SOC 17 - Minority Influence

Question 1

What is minority influence?

Answer 1

• A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
• Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours

Question 2

What is consistency?

Answer 2

• Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority
• Consistency is effective because it draws attention to the minority view

Question 3

What is commitment?

Answer 3

• Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example, by making personal sacrifices
• This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest

Question 4

What is flexibility?

Answer 4

• Relentless consistency could be counter-productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable
• Therefore, minority influences are more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 5

What is the augmentation principle?

Answer 5

• Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views
• It is important that these extreme activities present some risk/difficulty, have great opposition or has obstacles to the minority because this shows greater commitment
• Majority group members then pay even more attention, so their beliefs are perceived as ‘stronger than those obstacles’ and therefore appear more valid

Question 6

What is diachronic and synchronic consistency?

Answer 6

Diachronic consistency - is when the group remains consistent over time, they do not change their views over time

Synchronic consistency - is when the group is consistent between all the members of the group, everyone in the group has the same views, and therefore agree with and support each other

Question 7

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 7

A psychological term that explains how small actions at the beginning can cause bigger and bigger actions ultimately resulting in a huge impact

Question 8

What makes a successful minority?

Answer 8

• Consistency
• Commitment
• Flexibility

Question 9

Who conducted the study on consistency?

Answer 9

Moscovici et al

Question 10

What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 10

To see if a consistent minority can influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task

Question 11

What was the procedure of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 11

• 172 female American participants, were told they were taking part in an experiment on colour perception
• Six participants at a time were asked to estimate the colour, out loud, of 36 slides that varied in the intensity of blue and then state whether the slides were blue or green
• Two of the six participants were confederates.

There were three groups:
1) Consistent: the two confederates consistently called the slides green on all the trials
2) Inconsistent: the two confederates called the slides green 24 times, and blue 12 times
3) Control: for a third group there were no confederates, and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide

Question 12

What were the findings of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 12

• True participants in the consistent condition gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of the trials
• True participants in the inconsistent condition agreed with the answer green on 1.25% of the trial
• In the control group participants got the answer wrong on 0.25% of the trials

Question 13

Who conducted the study on flexibility?

Answer 13

Charlan Nemeth

Question 14

What was the aim of Nemeth’s study?

Answer 14

To investigate whether a flexible minority could influence a majority to give less compensation to a victim of a ski-life accident

Question 15

What was the procedure of Nemeth’s study?

Answer 15

• Participants were placed in groups of four and had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski-lift accident
• One of the participants in each group was a confederate

There were two conditions:
1) the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position (inflexible)
2) the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible).

Question 16

What were the fiindings of Nemeth’s study?

Answer 16

Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority, however in the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to compromise and change their view

Question 17

What is the limitation of research on minority influence?

Answer 17

• Countering processing research - Martin’s study had clear majority/minority which are not relatable to real world research. Majorities often have great power and status, whereas minorities face oppression. These are absent from research, meaning that findings are not representative of true life.
• Artificiality - Moscovici’s task was mundane and lacked realism. Often in reality minorities attempt to influence the majority about huge issues surrounding religion, race and gender, sometimes with a “life or death” impact. Research lacks this, which impacts on the external validity of findings.
• Power of minority influence - Moscovici’s study found consistent agreement with a minority was 8%, which shows it is rare for a minority to influence a majority.

Question 18

What are the strengths of minority influence?

Answer 18

• Research supporting consistency - Wood’s meta-analysis of studies similar to Moscovici and found that consistent minorities were most influential
• Research supporting processing - Martin showed a viewpoint and measured participants agreement. One group heard a minority view and one group heard a majority view. People were less likely to change their opinion if they had heard the minority group’s view, suggesting that this view is processed deeper