Minority Influence

Minority Influence

A form of social influence where members of the majority change their behaviours or beliefs as a result of exposure to a persuasive minority (eg. Suffragette Movement). To achieve conversion a particular behavioural style including the three factors of: consistency, commitment and flexibility, must be adopted.

Consistency

What = expressing the same viewpoint over time and across members

Influence = Causes the majority to reassess their own position and consider the minority more sincerely rather than assuming they are in error

Risk: If inconsistent the minority have no fixed viewpoint to join and are therefore so ignored for being too flexible.

Commitment

What = Demonstrating certainty, confidence and courage by engaging in extreme activities or taking risks. Actions often involve sacrifice to reveal how minority’s aim is not self interested

Influence = Causes majority to be less likely to dismiss the viewpoint as it cannot be ignored, and therefore the minority are taken more seriously

Risk = If too extreme the majority may be deterred as minority may appear to demanding, unreasonable and closed minded

Flexibility

What = Striking a balance between standing firm and being willing to compromise.

Influence = Prevents the minority from looking too narrow minded/dogmatic OR looking too inconsistent. Appear open minded + considerate yet consistent.

Risk = Too flexible: inconsistent + ignorable / Not flexible enough: dogmatic + unreasonable

Procession of Conversion

The factors of minority influence (C C F) cause the majority to scrutinise and deeply process the view presented by the majority. As a result this conversion from the majority to he minority view tends to be real and permanent (internalised).

The Snowball Effect - Procession of Conversion

The effect when over time increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position (number converted). The more people are converted, the faster the rate of conversion. This is known as the Snowball Effect.

Social Cryptoamnesia

Occurs when the converted society (minority view is now held by majority) forget the amount of effort that was undertaken to create the conversion of the majority and minority influence. Essentially the acceptance of the old minority as the new majority.

Research - Moscovici - Procedure

Groups of 6 pts were asked to judge the colour of 36 blue coloured slides of different intensity of colour. Two conditions were created: Consistent and Inconsistent. In both conditions the group consisted of 2 confederates and 4 real pts.

Research - Moscovici - Consistent condition

The 2 confederates called all the blue slides green in all 36 trials. The (4) participants in 8.4% of the trials called the slides green.

Research - Moscovici - Inconsistent Condition

The 2 confederates called the blue slides green in 24 out of the 36 trials. In the other 12 trials the confederates called the blue slides blue. Pts in 1.3% of the trials called the slides green.

Research - Moscovici - Conclusions

Moscovici concluded that a more consistent minority is more influential than an inconsistent minority.

Minority Influence - Pro - Meta-analysis

One strength of minority influence is that there is further research supporting the importance of consistency in the behaviour of a minority to bring about conversion from the majority. Wood et al. conducted a meta-analysis using almost 100 similar studies to Moscovici’s research into consistency and found that minorities which were perceived as consistent were the most influential. Therefore, this supports the suggestion the consistent behaviour is a major factor in minority influence.

Minority Influence - Pro - Ski-lift

One strength of minority influence is that there is research to support the importance of flexibility in the behaviour of the minority to cause minority influence. For example, one study put participants into groups of 3 participants and one confederate (acting as the minority) were tasked with deciding how much compensation the victim of a ski lift accident. In the inflexible condition the confederate argued for a low amount of compensation and refused to change his position. In the flexible condition the confederate compromised a little and offered a higher amount. Only in the flexible condition did the majority change their opinion to a lower amount than they first demanded. Therefore, this shows how minorities need to be flexible to bring about minority influence.

Minority Influence - Con - Ecological

One weakness of minority influence is that its supporting research has a low ecological validity. For example, Moscovici et al’s research used the artificial task of asking participants to judge the colour of a series of 36 blue slides, for which there was no consequence if participants gave the wrong answer. This means the task did not accurately represent real world minority influence, in cases such as political campaigning, where conversion to the minority has significant consequences. Therefore, research conducted in laboratory conditions with artificial tasks, such as Moscovici’s, lacks external validity and consequently cannot significantly tell us how minority influence works in the real world.