Social influence- minority influence

Question 1

What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What was the sample?

Answer 2

172 female American participants

Question 3

What was the method?

Answer 3

-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

Question 4

What were the results?

Answer 4

-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

Question 5

What is consistency?

Answer 5

-A minority must be stable in their opinion over time and there must be an agreement among members of the minority

Question 6

What is commitment?

Answer 6

-A minority must be dedicated to their cause/ message/ ethos the greater the dedication, the greater their influence
-not be put off by naysayers and critics

Question 7

What is flexibility?

Answer 7

Although a minority must be stable in their opinion, they must show a willingness to compromise when expressing their opinions-open to accepting reasonable and valid counter-arguments

Question 8

What is drawing attention?

Answer 8

-Drawing the majority attention to an issue
-Protests or celebrity influence
-Example- suffragettees

Question 9

What is cognitive conflict?

Answer 9

-Conflict between the majority group’s beliefs and the position advocated by a minority
-Example- suffragettes (only men allowed to vote, votes for women)

Question 10

What is consistency of position?

Answer 10

-Minorities are more influential in bringing about social change when their argument is consistent
-Suffragettes eventually convinced society they needed the vote

Question 11

What is the argumentation principle?

Answer 11

-If a minority appears to suffer they are more committed
-Suffragettes risked starvation+ imprisonment

Question 12

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 12

-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

Question 13

What is social change through majority influence?

Answer 13

-Behavioural choices are often to group norms
-They tend to alter their behaviour to fit that norm

Question 14

Define minority influence

Answer 14

A form of social influence where a persuasive minority changes the attitudes and behaviours of the majority

Question 15

What is social change?

Answer 15

When a whole society adopts a new belief or way of behaving it then becomes widely accepted as the norm

Question 16

Why is a biased sample a limitation?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Why are ethical issues a limitation?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Why is real-life application an advantage?

Answer 18

P- Real word application
E- Used by activists, unions and governments to cause positive and negative social change
E- Example: suffragettes

Question 19

Why is ecological validity a disadvantage?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What type of conformity is minority influenece most likely to result in?

Answer 20

-Internalisation
-As it is more meaningful because it is not as easily achieved in comparison to majority influence

Question 21

What are the two type of action commitment can be shown as?

Answer 21

-Direct + indirect
eg.commitment to animal rights may involve setting lab animals free (direct) or starting a petition to close an animal-testing lab (indirect)

Question 22

Strong commitment in the face of 1.______ may lead the majority to think that the minority possibly have a point, as they are willing to be 2.____ publicly and to face great hardship to change peoples’ minds,

Answer 22

1.ridicule or hostility
2.mocked

Question 23

Which time of commitment does this define?-The minority presents a united front and shares the same message

Answer 23

Synchronic consistency

Question 24

Which type of commitment does this define?-The minority have been promoting their message

Answer 24

Diachronic consistency

Question 25

What is meant by consistency producing a war of attrittion?

Answer 25

-The majority may begin to look seriously at the minority's stance, possibly admiring them for not veering from what they believe in -Gradually a consistent stance can lesson at the doubts and misgivings of most people

Question 26

What was the procedure of Nemeth's study?

Answer 26

-Participants - one of whom was a confederate - were put into groups of four -The participants were presented with a scenario in which someone had been injured in a ski-lift accident -They had to decide as a group how much compensation the victim should receive -There were two conditions of the independent variable: -The inflexible condition: the minority (the one confederate) argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change his position -The flexible condition: the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but then compromised, offering a slightly higher rate

Question 27

What was the aim of Nemeth's study?

Answer 27

investigated the extent to which a flexible minority could influence others:

Question 28

What were the results of Nemeth's study?

Answer 28

-In the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority -In the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to change their view and go along with the minority

Question 29

What did Nemeth conclude from his study?

Answer 29

- The minority needs to be flexible if it wants to change the attitudes and behaviours of the majority -Snowball effect -Over time, the minority becomes the majority

Question 30

What is meant by social change?

Answer 30

- a shift or adaptation in social norms

Question 31

Using the example of gay rights, explain how minority infleunce impacts social change

Answer 31

-up until only a few years ago, the right to marry somebody the same sex as you did not exist -Drawing attention to the inequalities of heterosexual/homosexual experience (e.g. through campaigns such as Stonewall and celebrations such as World Pride Month) meant that discussions around gay rights could begin properly By maintaining a consistent message and showing commitment to the cause, gay rights campaigners were able to show that this was a serious issue that warranted serious attention and consideration Taking a flexible approach (e.g. using humour as a 'weapon'; avoiding a rigid and inflexible argument) helped the gay rights cause to reach a wider audience and to find support from various sectors of society being flexible can enable people from outside the minority to engage in deeper processing of the issue