SI - Minority influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
Situations where one person or a small group of people influence the beliefs and beh. of the majority.
Leads to internalisation - change in private and public beliefs and attitudes.
What things does the minority need to do to be effective?
- Be consistent
- Show commitment
- Be flexible
Why do minorities need to be consistent and how does it help them?
Increases the amount of interest from other ppl and makes ppl rethink their own views.
What is synchronic consistency?
Everyone in the minority is saying the same thing.
Ppl think maybe they have a pnt if they all think this way
What is diachronic consistency?
Everyone in the minority has been saying the same thing for a while now .
(Ppl think maybe they have pnt if they keep saying it)
Why do minorities need to show commitment and does it help them?
Sometimes minorities do extreme things to draw attention to their views e.g. extreme activities, lots of money or time.
Shows they committed to what they’re saying and makes the majority pay more attention to them.
Called the augmentation principle.
Why do minorities need to flexible and why does it help them?
Nemeth (1986) argued consistency not the only factor important in MI because it can be dogmatic and off-putting.
Repeating the same arguments over and over can be seen as inflexible, put ppl off and is unlikely to lead to change.
Minority needs to be prepared to adapt their pov and accept counter arguments.
MI AO3: What supporting evidence is there for minority influence?
Moscovici et al. (1969) blue/green slide study.
Showed that a consistent minority had a greater effect of changing views of others than inconsistent.
Group of 6 asked whether a slide was blue or green. 2/6 ps were confederates and answered green every time.
When consistent, ps also said green 8.42% of the time. When inconsistent ps said green 1.25% of the time.
MI AO3: What are the weaknesses of Moscovici’s study?
Task v. artificial
Lacks ecological validity
Tells us little abt. how minorities change beh. of majorities in real life
Only used on women - lacks population validity
MI AO3: What supporting evidence to show that changing the majorities position involves deeper processing of the minorities ideas?
Robin Martin et al. (2003) presented a message supporting a particular pov and measured ps agreement. One group then heard minority agree and the other heard the majority agree. Then exposed to conflicting view and agreement measured again.
Ppl less willing to change their pov if they listened to minority than majority - minority message more deeply processed.
MI AO3: What is a weakness of Martin et al.’s study?
Real world situations w/ MI are more complex. E.g. majorities often have a lot more power and status than minorities. Minorities v. committed to cause as they face hostile opposition - these features are absent from MI research.
Findings limited in what they can tell us abt. real life MI.
