Minority influence

Minority influence

A form of social influence where a small number of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours.

Leads to internalisation or conversion where private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours

Commitment

Minority influence more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position e.g. making personal sacrifices

Effective as it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest

Consistency

Minority influence most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs both over time and between all minority individuals.

Consistency is effective because it draws attention to the minority view

Synchronic consistency

They are all saying the same thing

Diachronic consistency

They have been saying the same thing for some time now

Cognitive conflict

The majority are confused about what to think about the issue. Leads to deeper processing

Augmentation principle

Members of the majority group pay more attention as the minority group does an extreme act.

Snowball effect

The minority opinion gains momentum

Tipping point

When the minority becomes the majority

Social cryptoamnesia

Society forget the original issue

Can take decades

Moscovici 1969

32 groups. 6 women per group. 4 real subjects and 2 confederates.

Shown 36 blue slides. Varied intensity. Task was to state whether each slide was blue or green.

In one group, confederates consistently said green. Subjects agreed on 8.42% of trials

Another group, confederates said 24 were green and 12 were blue. Subjects agreed on 1.25% of trials

Control group with no confederates. Participants were wrong on 0.25% of trials

Showed that constant minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people

Wood 1994

Carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 studies and found that minorities who were seen as consistent were most influential

Suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority

Nemeth 1986

Looked at the influence a minority had in changing the majority opinion about how much compensation to give someone who had a ski-lift accident

When the minority was unwilling to change their decision from a low amount it had no effect on the majority

When the minority was willing to change their decision to go higher the majority compromised by lowering their amount

Supported flexibility in minority influence

Martin 2007

Presented a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured the agreement of participants.

One group heard a minority group agree with the initial view. Less willing to agree if it came from a minority

Another group heard a majority group agree with the initial view. More willing to agree if it came from a majority.

Suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect. Supports the central argument about how minority influence works.

Contradiction to Martin 2007

Research studies like Martin’s make clear distinctions between the majority and minority.

Doing this in a controlled way is a strength of minority influence research.

Real world social influence situations are more complicated. Majorities usually have a lot more power and status than minorities. Minorities are committed to their causes as they often face hostile opposition.

These features are usually absent in minority influence research.

Martin’s findings are very limited in what they can tell us about minority influence in real-world situations

Crano and Gaffney 2021

Suggests minority influence is important in explaining the succest of populists in politics.

Populists appeal to people by claiming to represent them against a corrupt elite. They initially represent minority views but by showing personal commitment and offering simple and consistent messages they gradually gain support from a wider section of the population

E.g. Nigel Farage or Donald Trump

Weakness of minority influence research

Often low in external validity.

Tasks are often unrelated to everyday life e.g. Moscovici

This lowers the validity of the theory.