minority influence

• minority influence:

  • form of social influence, minority of people persuade others to adopt their belief, attitudes or behaviour
  • leads to internalisation or conversion, private attitudes and public behaviours are changed
• consistency:

  • most effective when a group maintains their beliefs over time + between all individuals involved - makes people rethink their own views
• commitment:

  • more effective when minority demonstrates dedication to their own position e.g making sacrifices, not acting out of self interest = augmentation principle
• flexibility:

  • relentless persistency can be counterproductive - shows you are unbending + unreasonable
  • shows possibility of compromise
• process of change:

  • hearing something you already agree with doesnt make you stop and think - something new leads to deeper thinking
• deeper processing:

  • deeper processing = conversion
  • more this happens, faster the rate of conversion = snowball effect
  • minority become majority
• moscovici et al procedure:

  • 32 groups of 6 females (2 confederates, 4 participants)
  • shown 36 blue coloured slides, told to state what colour they saw
  • condition 1 = confederates said all were green
  • condition 2 = 2/3 were green
  • condition 3 = control group (non confederates)
• moscovici et al findings:

  • condition 1 = 8.42% conformity, 32% gave minority answer (green)
  • condition 2 = inconsistent - 1.25% conformity
  • condition 3 = 0.25% conformity
  • demonstrates importance of consistent majority
• nemeth et al procedure:

  • replicated but people were able to name all colours they saw
  • condition 1 = confederates 1/2 green, 1/2 green blue
  • condition 2 = bright slides = green, dimmer slides = green blue
  • condition 3 = green on all slides
• nemeth et al findings:

  • condition 1 = too flexible, not consistent, little influence
  • condition 2 = consistent + flexible - 21% responses influenced
  • condition 3 = consistent but not flexible - little impact on influence
• selma to montgomery 1965:

  • prepared to be arrested, put in prison, being beaten - remained non violent
  • marched again after being unsuccessful
  • 2.1% of african americans were registered to vote - led to voting rights act 1965
• types of consistency:

  • diachronic = over time
  • synchronic = between member of group
• EVALUATION: research support for importance of consistency

  • moscovici et al - consistent minority opinion had greater effect on changing views than inconsistent
  • wood et al - meta analysis of 100 similar studies - minorities seen as more consistent = more influential
  • presenting consistent view is requirement for minority trying to influence majority
• EVALUATION: research support for deeper processing

  • martin et al - presented message supporting viewpoint + measured agreement - one heard minority, one majority view, after = exposed to conflicting views, attitudes measured again
  • less willing to change if listened to minority not majority view
  • minority message has been deeply processed, having bigger effect
• EVALUATION: artifical tasks

  • moscovici et al - research far removed from how minorities change views in real life
  • cases of jury decision making + political campaigning - outcomes are more important, sometimes life or death
  • most studies lack external validity + limited in what they tell us about minority influence in real life