Minority influence

• Minority influence: a form of social influence where a minority (sometimes just one person) persuades others to adopt their attitudes, beliefs or behaviours.
• Moscovici et al:

  Aim: to see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer.

  Method: 172 female participants were told they were taking part in a colour perception task. Participants were in groups of 6 including 2 confederates. The group were shown 36 slides of varying shades of blue and were asked to state the colour aloud.
• 2 conditions:

  consistent conditions- confederates said the slides were green 36/36

  inconsistent conditions- confederates said the slides were green 24/36

  Findings:

  Participants gave an incorrect answer on 8.2% of the trials, in the consistent condition and 1.25% in the inconsistent.

  A consistent minority can influence a majority
• Consistency: having the same beliefs over time and between individuals

  • draws attention to the minority view
  • Synchronic consistency: everyone who forms the minority is saying the same thing
  • Diachronic consistency: the minority are saying the same thing over time
  • Makes people rethink their own views
• Commitment: minority shows dedication to their position -e.g personal sacrifices

  • shows the minority are not acting out of self interest: augmentation principle
  • People may even more attention
• Flexibility: adapting views to accept reasonable counter-arguments
• A03: Research support internalisation

  In a variation of moscovici's study pps were able to write down their answers instead, private agreement with the minority increased suggesting the majority who were influenced were internalising their views but were possibly reluctant to admit this publicly.

  Supports the internalisation of minority views, increases credibility.
• A03: Use of artificial task

  Identifying the colour of a slide is very different to how minorities attempt to influence attitudes and beliefs in real life such as juries and political campaigns.

  Lack of external validity so is a limited explanation of how minority influence effects real life situations
• Research to support the concept of consistency

  Wood et al meta analysed 100 similar studies and they also demonstrated that a consistent minority was the most influential.

  Increases credibility