Minority influence

• What is minority influence?

  When the minority changes the attitudes and beliefs of the majority
• What is the process called when the minority gets the majority to agree with them?

  Conversion
• What are the three steps to conversion in minority influence?

  Conflict, understanding, validity
• What happens during the conflict stage of minority influence?

  The minority creates conflict by opposing social norms
• What happens during the understanding stage of minority influence?

  The majority tries to reason and understand the minority's arguments
• What happens during the validity stage of minority influence?

  The majority accepts the minority's arguments as correct
• What is the term for when the majority adopts the minority's beliefs and attitudes?

  Internalisation
• What are the three factors that strengthen minority influence?

  Consistency, commitment, flexibility
• What is consistency in minority influence?

  When the minority is consistent in their message, arguments, and actions
• What is commitment in minority influence?

  When the minority continues to voice their beliefs despite public disapproval
• What is flexibility in minority influence?

  When the minority complies with the majority and is willing to compromise
• How do consistency, commitment, and flexibility affect minority influence?

  They increase the likelihood of understanding and successful conversion
• What is social change in the context of minority influence?

  When the behaviours and attitudes of a society shift due to conversion
• What is the snowball effect in minority influence?

  The speed of conversion accelerates as more people start to convert
• What is social cryptomnesia?

  When people forget the origins of a belief over time
• What was Moscovici's aim in his experiment?

  To investigate if a minority could influence the majority in an unambiguous task
• How many participants were in Moscovici's experiment?

  192 female participants
• What were the participants in Moscovici's experiment asked to do?

  Judge the color of 36 varying shades of blue slides
• What did the confederates in Moscovici's experiment say about the slides?

  They said the slides were green
• What did Moscovici find about minority influence in his experiment?

  Minorities could change the attitudes of the majority if consistent
• What percentage of participants agreed with the minority at least once in Moscovici's experiment?

  32%
• What percentage of participants agreed with the minority consistently in Moscovici's experiment?

  8.2%
• What happened when the confederates were inconsistent in Moscovici's experiment?

  Participants agreed with them 1.25% of the time
• What is a criticism of Moscovici's experiment regarding population validity?

  It used only female participants, limiting generalizability to males
• What is a criticism of Moscovici's experiment regarding ecological validity?

  It was a laboratory experiment, which may lack ecological validity
• What is a criticism of Moscovici's experiment regarding ethics?

  It was unethical due to deception of participants
• What did Nemeth criticize about Moscovici's experiment?

  Moscovici ignored the factor of flexibility
• What did Nemeth find about flexibility in her experiment?

  Participants conformed more when the minority was flexible
• What was the third condition in Nemeth's experiment?

  Confederates compromised their answers based on the shade of blue
• What does Nemeth's experiment suggest about minority influence?

  Flexibility is an important factor in minority influence