Resistance to Influence - Minority Influence

Question 1

What does Minority Influence mean?
[2]

Answer 1

• a form of social influence where a minority of people persuade others to adopt beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
• leads to internalisation

Question 2

What type of conformity is Minority Influence most likely to lead to?

Answer 2

Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation; both public and private beliefs are changed

Question 3

What are the 4 factors affecting Minority Influence?

Answer 3

1) Consistency
2) Commitment
3) Flexibility
4) Process of Change

Question 4

Describe Consistency.
[3]

Answer 4

• Minority must be consistent - this increases interest
• Synchronic consistency and diachronic consistency
• makes people rethink views

Question 5

What is synchronic consistency?

Answer 5

Consistency that’s agreement between people

Question 6

What is diachronic consistency?

Answer 6

Consistency that might be over time

Question 7

What does diachronic and synchronic consistency make people start to rethink?

Answer 7

It makes other people start to rethink their own views

Question 8

Explain Commitment.
[3]

Answer 8

• Must show commitment to views
• They can engage in extreme activities to get attention - need to draw attention
• more risky - more attention

Question 9

What is the main purpose of Consistency?

Answer 9

Draws attention to the minority influence

Question 10

Describe how the factor of Flexibility affects Minority Influence. (6)

Answer 10

1) Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency can be interpreted negatively
2) Repeating the same arguments and behaviours can be seen as rigid, unbending, opinionated and inflexible
3) This is off-putting to majority and unlikely to result in any conversions to minority position
4) Rather members of minority need to be prepared to adapt their POV and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments
5) You have to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility
6) Minority influence is more effective if the minority shows flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 11

Describe how the Process of Change affects Minority Influence. (5)

Answer 11

1) The three factors outlined make people think about a topic
2) If you hear something and already agree with it, it doesn’t make you stop and think, but if you hear something new, then you might think about it - especially if the source of view is consistent and passionate
3) It’s the deeper processing which is important in the process of conversion to a different, minority viewpoint
4) Over time, increasing no. of people switch from majority to minority position - they’ve been ‘converted’
5) The more this happens the faster the rate of conversion - snowball effect

Question 12

real life example - womens right movement

What is a strength of minority influence?
[4]

Answer 12

Minority influence has been shown to change people’s beliefs privately.
In a variation of Moscovici’s blue-green slide study, participants were allowed to write down their answers, so they were private, rather than stating them out loud. It was found that people agreed more with the minority when they wrote their answers down.
This suggests that members of the majority were convinced by the minority’s argument and changed their own view, but were reluctant to admit it publicly.
This means that minorities do get people to question their own views and change their beliefs if they agree with the new point of view.

Question 13

What is a strength of minority influence?
[3]

Answer 13

There is research evidence that demonstrates the importance of consistency in minority influence.
Moscovici et al’s study showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on conformity (8.42%) than an inconsistent opinion (1.25%).
This shows that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
•

Question 14

What is a limitation

Answer 14

Research studies usually make a very clear and obvious distinction between the majority and the minority.
For example in Moscovici’s study there were groups of 6 and the majority was 4 people and the minority 2 people.
However, real-life situations are much more complicated than this. There is more involved in the differences between a minority and a majority than just numbers. For example, majorities usually have a lot more power and status than minorities and minorities are usually very committed to their causes - they often face very hostile opposition.
This means changing views is much more complicated in real-life and research does not account for this.