Minority influence

• behaviours of minority influence:

  • Consistency
  • Commitment
  • Flexibility
• Consistency: the minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs both over time and between all individuals
• consistency:

  • diachronic: over time
  • synchronic: across members
• Strengths of minority influence:

  • Research support - Moscovici (consistency)
  • Research support - Nemeth (flexibility)
• limitations of minority influence:

  • Moscovici - only 8% agreed with minority
  • Moscovici’s task was artificial
  • cannot be generalised as only female
• social change: this occurs when whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• social influence: this occurs when individuals or groups change each others attitudes and behaviours
• steps of minority influence!

  1. drawing attention
  2. cognitive conflict
  3. consistency
  4. augmentation principle
  5. snowball effect
  6. social cryptomnesia
• examples of minority influence:

  • suffragette movement
  • Colin Kaepernick BLM movement
• drawing attention: when people/groups do certain things to make people look and see their beliefs
• cognitive conflict: the government or people higher up will talk about it and cause people to think about it
• Augmentation principle: when individuals risk their lives for their view and for their cause
• snowball effect: when the minority view eventually becomes the majority view
• consistency example: Moscovici’s study

  • blue/green task where they had to say what colour the slide was
  • 36 slides were given and there were confederates that would stick with saying the wrong colour and 8% agreed with minority
  • when confederates were inconsistent the % was a lot lower
• commitment example: suffragette movement

  • Emmeline Pankhurst threw herself in front of the king’s horse
  • she was fighting for Women’s rights
  • she also showed the augmentation principle as she died for the cause
• Who conducted research on changing energy-use habits in 2008?

  Nolaan et al
• What method did researchers use to communicate with residents about energy usage?

  Hung messages on doors weekly
• What was the content of the message hung on doors?

  Most residents are reducing energy usage
• What was the difference between group 1 and group 2 in the study?

  Group 1 had social comparison information
• Which group reduced energy usage more effectively?

  Group 1
• Who discussed the concept of minority influence in 2009?

  Nemeth
• What does minority influence inspire according to Nemeth?

  Type of thinking that is broader
• Why are minority dissenters considered valuable?

  They provide new ideas
• What is a limitation of the role of deeper processing in minority influence?

  It may not play a role
• Who disagreed with the limitation of deeper processing in 1987?

  Mackie
• What evidence did Mackie provide regarding majority influence?

  It creates deeper processing