Minority Influence

Minority Influence occurs when a small group of people or even an individual changes the attitudes/behaviours/beliefs of the majority

Define Minority Influence

Minority influence is likely to lead to internalisation - both public and private behaviours change

What is minority influence likely to lead to

• Flexibility

• Consistency

• Commitment

What are the three variables needed for a minority to change the attitudes of the minority

The minority is the most effective when they keep the same beliefs both over time and between all of the individuals that form the minority

• a consistent minority causes others to rethink their own views

Define consistency

They're all saying the same thing

Define synchronic consistency

They've been saying the same thing for some time now

Define diachronic consistency

minority influence is more powerful if the minority show full dedication to their position

• shows the minority aren't working out of self-interest

Define commitment

Going to extreme lengths to show commitment to a minority cause

What is the augmentation principle

Nemeth 1986

Who argued that flexibility is needed for a minority to be effective

Consistency can sometimes be off putting to the majority by seeming rigid and dogmatic.

Therefore the minority must be willing to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counterarguments

Define flexibility

Over time, the increasing numbers who change from the majority to the minority, are the converted

The more this process happens, the faster the rate of conversion from majority to minority

• what starts small gathers pace and picks up new members, like a snowball being rolled downhill gathering more snow

• over time the minority become the majority

Outline the snowball effect

Research support for consistency

• Moscovici et al's. blue/green study showed that a consistent minority had a greater effect at persuading the majority to change their opinions on the colour of the slides than an inconsistent minority

• Wendy Wood et al (1994) carried out a meta analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that consistent minorities who were seen as being consistent were the most influential

• This suggests that presenting consistency is a minimum requirement for a minority to influence a minority

Real world application

• Emily Davison a suffragette, flung herself in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby to raise awareness of women's right to vote (demonstrating the augmentation principle)

• Therefore supports commitment and has high external validity

What supports the concept of Minority Influence

Wendy Wood et al 1994

Who carried out meta analysis on consistency in minority influence

Studies have low external validity

• Both Moscovici and Nemeth's research are low in mundane realism:

• Participants were not involved in a real situation i.e. there was a lack of jeopardy

• Arguing about the colour of a slide or the amount of hypothetical compensation are both low-stakes tasks that had no personal salience for the participants

• Minority influence does not happen during one experimental session; it takes (usually) many years to be subsumed into a society

Minority influence may be based on dispositional factors

• Minority influence may in part be due to the personality of the people or main person associated with the group rather than with their cause, e.g.:

  • charismatic cult leaders who persuade people to join their extreme religious or political group

• hence, minority influence under these conditions is based on dispositional factors rather than on the processes outlined above

What limits the concept of Minority influence

• Participants were put into groups of six and shown 36 slides of varying shades of blue

• The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide

• Two of the six participants were always confederates

• In the consistent condition, the two confederates said that all the slides were green

• In the inconsistent condition, the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue

Outline Moscovici's 1969 experiment on consistency

The findings showed that:

• in the consistent condition, there was 8.2% agreement with the minority (the two confederates)

• in the inconsistent condition, agreement decreased to 1.25% of the trials

• Thus, a consistent minority is more effective in terms of social influence than an inconsistent minority

Outline the findings of Moscovisi's 1969 study

• Participants - one of whom was a confederate - were put into groups of four

• The participants were presented with a scenario in which someone had been injured in a ski-lift accident

• They had to decide as a group how much compensation the victim should receive

Outline Nemeth's 1986 study on flexibility

• The inflexible condition: the minority (the one confederate) argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change his position

• The flexible condition: the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but then compromised, offering a slightly higher rate

Outline the two independent conditions in Nemeth's 1986 study

• in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority

• in the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to change their view and go along with the minority

Thus, a minority needs to be flexible if it wants to change the attitudes and behaviours of the majority

Outline the findings of Nemeth's 1986 study