Minority Influence

• Minority Influence:


  a form of social influence where a minority group (can just be one person) persuades the majority group to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Usually because they think something is unfair

  
  

  E.g., the Gay Rights Movement/ the Suffragette Movement

  
  

  This leads to internalisation of the change in beliefs, attitudes/ behaviour because now the previous majority group genuinely believe it is right
• 3 KEY FEATURES INVOLVED IN MINORITY INFLUENCE:

  Consistency, Commitment and Flexibility
• Consistency:

  The minority group's views must be consistent (the same) if they are to exert influence over the majority, the more consistent the minority group is the more persuasive they are on the majority
• 2 types of consistency:

  DIACHRONIC CONSISTENCY (TIME)

  
  

  SYNCHRONIC CONSISTENCY (GROUP)
• DIACHRONIC CONSISTENCY (TIME):

  the minority group has a consistent position over time
• SYNCHRONIC CONSISTENCY (GROUP):

  there is consistent agreement amongst the members of the minority group
• Commitment:

  the minority should demonstrate real commitment to their cause by engaging in somewhat extreme activities to draw attention to their views. These activities should present some personal risk to the minority to show how committed they are.

  
  

  This then leads to the AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE:

  When the majority pay attention to what the minority are saying/doing because of the evidence of the minority groups' commitment - which adds to the persuasiveness of the minority group on the majority
• Flexibility:

  the balance between consistency and flexibility. Being completely consistent all the time may actually give the impression that the minority is rigid and unbending - which is undesirable. Members of the minority group need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments.

  
  

  IF THEY ARE UNABLE TO COMPROMISE; THEIR CAUSE MAY JUST BE DISCARDED BY THE MAJORITY GROUP
• The Snowball Effect:


  is the process of change. The majority is influenced by the minority gradually- as the original opinion is new/different/controversial.

  Following consistency, commitment and flexibility from the minority group, one or two individuals becomes 'converted'- the more people that are converted, the faster the rate of conversion.
• CONVERSION-

  the gradual influence of the minority on the majority has a tipping point when the minority becomes the majority and they only have a few people let to convert.
• EXAMPLE: 'Moscovici Blue-Green Study' - aims


  Aims: (1)-to see if minority influence can convince others that a Blue tile is Green

  
  

  (2)-to test whether a consistent minority is more likely to exert social influence than an inconsistent minority
• EXAMPLE: 'Moscovici Blue-Green Study' - procedure

  PROCEDURE: 2

  Conditions, 6 Female Ps(4 real + 2 confederates) - they were shown 36 Blue tiles and were asked whether each tile was Blue/Green which was repeated multiple times.

  
  

  (1)-inconsistent minority said 24/36 of the Blue tiles were Green

  (2)-consistent minority said 36/36 all of the Blue tiles were Green
• EXAMPLE: 'Moscovici Blue-Green Study'-results

  Results: The consistent minority had an influence on the majority group (8.42%) compared to the inconsistent minority with only (1.25%) that said the tiles were green. Control group had <1% influence
• EXAMPLE: 'Moscovici Blue-Green Study'- conclusions

  Conclusions: 1st AIM: a minority group can influence the majority , it has an impact but a very small impact 2nd AIM: However, a consistent minority is more influential than an inconsistent minority
• A03 strength + counter - supporting evidence (Moscovi results/lacks ecological validity)

  P- There is supporting research evidence.

  E-Moscovici found that more participants agreed that the tile was green if the confederates consistently said that the tiles were green (8.42%). In comparison, to when they were inconsistent (1.25%).

  E-Furthermore, Wood et al. (1994) carried out a meta-analysis if similar studies which all produced similar results.

  L-Therefore, this adds credibility to the consistency explanation of minority influence

  C-However, there is some criticism as the supporting evidence lacks ecological validity.

  E- For Example, convincing people of the colour of a tile is not the same as examples of minority influence in real-life e.g., the Gay Rights movement/ the Suffragettes or even jury decision-making where the consequences are much more important.

  E- Furthermore, in lab-based studies the minority and majority group is simple a case of numbers, whereas in real-life there is usually a power imbalance between the majority and minority.

  L- Therefore, this means it is limited in its application to real-life examples of consistency in minority influence and we cannot be confident that it plays the same role.
• A03- Strengths (useful real-life application/abuse of power Nazism)

  P- One strength is that there is useful real-life application.

  E- Now people know that consistency, commitment and flexibility are important features of minority influence, minority groups can use this information to fight for their cause and bring about social change.

  L- Therefore, this means that this allows us to deal with inequalities in society. However, in the hands of a destructive minority e.g., Nazism (Hitler's) use of these 3 key features enabled the uprise of Nazism in Germany and brought about destructive social change resulting in a huge atrocity.

  L- Therefore, this means that in the hands of a destructive minority these 3 key features can be abused.
• A03- Weakness (Gender bias in the supporting evidence

  P-one weakness is that also, Moscovici (1969) used only female students as participants (i.e., an unrepresentative sample),

  E- so it would be wrong to generalize his result to all people - they only tell us about the behaviour of female students.

  E-Also, females are often considered to be more conformist than males.

  L-Therefore, there might be a gender difference in the way that males and females respond to minority influence.
• A03 Strength - deeper processing Martin


  P-Another strength is evidence showing that a change in a majority's position does involve deeper processing. E-Martin et al. (2003) presented a message and measured the participants' agreement. One group of participants heard a minority group agree with the initial view, while another group heard a majority agree with the view.

  E-People were less willing to change if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority.

  L-This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect.
• EXAMPLES OF MINORITY INFLUENCE:

  Consistency: they all had the same goal (synchronic consistency) to achieve 'votes for women' + kept this goal for their cause for decades (diachronic consistency)

  
  

  Commitment: augmentation principle - they risked their lives (woman who threw herself in front of a horse - Emily Davison

  
  

  Flexibility: they got votes for women but women had to be 30 + married whereas men could be 24 and vote (compromised)