Minority influence

• Consistency-

  -Minority need to appear to be consistent in their beliefs and attitudes in order to draw attention of majority
• Minority influence -

  Refers to situations where one person or small group of people influences beliefs and behaviour of other peopl

  -Most likely to lead to internalisation
• Moscovici study (1969)-

  -Group of 6 ppts were asked to view 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state if blue or green

  -Each group had 2 confederates consistently say slides were green pn 2/3 of trials
• Moscovici Findings-

  -Ppts gave same wrong answer on 8.42% of trials, 32% gave same wrong answer as minority on atleast 1 trial

  -Second group were exposed to inconsistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%

  -Third control group had no confederates, they got colour slide wrong on 0.25% of trials
• Moscovici results suggestion-

  -Possible for minority to influence a majority, although is weaker

  -Can be explained by lack of normative social influence as Moscovici ppts werent concerned about fitting in

  -Any conversion to minority is result of informational social influence and those who converted had internalised minority view
• 2 types of consistency-

  1.Synchronic consistency

  2.Diachronic consistency
• Synchronic consistency -

  Agreement between the people in minority group

  i.e everyone says the same thing
• Diachronic consistency -

  Agreement/consistency over time

  i.e saying the same thing for long period of time
• Flexibility -

  -Nemeth argued that consistency can be interpreted negatively and can be off putting to majority

  -Minority should be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments

  -Key strike a balance between consistency and flexibility
• Commitment-

  -Minority is more powerful if group demonstrates dedication by making personal sacrifices

  -Minorities have engaged in extreme and risky activities to show their commitment to the cause

  -Majority groups more likely to pay attention as shows minority isnt working out of self interest

  -This is augmentation principle