Social influence- minority influence Flashcards
What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?
To see if a consistent minority can influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task
What was the sample?
172 female American participants
What was the method?
-Told they were taking a colour perception test
-6 participants at a time were told to estimate a colour out loud of 36 slides
-(all different shades of blue)
-2/6 were confederates
-Two conditions
-Consistent- two confederates called the slides green on all trials
-Inconsistent- called the slides green 24 times and blue 12 times
What were the results?
-The minority influenced participants in the consistent condition as they called the slides green in 8.4% of the trials
-Participants in the inconsistent condition only called the slides green in 1.3% of the trials
What is consistency?
-A minority must be stable in their opinion over time and there must be an agreement among members of the minority
What is commitment?
A minority must be dedicated to their cause the greater the dedication, the greater their influence
What is flexibility?
Although a minority must be stable in their opinion, they must show a willingness to compromise when expressing their opinions
What is drawing attention?
-Drawing the majority attention to an issue
-Protests or celebrity influence
-Example- suffragettees
What is cognitive conflict?
-Conflict between the majority group’s beliefs and the position advocated by a minority
-Example- suffragettes (only men allowed to vote, votes for women)
What is consistency of position?
-Minorities are more influential in bringing about social change when their argument is consistent
-Suffragettes eventually convinced society they needed the vote
What is the argumentation principle?
-If a minority appears to suffer they are more committed
-Suffragettes risked starvation+ imprisonment
What is the snowball effect?
-If a minority influence spreads more widely people consider the issues until it reaches a tipping point which leads to large-scale change
-All adult citizens were allowed to vote
What is social change through majority influence?
-Behavioural choices are often to group norms
-They tend to alter their behaviour to fit that norm
Define minority influence
A form of social influence where a persuasive minority changes the attitudes and behaviours of the majority
What is social change?
When a whole society adopts a new belief or way of behaving it then becomes widely accepted as the norm
Why is a biased sample a limitation?
P- Biased sample
E- REduces population validity and is underepresentitve
E- Used 172 American females, cannot generalise to males and people from other cultures
L- Research shows that females are more likely to conform, so we cant assume that males would be affected by minority influence in the same way
Why are ethical issues a limitation?
P- Moscovicci deceived his participants
E- They were told they were taking part in a colour perception test
E- The participants also did not give informed consent
L- However the experiment required deception to produce the most valid results as if participants were aware of the aim that may have displayed demand participants and acted differently
Why is real-life application an advantage?
P- Real word application
E- Used by activists, unions and governments to cause positive and negative social change
E- Example: suffragettes
Why is ecological validity a disadvantage?
P- Very artificial
E- It would have been very obviously blue
E- Not something we disagree with in everyday life
L- Real-life situations would be much more important
