Minority influence

• What is meant by the minority influence?

  when a minority changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority. This can lead to internalisation.
• what are the factors that enhance the effectiveness of a minority?

  • consistency
  • commitment
  • flexibility
• what did mascovici (1969) want to see?

  whether a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task
• what was the procedure to mascovicis study?

  • 172 female participants.
  • groups of 6 - 2 confederates.
  • shown 36 slides which were all varying shades of blue.
  • ppts had to state the colour out loud.
• what were the different conditions in mascovicis study?

  • consistent minority - confederates said all 36 slides were green.
  • inconsistent minority - confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 blue.
• what were the findings to the study?

  • in the consistent condition- real participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials.
  • In the inconsistent condition - real participants agreed on 1.25% of the trials.
• what was the control group of the study?

  there were no confederates.

  participants identified colour wrong on 0.25% of the trials
• evaluate the study?

  • cannot conclude that male participants would respond in a similar way.
  • madovici deceived his participants (told it was a colour perception test) - technically did not gain full informed consent
• what do we mean by consistency?

  • synchronic - agreement between people in the group.
  • diachronic - agreeing over time.
• what does consistency increase?

  the amount of interest from other people. it makes them rethink their own view.
• how does commitment increase effectiveness?

  • engaging in extreme activities draws attention to their view.
  • they must be at some risk to the minority as it demonstrates commitment to the cause.
  • individuals pay more attention.
  • augmentation principle
• what is meany by augmentation principle?

  if a person or movement has carried out some action, despite great opposition, their beliefs are perceived as strong and more valid
• what did nemeth 1986 suggest?

  • being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments can be seen as dogmatic. this can be off-putting to the majority
  • the minority need to be able to accept reasonable and valid counter arguments.
  • must balance consistency and flexibility.
• what is meany by dogmatic?

  inclined to class views as undeniably true
• describe the process of change

  • hearing something new makes others think, especially if the source of this is consistent and passionate.
  • this deeper processing is important in the process of conversion to the minority viewpoint.
  • increasing numbers of people switching over time.
  • gradually, the minority viewpoint has become the majority view.
  • this is know as the snowball effect.