Social Psychology: topic 9 ‘research into minority influence with Moscovici’

Question 1

What is minority influence?

Answer 1

• a form is social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just 1 person) persuade others in the majority to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
• this is a different from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing
• minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation in which both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed

Question 2

What was Moscovici’s research into minority influence?

Answer 2

• Moscovici aimed to test whether a minority group were more likely to influence a majority group into giving the incorrect answer in a colour perception test if they were consistent in their views
• 172 female ppts who all had their eyesight tested
• each rear involved a group of 6 people made up of four ppts and two confederates (a minority trying to influence the ppts’s behaviour)
• the group would be presented with 36 slides which were clearly different shades of blue and asked to state what colour each slide was
• in 1 conditions the two confederates stayed out loud that the blue slides were green (incorrect answer) everytime (the consistent condition)
• in the 2nd condition the two confederates answered green 24 times and blue 12 times (the inconsistent condition
• it was found that in the inconsistent condition, 1.25% of the ppts answered green
• in the consistent condition, 8.42% of the answers were green
• in the control condition with no confederates only 0.25% of incorrect answers were given
• it was concluded that if a minority group wants to influence the majority group, they need to be consistent in their views