minority influence and social change

minority influence

form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours  

effects of minority influence

Leads to internalisation in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours 

minority influence - consistency

More likely to occur if the minority members share the same belief and retain it over time. This will make others reconsider their views

minority influence - commitment

The minority needs to show that they are committed to their cause. 

minority influence - flexibility

Must show a willingness to compromise otherwise their thinking might be seen as too rigid, dogmatic and unreasonable. Must be willing to adopt their view by listening to counter arguments 

minority influence - persuasiveness

Minorities must attract others over to their position by providing clear arguments 

Support of flexibility: Nemeth’s Mock Dury 

A: To investigate the idea of flexibility as a key factor in minority influence  

P: The experiment was based on a mock jury. Groups of three participants and one confederate had to decide on the amount of compensation to be given to the victim of a ski-lift accident. 

Condition 1 Inflexible: The minority (confederate) argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position 

Condition 2 flexible: the minority (confederate) argued for a low rate or compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate 

F: Condition 1 Inflexibility: The minority had little or no effect on the majority 

Condition 2 Flexibility: The majority were much more likely to also compromise and change their view 

C: Nemeth’s research highlights the importance of flexibility and questions the idea of consistency. This suggests that a balance between the 2 is the most successful strategy for a minority to influence others 

Support for the need for consistency: Moscovici 

Support for the need for consistency: Moscovici 

A: to discover whether a minority could influence the views of a larger group and to investigate the conditions needed for this to occur 

P: Groups of 6 American females, all with no colour blindness. 2 of the group were confederates – the minority and 4 were naïve participants – the majority. All Ps were shown 36 blue slides of different shades. 

Consistent minority (confederates) said green on all the trials  

Inconsistent minority (confederates) said green on 2/3 trials. 

The number of times the naïve majority said green was measured 

F: consistent minority: 8% of trials showed minority influence and 32% of participants said green at least once 

inconsistent minority: 1% of trials showed minority influence  

C: minorities can be influential but only when consistent  

Evaluation of Moscovic’s research into consistency summary

• gender bias

• cultural bias

• ethics

• artificial task

Evaluation of Moscovic’s research into consistency - gender bias

Moscovici’s study can be criticised for having a biased sample. Only a sample of females were used, meaning the study is androcentric and the findings can’t be generalised to males as they may have different levels of minority influence. Research into minority influence shows a different level in conformity between men and women. Therefore, Moscovici’s study lacks population validity. 

Evaluation of Moscovic’s research into consistency - cultural bias

Moscovici’s study can be criticised for having a biased sample. Only a sample of Americans were used, meaning the study is ethnocentric and the findings can’t be generalised to other cultures as America is an individualistic society and the findings can’t be generalised to collectivists as they may have different levels of minority influence. Research into minority influence shows a different level in conformity between individualistic and collectivist societies. Therefore, Moscovici’s study lacks population validity

Evaluation of Moscovic’s research into consistency - ethics

Moscovici’s study broke ethical guidelines as participants were deceived on what the true aim of the study was. Participants were deceived as they believed the study was on colour perception not minority influence. This means that they were not able to give their fully informed consent. However, it was necessary to deceive Ps because if they had known the true aim, they would have acted under demand characteristics and the study would have been invalid. Participants were also debriefed afterwards and it can be argued that the knowledge gained about minority influence justifies perception, meaning the guidelines broken were justifiable.  

Evaluation of Moscovic’s research into consistency - artificial tasks

Moscovici’s study can be criticised for involving artificial tasks. This means it lacks ecological validity Judging the colour of slides is not something that happens in everyday life, meaning it doesn’t reflect real world minority influence, such as political campaigning. Therefore, the study lacks ecological validity and can’t be generalised in real life situations. 

social change

occurs when whole societies (not just individuals) adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.

Minority influence and social change

Moscovici & Nemeth showed how individuals can be influenced by minorities. However, minority groups also play an important role in facilitating social change by influencing a whole society to change its attitudes, behaviours and beliefs

How does minority influence occur - behavioural style

if minorities are consistent, committed, flexible and persuasive it can lead people to reconsider their views. The change then occurs via the Snowball effect when the minority slowly becomes majority,

How does minority influence occur - Zeitgeist

(spirit of the time) There is often a delay before the minority position becomes accepted. It happens when society is ready for change to occur.

climate change activism

Climate change may be an important issue for our current times, but it has not always been. Since the 1960's, climate change activists have been using minority influence to bring about social change on an international level - one country at a time.

climate change activism - consistency

Climate change activism has been consistently making the same argument for decades: That our planet's resources and ability to sustain life is slowly being degraded. They have been consistent in their methods too - particularly in protests and causing inconvenience to business/consumerist operations.

climate change activism - commitment

Climate change activists show their commitment by attending protests, taking time out of their work, education and personal lives to march, or block roads showing that they are willing to give time, effort and possibly even risk arrest to get what they want. They also demonstrate commitment with their message that reversing climate change is something that will benefit everybody in the long term.

climate change activism - persuasiveness

Climate change activism uses widely published data, which is backed by the vast majority of scientists as accurate. They demonstrate that reversing climate change will benefit everyone and Greta Thunberg has emerged and a charismatic leader, who is able to get people to listen to her passionate beliefs on climate change.

climate change activism - flexibility

Reversing climate change has not been an overnight instant change. Small victories have been achieved along the way, such as governments using more renewable energy, creation of hybrid/fully electric cars and more recently, the government planning to phase out selling of brand new petrol/diesel cars by 2030.

climate change activism - snowball effect

People willing to actively prevent climate change have slowly grown as a group over the last 60 years or so. This is not an overnight change and is still currently happening as more people start taking steps to reduce their carbon footprints.

climate change activism - zeitgeist

People have come to care more about climate change, now they are feeling the effects of global warming, or species becoming extinct, rising fuel prices. The government is now getting businesses to care about the climate by creating schemes and offering support to companies who seek to reduce their carbon output.

general evaluation for minorities bringing about social change

• A criticism of research into how minorities can bring about social change is that minority influence is often indirect & delayed. It is claimed that the majority will only respond to issues that are important at a given time Eg it took decades for the smoking ban & for drink drive laws to be implemented. It also took decades for the majority to care enough about climate change to take action. This time delay could therefore be seen as a limitation to using minority influence to explain social change.

• Real world evidence can be used to support behavioural styles of minorities bringing about social change.

conformity as another social influence process that can influence social change

Social change can occur when a majority influences a minority through the process of normative social influence. The process is relatively passive. A group that is unanimous is more likely to bring about social change (conformity falls from 32% to 5% when there is a dissenter present). A larger group is also more likely to have more influence (32% conformity with a group of 6 versus 12.8% conformity with a majority of 2)

support for the role of conformity in social change

A month long study was conducted in California

Experimental group: messages were hung on people's front doors encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that other residents in the area were already doing this

Control group: some houses received messages about energy use but with no mention of the behaviour of other residents

The experimental group significantly reduced their energy consumption showing that conformity can lead to positive change

obedience and other social influence process that can influence social change

Disobedient role models can bring about social change

Eg in Milgram's study when they were 2 disobedient allies who refused to give a shock, obedience dropped to 10%

Obedience can also bring about social change through gradual (graduated) commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult

general evaluation for social change

One study investigated why people often resist social change even when they agree it is necessary Eg researchers found that Ps were less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways because they did not want to be associated with being a stereotypical 'environmentalist Ps rated environmental activists & feminists in negative ways describing them as 'tree huggers' or 'man haters'. Therefore the researchers advice to minorities hoping to bring about social change is to avoid behaving in ways that reinforce stereotypes