Minority influence

• What is minority influence?


  When members of a majority group are converted to the views of a minority
• What factors can influence the effectiveness of a minority?


  -Consistency

  -Commitment

  -Flexibility

  -Identification
• How does consistency affect minority influence?


  Members of a majority are more likely to consider a minority view when confronted by a consistent opposition
• What is diachronic consistency?


  When the same message is repeated over time by the minority
• What is synchronic consistency?


  When all group members give the same message
• How does commitment affect minority influence?


  If members of a minority are willing to suffer for their views and sacrifice something for them then members of the majority will take the minority and their ideas seriously
• How does flexibility affect minority influence?


  If a minority are seen as inflexible and uncompromising then it is unlikely that they will influence the majority however if they appear as flexible and compromising then they will be seen as less extreme and more reasonable giving them a better chance of influencing the majority
• How does identification affect minority influence?


  If the majority identifies with the minority, then they are more likely to take the views of the minority seriously and adopt them as their own
• Consistency: Moscovici (1969)?

  -36 blue slides displayed in different shades to groups of 4 participants and 2 confederates

  -The 2 confederates would consistently claim each slide was green then inconsistently claim each side was green

  -Participants agreed on 8% of trials when minority was consistent

  -Participants agreed on 1% of trials when minority was inconsistent
• What is a limitation of Moscovicis research?


  Even in the consistent condition 68% of participants never conformed to the minority showing that few people are receptive to the influence of a consistent minority group
• Flexibility: Nemeth (1987)?


  -3 participants and 1 confederate acted as a mock jury to decide the level of compensation for the victim of an imaginary serious ski accident
• Findings of Nemeth (1987)?


  -When the confederate was inflexible, arguing for a low level of compensation ($50,000) and not changing position during negotiations, they were less able to convince the majority to lower their offers than when they showed flexibility, increasing their offer to $100,000 during the negotiation
• Lab based studies on factors affecting minority influence are highly artificial and may not be valid when generalised to real world minority influence