Minority influence

define minority influence

A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours.

define consistency

Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority. Consistency is effective because it draws attention to the minority view.

define commitment

Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position by making personal sacrifices. This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest.

define flexibility

Relentless consistency could be counter productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise.

Minority influences is situations where …

one person/a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people

how is minority influence different from conformity

in conformity the majority is doing the influencing.

Minority influence is likely to lead to …

internalisation

There are … main processes in minority influence.

3

who has research support on minority influence

Moscoviciwht

what did Moscovici do

In his study, 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue slides that varied in shades. They were asked to state if the slide was blue or green. In one condition there were two confederates who consistently said the slide was green. The naive participants gave the wrong answer on 8% of the trials.

The minority must be … in their views.

consistent

Consistency increases the ….

amount of interest from other people

what can consistency be

synchronic consistency or diachronic consistency

what is synchronic consistency?

agreement between people in the minority group

what is diachronic consistency?

consistency in saying the same thing for a long time

A consistent minority makes …

other people start to rethink their views

The minority must demonstrate …

commitment to their views or cause

how can commitment be demonstrates

extreme activities to draw attention to views

It is important that these extreme activities…

present some risk to the minority because this shows greater commitment

what is the augmentation principle?

showing commitment to cause so that the majority pays attention to the minority view

why is flexibility important

Consistency can be off-putting. Someone who is extremely consistent may be seen as rigid, unbending & dogmatic. This approach is unlikely to gain many converts.

what are the 3 features of minority influence

consistency, commitment & flexibility

Members of the minority need to be prepared to …

adapt their point of view & accept reasonable & valid counterarguments

The key is to strike balance between …

consistency & flexibility

 If you hear something new, you might …

think more deeply about it especially if the source of this other view is consistent, committed and flexible

… of the views is important in the process of conversion to a different minority viewpoint.

Deeper processing

Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to minority position. The more this happens the faster the rate of conversion, this is called the …

snowball effect

what is the snowball effect

Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to minority position. The more this happens the faster the rate of conversion

explain the strength research support

Moscovici’s study shows that a consistent minority position had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than an inconsistent form. Another psychologists carried out a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies & found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential

explain the weakness artificial task

Moscovici’s task of identifying the colour of a slide is very much different from how minorities attempt to change the behaviours of majorities in real life. In cases such as jury decision making & political campaigning, the outcomes are vastly more important, sometimes even life or death whereas in Moscovi’s research there was no consequence to conforming to the minority view perhaps making them more inclined to do so

explain the strength there is evidence showing that a change in the majority’s position does involve deeper processing of the minority’s ideas

 in one study people were more willing to change their opinions if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority group

explain the weakness power of minority influence

In Mocovici’s study the figure for agreement with a consistent minority was very low, only 8% suggesting that minority influence is quite rare and not a useful concept