Minority influence

• What is minority influence?

  • it is when one person or a small group can change the opinions or behaviours of the majority
• What are the three factors necessary for successful minority influence?

  • consistency
  • commitment
  • flexibility
• What is consistency?


  • it is concerned with diachronic consistency: the minority has to repeat the same message over time
  • synchronic consistency: all members give the same message
• What will happen if a minority is consistent?

  Members of the majority are more likely to consider the minority position and reconsider their own
• What is commitment?

  • members of the minority are willing to suffer for their views but still hold onto them
  • members of the majority will start to take their ideas seriously and may reconsider if they see that the minority is not acting out of self-interest
• What is an example of commitment?

  • Suffragettes went on hunger strikes and getting arrested
• What is flexibility

  • minorities are not dogmatic in their views
  • they must consider valid counterarguments and show that they are reasonable by compromising slightly
  • flexibility encourages members of the majority to reconsider
• What is the snowball effect?

  • minority influence starts as a slow process
  • at first only a few members of the majority convert
  • the rate of conversion starts to speed up as more people convert
• What makes a successful minority?

  • The minority is clear on what they want but also flexible to modify the position to what the majority may want
• Why can showing commitment influence the majority?

  • it shows that they are arguing for something worth believing in
  • the minority group are normally at some sort of personal loss
• What is the augmentation principle?

  Is someone performs an action despite the costs and risks, the majority are more likely to pay attention to it and rethink their own views