Section 1 : Social Influence - Minority Influence and Social Change Flashcards
What would happen if everyone went along with the majority
Nothing would change
What gains influence and changes the way the majority thinks
Small minorities and even individuals
What type of conformity is involved in minority influence
Internalisation
Minority influence is stronger if the the minority is….
Consistent
Flexible
Committed
What is Moscovici et al (1969)
Research into minority influence that compared inconsistent minorities with consistent minorities
What type of experiment was Moscovici et al (1969)
Laboratory experiment
What were the characteristics of he participants
192 women
What was the task of Moscovici et al (1969)
In groups of 6, participants judged the colour of 36 slides.
All slides were blue but the brightness of blue varied on each slide.
Were there confederates
Yes
How many confederates were there in each group
2 out of 6
What were the confederates job
In one condition, confederates called all 36 slides ‘green’ (consistent)
In another condition, confederates called 24 of the slides ‘green’ and 12 ‘blue’ (inconsistent)
Was there a control group
Yes, it contained no confederates
What were the results in the control group of Moscovici (1969)
Participants called the slides ‘green’ 0.25% of the time
What were the results in the consistent condition
8.4% of the time participants adopted the minority position and called the slides ‘green’
32% of participants called slides ‘green’ at least once
What were the results of the inconsistent condition
The participants moved to the minority position of calling the slides green only 1.25% of the time
What is the conclusion of Moscovici et al
The confederates were in the minority but their views appear to have been influenced the real participants. The use of the two conditions illustrates that the minority had more influence when they were consistent in calling the slides ‘green”
What is the evaluation of Moscovici et al (1969)
-Lacks ecological validity due to it being a lab experiment because task was artificial
-Participants may have felt that judging the colour of was trivial may have acted differently if principles were involved
-Study was carried out on women - results cannot be generalised to men
-We know that participants were actually influenced by the minority rather than being independently unsure of the colour slide - this is the significance of control group
What was Nemeth et al (1974)
A repeated Moscovici experiment but instructed participants to answer with all of the colours they saw in the slide, rather than a single colour. For example, they could answer ‘green-blue’ rather than ‘green’
What were the three variation Nemeth (1974)
Where confederates:
1) said all of the slides were green
2) said the slides were ‘green’ or ‘green-blue’ at random
3) said the brighter slides were ‘green-blue’ and the duller slides were ‘green’ or vice versa
What happened when the confederates said ‘green’ or varied their response (inconsistent)
They had no effect on the participants responses.
What happened when where the confederates responses varied with a feature of the slide (brightness)
It had a significant effect on the participants responses
What was the conclusion of Nemeth et al (1974)
The confederates had most influence when they were consistent but flexible- Nemeth proposed that rigid consistency wasn’t effective because it seemed unrealistic when more subtle responses were allowed
What does Moscovici’s conversion theory suggest
That majority and minority influence are different processes
What is the process of majority influence
-People compare behaviour to majority and change behaviour to fit in without considering majority views in detail
-So majority influence involves compliance - it doesn’t always cause people to change their private feelings just their behaviour
What is the process of Minority influence
-When a minority is consistent people may examine the minority’s belief in detail because they want to understand why the minority sees things differently
-Can lead people to privately accept the minority view - they convert to the minority position
-social pressure to conform may mean their behaviour doesn’t actually change at least at first
what does consistency show according to Moscovici and the factors that enable minority influence to occur
consistentcy shows commitement
what can minority views initially be seen as
wrong, because they don’t match with what is considered the norms
what is effect of consistency on minority influence
consistency shows commitment and the minority isnt willing to compromise, this creates a conflict - when your faced with a consistent majority you consider whether they might be right and if you should change your view
what does Moscovici call the validation process
process when you are faced with a consistent majority and you seriously consider whether they may be right and if you should change your view
what happens if there’s no reason to dismiss minority views
then you begin to see things as the minority does
who created the social impact theory
Latane and Wolf
what did latane and wolf argue
they argued that social influence occurs when the combined effect of three factors are significant enough
what were the three factors discussed in the social impact theory
Strength
Numbers
Immediacy
what does strength refer to
how powerful, knowledgeable and consistent the group appear to be
what does numbers refer to
how many people are in the group
what does immediacy refer to
how close the source of influence is to you (physically or relationship)
how does minority influence happen according to latane and wolf
through the same process as majority influence - its just the balance of factors that create the social influence that’s different
how can a minority exert social influence
the numbers may be small
but the minority strength and immediacy
how does a majority iexert social infleunce
the numbers are big
so strength and immediacy isnt needed as much as minority influence
how do minorities become majorities
through the snowball effect
what is the snowball effect
people need to go from privately accepting the minority to publicly accepting it
what is social cryptoamnesia
the public opinion changes gradually over time until the minority view is accepted as the norm, but people forget where the view originally came from
give examples of minorities changing them public opinion
Martin Luther King Jr.
Gay Rights Movements
