Minority influence

What are the three characteristics of an effective minority influence?

1) Consistency - Maintaining consistent attitudes and behaviour

Diachronic - over time

Synchronic - between members

2) Commitment → display despite personal cost e.g physical danger

3) Flexibility - must be compromising, account for views of majority, be open minded but consistent

Research support for Consistency

Moscovici et al -

D - Tested effect of consistent vs non consistent minority influence in majority’s answer to colour of slide

F - A consistent minority had a greater effect of 8.42% on Majority ( gave wrong answers to ambiguous task)

Compared to inconsistent minority- only 1.25%

S - Shows consistency is an important factor for minority influence (the effectiveness)

Further evidence to support important of consistency

Wood et al (1994)

D- Meta analysis on 100 Minority influence studies

F - Consistency = most important factor in Minority influence

S - Supports Moscovici’s conclusion that consistency is an important factor in effectiveness of minority influence

Criticism of Minority influence studies

P - Minority influence studies lack ecological validity

E - Many are conducted in controlled lab settings and measure response to artificial and trivial tasks (e.g judging colour of slides)

May not be generalised to real situations of minority influence e.g political campaigners where stakes are higher, opposition is intense and consistent, social support is stronger

Ex - Lacks external validity; may not be reliably representing minority influence and how they attempt to change the majority in real life scenarios,

Research to support flexibility as important factor of minority influence

Nemeth (1986) 📏

Flexibility = most important factor of effective minority influence

D - Tested effect of flexibility of minority - influencing amount of compensation for ski lift accident

F - Flexible minorities (considerate, compromising) = majority more likely to compromise, have larger influence on decision making

S - Flexibility = most important, questions validity of consistency

Moscovici et al (1969) DFS

D - Tested impact of consistent vs inconsistent minority on majority opinion

PPTs = females in groups of 6 ( with 2 confederates - minority)

Asked to judge colour of 32 slides - all of which were BLUE, (unambiguously)

Minority (confederates) gave CLEARLY wrong answers, answered GREEN

Consistent minority - answered GREEN EVERY TIME

Inconsistent - Green for 24/32

F - Consistent minority = greater impact on majority = 8% influence

Vs Inconsistent = 1.25%

S - Consistency = important factor in Minority influence