Minority influence

• What is Minority Influence?

  A type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms.
• What type of social influence is minority influence most likely to lead to?

  Internalisation- both public and private beliefs changed by the process.
• What three factors are the main proccess in minorty influence?

  • Consistency
  • Flexibility
  • Commitment
• What is Consistency in terms of Minority SI?

  The minority is deemed most effective when they keep to the same beliefs. This is over time (diachronic) and all the individuals within the minority influence (synchronic)
• What is Flexibilty in terms of Minority SI?

  Having relentless Consistency could be counter- productive. They are more effective if they show flexibilty or the possibility of a compromise.
• What is Commitment in terms of Minority SI?

  Minority is seemed to be more powerful if they show dedication to their position, if they are being seen as unreasonable.
• What is the the snowball effect?

  where gradually more people convert to the minority, turning it into the majority.
• What research shows Consistency and Commitment in Social Influence?

  Moscovici- Investigating the role of a consistent minority in an unambiguous situation
• What was the procedure for Moscovici's study?

  Participants put into groups of 6 with two confederates in each group. They were all shown blue slides, which varied in intensity.

  
  

  Consistent condition: Confederates said that all the slides were green.

  
  

  Inconsistent condition: Said 24 were green and 12 were blue
• What were the findings and conclusions for Mocovici's study?

  Consistent condition: 8.2% agreement rate, 32% agreed at least once

  
  

  Inconsistent condition: 1.28%

  
  

  There was a significant between the consistent and consistent minority so consistency is an important aspect of minority influence
• What are the positive evaluation points for Moscovici's study?

  • High controls- lab experiment
  • Consistent minorities have a greater influence on private attitudes.
• What are the negative evaluation points for Moscovici's study?

  • Lab experiment- Lacks EV
  • Only used female participants- ungeneralisable to males
  • Unethical- Involved deceit so no informed consent could be given
  • Majority of participants still disagreed: only 8% agreed
• What Study supports Flexibility to Minority Influence?

  Nemeth
• What was Nemeth's study involving flexibility in social influence?

  • created groups of three participants and one confederate
  • groups decides how much to compensate a victim of a ski-lift accident
  • when confederate argued for a low amount and refused to chnage his position, no change on the majority happened
  • when the confederate compromised a little, the majority moved the compensation amount lower
• What are the positive Evaluation points for resistence to social influence? Research support: Moscovici and wood et al

  Wood: Carried out a meta-anaysis of 100 similar studies to Moscovici and found that minorities who remaind consistent were most effective.
• What are the negative evaluation points for resistance to social influence?

  • Artificial Tasks: Many of the studies are lacking external validity and are limited in how much they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-life situations
  • Limited real world applications: Research studies usually make very clear and obvious distinction between minority and majority.
• What is Social Change? This occurs when whole societies, rather than individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.

  
  

  E.G: Women's sufferage, Earth orbits the sun, Environmental issues
• How can social change be positive? Increased rights for women's sufferage that helped develop wstern cultures in the 1900s
• How can social change be negative? The adoption by society of eugenic beliefs which saw different races as being inferior, leading to mass extermination i.e Nazis
• How can Social Change occur through Majority Influence? It's main role is to maintain social order, keeping things the way they are.

  
  

  More of an immediate process and therefore can be broken down over time through minority influence.

  
  

  Perkins and Berkowitz say that if people see something as being the norm then they need to and will alter their behaviours to fit that norm
• What are the stages for minority influence to create social change? -Drawing your attention to an issue

  -Cognitive Conflict

  -Consistency

  -Augmentation Principle

  -Snowball effect (Social Cryptoamnesia)
• How can Minority Influence change the viewpoint of the majority? Through compliance
• What was Maass et al's study on social change? Group membership was investigated. It was found that a minority of heterosexual men were more likely to convince a heterosexual majority about gay rights. Maass concluded that a similarity in terms of group membership is an important factor for both minority influence and social change. The heterosexuals saw the homosexuals as self promoting. Being Percieved as deviant limits influence of minorities.