social influence - minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence

Answer 1

a form of social influence in which a minority rejects the established norm of the majority of group members and persuades the majority to move to the position of the minority - often leads to internalisation

Question 2

what did moscovici et al study

Answer 2

minority influence with his blue slide, green slide study

Question 3

what was the procedure of moscovicis study

Answer 3

• participants were shown 36 slides with clear different shades of blue and were asked to state the colour
• in the first part 2 confederates answered green and they were completely consistent
• in the second part, they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times showing inconsistency
• a control group was used for comparison which did not use any confederates

Question 4

what were the results of moscovicis study

Answer 4

• only 0.25% of the control group were green whilst the rest were blue
• in the experimental group 1.25% of the participants answers were green with confederates inconsistent answers
• this rose to 8.42% responding with green when confederates were consistent

Question 5

what is the conclusion of moscovicis study

Answer 5

it suggests that minorities can influence majorities - this is more effective when minorities are consistent with their responses

Question 6

what are the three processes involved in minority influence

Answer 6

• consistency
• commitment
• flexibility

Question 7

what is consistency

Answer 7

used to make others rethink their own views:
- synchronic consistency: people are all saying the same thing
- diachronic consistency: they have been saying the same thing for a long time

Question 8

what is commitment

Answer 8

when minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their causes showing commitment which increases the amount of interest from other majority group members ( argumentation principle )

Question 9

what is flexibility

Answer 9

nemeth said that if minority is seen as inflexible and uncompromising then the majority are unlikely to change. he proved that the minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they do not appear rigid

Question 10

what are the strengths of minority influence

Answer 10

• moscovici demonstrated that when minorities are consistent they can influence the majority. when the minority gave inconsistent answers they were generally ignored by the majority
• martin et al gave participants a message supporting a particular view point and their support. participants were exposed to conflicting views to change their opinions to the new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group suggesting that the minority message has been more deeply processed and has a more enduring effect

Question 11

what are the weaknesses of minority influence

Answer 11

• people may be less likely to admit their conversion publicly
• studies make clear distinctions between majority and minority but the tasks however are artificial. real life situations are more complicated and findings lack external validity so have limited real world applications