Social influence: minority influence Flashcards
Detailed Definition:
Minority Influence
Social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms.
Achieved through the process of conversion, where majorities become gradually won over to a minority viewpoint.
Conversion involves the new belief / behaviour being accepted both publicly and privately and can be seen as a type of internalisation
The three critical factors for minority influence:
Consistency & stability
Commitment
Flexibility
Explain how consistency helps minority influence?
Over time consistency of minority views increases the interest from others.
This consistency may be the agreement within the minority opinion (SYNCHRONIC consistency)
And/or consistency over time DIACHRONIC consistency- (they have been saying the same for ages!)
Such consistency makes others start to rethink their own views
EXAMPLE - think about the Suffragettes – when did they start?
Explain how commitment helps minority influence?
Sometimes minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views. This action demonstrates COMMITMENT to the cause.
This may make the majority pay more attention (‘wow, he must really believe in what he is saying if he faces imprisonment for 27 years!).
This can be called the augmentation principle
EXAMPLE - think about the Suffragettes – how did they demonstrate commitment?
Explain how flexibility helps minority influence?
If the minority are unbending or uncompromising this is off putting, hence, because of this the minority need to be prepared to ADAPT their views slightly
They must discuss and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments
EXAMPLE - think about the Suffragettes – how did they show some flexibility?
Moscovici (1969) - support for consistency
Aim – To investigate the role of a consistent minority upon the opinions of a majority.
(This would create conflict in the majority, leading them to question and possible change their views. It was important to understand that social influence occurs not just through conformity to a majority, but also through a change in previously held views of a group)
PROCEDURE: All female participants were first given an eye test to check that they were not colour blind.
First the experiment was done with a control group where all the pressures to conform was removed. In the experimental group, naïve participants were then placed in a group of four participants and two confederates (groups of 6).
They were all shown 36 slides that were different shades of blue (the use of filter varied the colour intensity of each slide) and asked to state the colour out loud (they were told it was a colour perception task).
There were two groups in the experiment. In the first group the confederates were consistent and answered green for every slide. In the second group the confederates were inconsistent and answered green 24 times and blue 12 times.
FINDINGS: For the control group, where all the pressures to conform were removed, only 0.25% of the answers were green and the rest were blue.
In the experimental group where the confederates were inconsistent (12 blue & 24 green) the percentage rose to 1.25% of green replies.
When the confederates were consistent (36 green) with their replies the conformity rate rose to 8.42%.
From this group 32% gave the same answer as the minority at least once.
CONCLUSION:
A minority has the power to influence a majority.
They are more influential when they are consistent in their views.
When they were inconsistent, they were largely ignored.
However it should be noted that even though minority influence was shown, most participants were not affected by it.
Evaluation of minority influence: research
A strength of minority influence is there is Research to support the theory.
Moscovici’s study found that participants were significantly more likely to conform to a minority if the participants around them were consistent in their view.
This was done by showing them 36 coloured slides and using a minority of 2 to try and change opinion. When consistent over 8% conformity compared to just over 1% when they were inconsistent
This means …WHEN A MINORITY are MORE CONSISTENT, conformity is more likely to occur
Evaluation of minority influence: problems with research
Lacks ecological validity
This is an issue because real life cases of minority influence do not match what happened in the study – i.e. choosing colours of slides
In real life standing for minority views could have severe consequences, and this is not present in Moscovici’s research
Hence, the study lacks credibility
Evaluation of minority influence: alternatives
However, there is Alternative research for the minority influence which suggests the process is a little more complex.
For example identification depends on the group. Maas found that when homosexual minority groups were fighting for homosexual rights this was not as effective as when heterosexual minorities groups were rallying for homosexual rights. This was due to the heterosexual majority identifying with the heterosexual minority group.
This means suggests that…MINORITY influence is more complex than just CFC
Evaluation of minority influence: reductionist
However, one issue with the theory of minority influence is that the theory could be considered Reductionist.
For example, although being committed and consistent is important, some personal attributes (like being CHARISMATIC or having an ILoC) also seem to be important in changing majority opinion.
This implies that the theory about minority influence neglects to consider DISPOSITIONAL FACTORS
Evaluation of minority influence: practical applications
One strength is the practical Applications of this theory. For example….
(briefly explain how long and committed suffragettes were OR Nelson Mandela’s objection to Apartheid in South Africa)
This means that the minority influence has been useful to society because … it has helped us explain how minority influence works in the real world, in some significant societal events
