minority influence

• minority influence

  • refers to how one person or small group influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people
  • the minority may influence just one person, or a group of people (the majority)
  • this is different from conformity where the majority does the influencing - conformity sometimes referred to as 'majority influence'
• internalisation

  • MI leads to internalisation = both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed
  • through 3 processes = consistency, commitment, flexibility
• consistency

  • always doing the same thing
  • means the minority's view gets more interest
  • consistency makes others rethink their own views = 'maybe they have a point if they all think this way and keep saying it'
  • synchronic consistency = people in the minority are all saying the same thing
  • diachronic consistency = they've been saying the same thing for some time
• commitment

  • showing deep involvement
  • helps gain attention = eg through extreme activities
  • activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause
  • augmentation principle = majority pay even more attention ('they must really believe in what they are saying, so perhaps I ought to consider their viwe')
• flexibility

  • showing willingness to listen to others
  • the minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they don't appear rigid
  • Nemeth = argued that being consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours is seen as rigid and off-putting to the majority
  • instead the minority should adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counterarguments
• explaining the process of MI

  • individuals think deeply about the minority position because it is new/unfamiliar
  • snowball effect = over time, more people become 'converted', there is a switch from the minority to the majority
  • the more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion
  • gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred
• moscovici et al blue-green slide = procedure

  • a group of 6 people (4 pp, 2 confederates) - viewed 36 blue-coloured slides of varying intensities
  • they were asked to state whether the slides were blue or green
  • one condition = both confederates consistently said the slides were green
  • another condition = the confederates were inconsistent (green 24 times, blue 12 times)
  • procedure was repeated with a control group (no confederates)
• moscovici et al blue-green slide = findings

  • consistent minority = pps gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of trials
  • inconsistent minority = agreement fell to 1.25%
  • control group = wrongly identified just 0.25% of the time
• strength = research supporting consistency

  • Moscovici et al = found a consistent minority had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion
  • Wood et al = conducted a meta-analysis of ~100 similar studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent were most influential
  • confirms that consistency is a major factor in minority influence
• strength = research showing role of deeper processing

  • Martin et al = gave pps a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured attitudes
  • then they heard an endorsement of view from either a minority or a majority
  • finally heard a conflicting view, attitudes measured again
  • pps were less willing to change their opinions to the new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority group than if they listened to a majority group
  • suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect
• countering to research on deeper processing

  • in research studies majority/minority groups are distinguished in terms of numbers
  • BUT there is more to majorities/minorities than just numbers (eg power, status, commitment)
  • means research studies are limited in what they tell us about real-world MI
• limit = MI research involves artificial tasks

  • Moscovici et al's task = was identifying the colour of a slide, far removed from how minorities try to change majority opinion in the real-world
  • in jury decision-making and political campaigns = outcomes are vastly more important, maybe a matter of life or death
  • findings of studies lack validity and they are limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real-world situations
• extra evaluation = power of MI

  • agreement with the minority was only 8.25% in Moscovici et al's study = MI must be quite rare, so perhaps not a useful concept
  • BUT = more pps agreed with the minority when writing their answers privately - so those who do 'go public' must be the 'tip of the iceberg' and hold their new views strongly (internalisation)
  • => MI is valid = it is a relatively unusual form of social influence but can change peoples views powerfully and permanently (conversion)