Minority influence

• Minority Influence

  Situations where a minority group influences beliefs and behaviours of others (the majority).

  Different to conformity where the majority influence others (majority influence).

  Moscovici (1969)
• Moscovici (1969) -Method

  • Groups of 6 participants were asked to judge a set of 36 blue-coloured slides.
  • Slides varied in intensity.
  • Participants had to say whether each slide was blue or green.

  Each group had 2 confederates who consistently said slides were green.

  Results: Other (true) participants agreed with minority 8.42% of time.
• Moscovici (1969) - Variations

  • 2nd version of the study where minority were inconsistent (‘green’ 24 times, ‘blue’ 12 times)
  • True Participants agreed with minority 1.25% of times.
  • 3rd version where groups had no confederates
  • Participants just had to decide on colour of slide.

  Got it wrong 0.25% of time.

  Conclusion: Certain traits helped minority influence.

  Factors affecting Minority Influence:

  • Consistency
  • Commitment 
  • Flexibility
• Consistency

  • Consistent in their views, increases interest from other people.
  • Members of group must all be saying the same thing (synchronic consistency).
  • Must be saying the same thing over time (diachronic consistency).
  • Consistent minority allows members of majority to 

  question their own views.
• Commitment

  • Must show they’re committed to the cause.
  • Maybe engage in extreme behaviour to draw attention to their cause.
  • If these actions present a risk to the minority, will show more commitment.
  • Majority more likely to pay attention.
  • Augmentation principle.
  • The tendency to assign greater influence  if there are other factors present that normally would produce a different outcome.
• Flexibility

  • Nemeth (1986): consistency can be 

  off-putting to majority.

  • Can be seen as rigid, unwilling to 

  compromise (dogmatic).

  • Minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view, be reasonable & be prepared to accept valid counterarguments.
  • Majority more likely to pay attention.
• How do these factors work?

  • They make the majority pay attention & think about the minority’s views
  • Hearing alternative views allows members of majority to stop & think
  • More likely to pay attention of message is consistent, minority show they’re committed & they’re flexible.
  • Will encourage conversion of members of majority 
  • The more conversion happens, gathers momentum – snowball effect.

  Eventually minority view becomes majority view.
• AO3

  Research evidence (consistency)

  • Wood et al (1994) completed a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies.
  • She found that results across these studies found that minority who were seen as being  consistent were more successful.

  Therefore this creates external reliability to show that consistency is a minimum requirement for minority influence.
• AO3

  Research support (flexibility)

  • Nemeth & Brilmayer (1987): 
  • The study developed a mock jury - discussing compensation for injured skier.
  • When confederate suggested skier gets everything & refused to adapt view it had no effect on rest of jury.
  • Flexible confederate (willing to negotiate & listen to counter points) did influence some other jury members

  Therefore, Suggests when you’re flexible is also important.
• AO3

  Artificial tasks

  • Not just Moscovici but lots of minority influence studies use artificial tasks.
  • This means that is doesn’t represent how minorities attempt to change majority’s view in real world 
  • Reasons for why minority is trying to influence majority in real world (political, economic etc.) are more significant than ones used in studied (deciding on colour)

  Therefore, this suggests  that studies lack external validity as doesn’t tell us much about how it works in the real world.
• AO3

  Does minority influence really work?

  • Nemeth (2010) suggests that minority influence doesn’t actually work  in the real world
  • Democratic societies allow minority influence due to ideas like democracy & inclusiveness but if minority starts to affect majority’s way of life or dissent continues then majority will turn on minority.
  • Minority are often mocked/stereotyped 
  • People in society are ultimately encouraged to fit in and therefore, minority groups will always be marginalised.

  Maybe society not as welcoming to minority influence as we think.