Social Influence: Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
Refers to how one person or small group influences beliefs and behaviour of other people
What does minority influence lead to?
Leads to internalisation where both public and private beliefs are changed
What are the three processes of minority influence?
- Consistancy
- Commitment
- Flexibility
What is consistancy?
Always doing the same thing and it makes other people rethink their own views
What are the two types of consistancy?
-Synchronic
- Diachronic
What is synchronic consistancy?
Minority all say the same thing
What is diachronic consistancy?
Minority have all been saying the same thing for some time now
What is commitment?
Showing deep involvement and helps to gain attention
What is augmentation principle?
Minority take part in risky activities so majority pay even more attention
What is flexibility?
Showing willingness to listen to others, balance with consistancy so they dont appear rigid
What does Nemeth argue in regards to minority influence?
Being consistant and repeating the same behaviours can be off putting so their view should be open to adaptation or accept counterarguments
What is the snowball effect?
Over time the majority is converted and there is a switch from the minority to the majority, the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion
How is the minority view processed?
Deeply processed because it is new and unfamiliar
What is the strenght of minority influence that suggests there is evidence supporting consistancy?
- Moscovici et al found a consistant minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than inconsistant
- Wood et al conducted meta analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found consistant minorities were most influential
- Confirms that consistancy is a major factor in minority influence
What does Moscovici suggest as strength of minority influence?
Consistant minority opinion had greater effect on other people than inconsistant opinion
What does Wood et al suggest as a strength of minority influence?
Conducted meta analyisis of almost 100 similar studies and found that consistant minority influence was more influential
What is the strength of minority influence that suggests research shows the role of deeper processing?
- Martin et al gave ppts a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured attitudes
- They then heard endorsement from either majoirity or minority and those who heard minority were less likely to change their opinions to the conflicting view
- Minority message had been processed more deeply
What did Martin et al suggest as a strength of minority influence?
Ppts were given a message supporting a particular viewpoint and then measured attitudes, they then heard either minority or majority endorsement and those who heard minority were less likely to change their opinions to conflicting message showing deeper processing
What is the limitation that suggests minority influence research often involve artificial tasks?
- Moscovici’s task was to identify colour of slide, this is different to how minorities try to change opinion in the real world
- In jury decision making, for example, outcome is important and can be matter of life or death
- Lack of external validity and have limited application to real life
What is the debate around minority influence?
- Agreement with minority in Moscovici’s study was only 8% so it may not be useful concept
- However, more ppts agreed with minority when writing answers down so those who go public must be tip of the iceberg and hold their views strongly
- Valid and can cause permenant conversion
Who are the key thinkers in minority influence?
Nemeth
Moscovici et al
Wood et al
Martin et al
What are the titles of the evaluations in minority influence?
- Research supporting consistancy
- Research supporting deeper processing
- Often involves artificial task
- Debate over usefulness of concept
