Minority influence

• What is Minority Influence?

  Situations where one person or a small group (minority) influences the beleifs and behaviour of other people. This is distinct from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing. Minority influence is more likely to lead to internalisation.
• What are the three main processes in minority influence?

  1. Consistency
  2. Commitment
  3. Flexibility
• What is 'Consistency' in terms of minority influence?

  The minority must be consistent in their views as this increases interest from other people.

  Synchronic consistency - The group is all saying the same thing

  Diachronic consistency - They've been saying the same thing for some time.
• What is 'Commitment' in terms of minority influence?

  The minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause. This could be through extreme activities (e.g. just stop oil) in order to draw attention to their cause. If the activities present risk then this shows greater commitment and generates more attention.

  This is called the augmentation principle.
• What is 'Flexibility' in terms of minority influence?

  Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency is not the only important factor as it could be off-putting. Instead, members need to be prepared to adapt their view to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility by accepting reasonable counterarguments.
• Research support for consistency.

  Moscovici et al (1969) slide study showed a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than an inconsistent opinion.

  Wood et al carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studiesand found that consistent minorities were more influential.
• Limitations of minority influence research.

  Artificial tasks,

  Lacks external validity and generalisability to real-world situations