Social: Minority Influence

Question 1

What is Minority influence?

Answer 1

A type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms.
- MI helps create innovation and social change.
- Conversion – majorities become gradually won over to a minority viewpoint.

Question 2

What did Moscivci study?

Answer 2

a study to see if consistent minority can influence majority
- 172 US females - colour perception task. 6 ptps at a time were asked to guess the colour (out loud) of 36 slides (different shades of blue), 1st cond: 2/6 confeds called green every time, 2nd cond: confeds called green 24 times and blue 12.

Question 3

What did Moscivci find?

Answer 3

Cond 1: consistent minority meant ptps guessed green 8.4%
Cond 2: inconsistent minority - ptps called green 1.3%
—> consistent has more power to influence majority

Question 4

What’s some evaluation of Moscivcis study?

Answer 4

• pop validity (only US females, can’t generalise)
• ecological validity (artificial task) - real life would be like gay rights activists
• broke several BPS ethical guidelines (deceived ptps - yet this was key to the study)
  + shows consistency is important to create a change

Question 5

What did Moscovici find important for a minority to be effective?

Answer 5

• consistency —> consistent minorities are persuasive, create doubt about established viewpoints/beliefs
• commitment —> consistency in the face of abuse shows that minorities are committed and helps motivate individuals to consider their viewpoint
• flexibility —> minorities that compromise and are slightly inconsistent are more persuasive – this questions the importance of consistency

Question 6

What does conversion mean?

Answer 6

majorities become gradually won over to a minority viewpoint.
—> however this is time consuming, as conversion requires consideration of minority viewpoint

Question 7

What’s a real life example of minority influence?

Answer 7

The environmental campaign group Greenpeace was formed in Canada in the 1970s.
- Originally seen as a bunch of ‘cranks’ and weirdos, they attracted ridicule. But they persisted with their views and campaigns.
- Slowly, they won people over, gaining more and more members (social crypto amnesia).
- finally, they became seen as a mainstream, legitimate voice for environmental matters.