Minority Influence

What does minority influence refer to?

How one person/small group influences the beliefs/behaviours of others

How is minority influence different to conformity?

Minority influence - Minority may influence one person/group of ppl

Conformity - Majority does the influencing

What does minority influence lead to?

Internalisation

What does internalisation mean?

An individuals public behaviour/private beliefs are changed

What three processes lead to internalisation?

Consistency

Commitment

Flexibility

What does consistency mean?

Always doing the same thing

How can consistency help?

The minorities views will gain more interest as it makes others rethink their own views

What does synchronic consistency mean?

People in the minority are all saying the same thing

What does diachronic consistency mean?

The minority have been saying the same thing for some time

What does commitment mean?

Showing deep involvement

How does commitment help?

Helps gain the attention of the majority

What must the minority do to demonstrate commitment to the cause?

Take part in activities that cause risk to the minority such as extreme activities

What is the augmentation principle?

When the minority shows strong commitment the majority will pay even more attention

What does flexibility mean?

Showing willingness to listen to others

What should the minority do to show flexibility?

Balance consistency and flexibility so they don’t appear rigid by adapting their point of view and accepting reasonable counter arguments

What will individuals think deeply about?

The minority position as its new/unfamiliar

What is the snowball effect?

Over time more people become converted and there’ll be a switch from the minority to the majority and social change will have occured

A03 Strength: Research supporting consistency

Moscovici et al - consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on ppl than an inconsistent opinion

Wood et al - meta analysis - minorities seen as being consistent were the most influential

Confirms that consistency is a major factor in minority influence

A03 Limitation: Limited real world application

In research studies majority/minority groups distnighuished as numbers

More too it than just numbers e.g power/status

Research studies are limited in what they tell us about real world minority influence

A03 Limitation: Minority influence research often involves artificial tasks

Moscovici et als task was to identify the colour of a slide - very different from how minorities try to change the opinions of the majority

In political campaigning/jury decision making outcomes are vastly more important - may be a matter of life/death

Findings lack external validity - limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real life situations

A03 Strength: Power of minority influence

More pps agreed with the minority in Moscovicis study when writing their answers privately

Those who say their views publicly must hold their new views strongly - internalised them

Minority influence is valid - can cause a powerful/permanent change in peoples views