Minority Influence

What is Minority Influence?

A form of social influence in which a minority of people (can be just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviour.

• This leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours

How did Serge Moscovici first study the process of minority influence?

In his ‘blue slide, green slide’ study;

What are the three main processes in minority influence over the majority?

• Consistency

• Commitment

• Flexibility

Why is consistency important in minority influence?

Over time, this consistency increases the amount of interest from other people

• There are two types of consistency between people in the minority group

  • Synchronic consistency (think: same time) - they’re all saying the same thing in the same moment

  • Diachronic consistency (think: over time) - they don’t change their message and the minority sticks to their view over time

A consistent minority makes other people start to rethink their own views (‘Maybe they’ve got a point if they all think this way’ or ‘Maybe they’ve got a point if they keep saying it’).

Why is commitment important in minority influence?

Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views; if these extreme activities present some risk to the minority, it shows greater commitment.

• Majority group members then pay even more attention

• (‘Wow she must really believe in what she’s saying if 'she’s willing to go this far for it, perhaps I should consider her view’)

This is called the argumentation principle - when a minority suggers or takes risks for the belief, people take them more seriously.

Why is flexibility important in minority influence?

Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency is not the only important factor in minority influence because it can be off-putting - someone who is extremely consistent, who simply repeats the same old arguments and behaviours again and again may be seen as rigid, unbending and dogmatic (stubborn).

• Instead, members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments. The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.

What is the process of change in minority influence?

• Consistency, commitment, and flexibility make the majority pay attention to the minority view

• The minority view is deeper processed because it is new and different

• Some individuals change their views (these are called the ‘converted’)

• As more people are converted, the minority grows — this is the snowball effect (like a snowball being rolled downhill, gathering more snow)

• Over time, the minority becomes the majority

What was the aim and procedure of Moscovici’’s ‘blue slide, green slide’ study?

Aim: To investigate whether a minority can influence a majority

Procedure:

• Group of six people (4 real participants + 2 confederates)

• Asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and state whether the slides were blue or green

• In each group, there were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green

What were the findings and conclusions of Moscovici’s ‘blue slide, green slide’ study?

• The true participants gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of the trials, i.e. agreed with the confederates

  • A second group of participants were exposed to an inconsistent minority (the confederates said ‘green’ 24 times and blue 12 times). In this case, agreement fell to to 1.25%

  • For a third control group, there were no confederates, and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. They got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials.

What is a limitation of consistency in the minority influence explanation?

Its emphasis on consistency, as research suggests that flexibility may be more important.

• Nemeth et al (1987) did a mock jury task where participants had to decide on compensation in a court case

• Minorities who showed willingness to compromise (stuck to their position at the start then changed slightly towards the end) were more influential than those who remained rigid

• Minorities who refused to change their position had little effect on the minority

  • However, minorities who shifted their position too early were also ineffective (perceived as having ‘caved in’ to the majority), suggesting that influence is strongest when a minority shows some flexibility without abandoning their original viewpoint

This research highlights the importance of flexibility, and questions the idea of consistency, it suggests that striking a balance between the two is the most successful strategy.

What is a limitation of minority influence research?

The tasks involved are artificial (low mundane realism).

• This includes Moscovici’s task of identifying the colour of a slide - research is far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of minorities in real life (like jury decision making and political campaigning, the outcomes are more important, sometimes even literally a matter or life or death)

This means studies on minority influence are lacking in external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-world social situations.