinions and behaviour. T: this reduces the ecological validity of the task, and the results also become invalid because it isn’t considering situation variables that would affect the findings. This cannot tell us about minority influence in real life situations
