Research into Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
A form of social influecne where a minority of people persuade others in the majority to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours.
Who conducted research into minority influence?
Moscovici.
What year did Moscovici conduct his research?
1969.
What did Moscovici aim to test?
Whether a minority group were more likely to influence a majority group into giving the wrong answer on a colour perception test, if their views were consistent.
What was Moscovici’s sample?
172 female participants.
In what groups were the participants tested?
In groups of 6; 4 of which were participants, the other 2 were confederates.
How many slides were shown to the participants?
36.
What were the slides that the participants were shown?
All of them were clearly different shades of blue.
What did the confederates do in the first condition?
They stated out that the blue slides were green all of the time (consistent).
What did the confederates do in the second condition?
They answered green 24 times and blue 12 times (inconsistent).
What was the percentage of incorrect answers in the inconsistent condition?
1.25%.
What was the percentage of incorrect answers in the consistent condition?
8.42%.
What was the percentage of incorrect answers in the control group (no confederates)?
0.25%.
What did Moscovici conclude?
That if a minority group wants to influence the majority, they have to be consistent in their views.
What are the five evaluation points for Moscovici’s research?
+ High degree of control.
- Low ecological validity.
- High demand characteristics.
- Ethical issues (deception).
- Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987).
