Minority influences

• What is minority influence?

  • Minority influence is a type of influence in which a single person convinces the majority to adopt his or her beliefs
  •  This leads to internalisation.
• How many factors are needed for minority influence to occur?

  4
• What is consistency?

  If minority members share the same belief and retain it over time, this will make people change their views.
• What is commitment?

  Minority needs to show devotion to their cause by showing a willingness to risk harm or by showing the fruits of their cause
• What is flexibility?

  • The minority must show compromise otherwise their thinking may be seen as too rigid and dogmatic.
  • Adaptation is key when they hear counter arguments
• What is persuasiveness?

  Minorities must show their argument is attractive by providing clear arguments
• What supporting study shows flexibility?

  Nemeth’s mock jury
• What is the procedure and findings of Nemeth's mock jury?

  • The experiment is based on a mock jury.
  • Groups of 3 p’s and 1 confederate decided on compensation for victims of ski-incidence. 
  • Condition 1 involved a minority who argued for a low rate of compensation and did not change their position 
  • Condition 2 involved a minority who argued for a low rate still but was willing to compromise for a slightly higher amount 
• What was the finding and conclusion of Nemeth's study?

  • The condition with no flexibility had less impact than the one with the confederate willing to compromise.
  • The research shows that there is an importance of flexibility and consistency.
  • There is a balance between the two, which is a successful strategy for a minority to influence others.
• What is the supporting study for consistency?

   Moscovici’s blue green slide study
• What was the procedure of Moscovici's study?

  • Groups of 6 American females with no colour blindness
  • 2 out of the 6 were confederates
  • All of the p’s were shown 36 different slides of shades
  • 1st condition was the consistent minority which said green on all trials 
  • 2nd condition said green on ⅔ of all the trials 
  • Number of times the majority said ‘green’ was also measured
• What were the findings of Moscovici's study?

  • In the first condition (only saying green), 8% of trials showed minority influence and 32% said green at least once
  • In the second condition, 1% showed minority influence
• What was one criticism of Moscvici's study?

  • Moscovi broke ethical guidelines
  • Moscovici had informed them that the aim was to study colour perception not minority influence, so no fully informed consent.
  • HOWEVER, it was necessary for the aim of the experiment
  • Demand characteristics would have affected the experiment otherwise.
  • There was a debrief as well and is argued that the deception is justified for minority influence. 
• What was another criticism of Moscovici's study

  • The study uses only females, an estrocentric biased sample.
  • This means that we may not be able to generalise to males who show different levels of minority influence.
  • This is likely as research into minority influence shows that there is a difference in the conformity levels between males and females.
  • It lacks population validity
• What was a third criticism of Moscovici?

  • Moscovici uses Americans only.
  • America is an individualistic society, we cannot generalise to collectivists who show different forms of minority influence.
  • Differing levels of minority influence is likely to be the case as research shows a difference between the two societies
  • Lacks population validity
• What was a final criticism of Moscovici?

  • It has been criticised for being artificial as judging the colour of slides is quite unusual from ordinary life.
  • This task has no reflection in everyday minority influence like political campaigning.
  • This study lacks ecological validity as it cannot generalise to real life.