Minority Influence

When does minority influence occur?

When a small group of people or an individual changes the attitudes, beliefs, behaviours of the majority

What type of conformity could minority influence lead to?

Internalisation

What are the processes at work in minority influence?

Commitment, consistency, flexibility

How does the minority stay committed?

Have to show full commitment to their messages

Why is being committed hard?

Takes a lot of effort and it easier to be apart of the majority, Have to work harder to be heard by the majority

How does hostility show commitment?

May lead the majority to think that the minority have a point, as they are willing to be mocked publicly and face hardship to change people’s minds

What is the augmentation principle?

Extreme lengths to show commitment

Why does the minority have to be consistent?

Staying consistent in their views is a way of showing the majority that the minority are strong in the face of possible criticism

What is synchronic consistency?

The minority shares the same message

What is diachronic consistency?

The minority have been promoting their message for some time

How does consistency help to change the majority’s beliefs?

The majority may begin to rethink their own views and admire the minority for having a different opinion

What study demonstrates the importance of consistency?

Moscovici’s study

Procedure

Participants were put into groups of 6, were shown 36 slides of varying shades of blue. Participants has had to state the colour of each slide out loud

How many of the six participants were confederates?

2

What was the consistent condition?

When the two confederates said that all the slides were green

What was the inconsistent condition?

The confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue

What were the findings?

Consistent condition, 8.2% agreement with the minority. Inconsistent, agreement decreases to 1.25% of the trials

How does the minority change their view to be more flexible?

Should be open to accepting reasonable, valid counter-arguments. Should be able to adapt their message

Why does the minority have to be flexible?

People may remain unsympathetic and maintaining a right, inflexible stance could stop them from influencing the majority

What is the snow ball effect?

A process when the numbers who change from the majority to the minority are converted. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. Over time, minority becomes majority