minority infleunce

Minority influence

A form of social influence where a minority group (can be just one person) persuades the majority group to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours through internalisation of the change in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours

Moscovici (1969) study

Aim: if a minority can convince a majority that a blue tile is green (consistency was also measured)

Procedure: three groups- one consistent group (said tile was green 36/36), an inconsistent group (said tile was green 24/36) and a control group (no minority influence), 36 blue cards shown and answer was given verbally

Results: percentage that said wrong answer- consistent (8.2%), inconsistent (1.25%), control (<1%)

Synchronic consistency

Consistent agreement among members of minority group

Diachronic synchrony

a consistent position overtime

Three steps of minority influence convincing a majority

1. Consistency

2. Commitment

3. Flexibility

Consistency in minority influence

The minority group views must be consistent if they are to exert a force over the majority- suffragettes expressed a clear and consistent message ‘votes for women’

Commitment in minority influence

The minority should demonstrate real commitment to their cause y engaging in somewhat extreme activities to draw attention to their views and these activities should present some personal risk to the minority to show commitment e.g. suffragettes sacrificed their jobs and relationships- argumentation principle

Argumentative principle

When the majority pay attention to what the majority are saying/doing because of the evidence of the minority groups commitment

Flexibility in minority influence

A willingness to compromise- being completely rigid all the time may give the impression that the minority is unreasonable which may be off putting and members of minority need to prepare to adapt their point of view and accept valid counter arguments e.g. suffragettes compromised by being given rights to vote at the age 30 whereas men could vote at 24

The snowball effect

The majority is influenced by the minority gradually- as the original opinion is new/different/controversial. Following consistency, commitment and flexibility form the minority group, one or two individuals become ‘controverted’- the more people that are converted, the faster the rate of conversion

evaluate minority influence

• supporting research- Moscovici found that more participants agreed that the tile was green if the confederates were consistent in saying the tile was green (8.42%) in comparison to when they were inconsistent (1.25%). Furthermore, Wood et al carried out a meta analysis of similar studies which all produced similar results. This adds credibility to minority influence

• criticism of supporting evidence- lacks ecological validity, for example convincing people a blue tile is green is not the same example of minority influence in real life such as the gay rights movement or even the suffragettes. Furthermore, in lab based studies the minority and majority group are simply a case of numbers whereas in real life there usually is a power imbalance between the minority and majority. This means we dont know if consistency is as important in real life.

• real life application- now people know consistency, commitment and flexibility are important features to minority influence, they can use this information to fight for their cause and bring about social change