Minority influence

• Majority Influence - people try to fit in. They comply or conform with little scrutiny.
• Minority influence - creates a conversion process. The minority will influence the majority to look into their view and adopt it.
• For a minority to have influence, it must be consistent, committed and flexible.
• MI. Consistency - keeping the same beliefs over time and between individuals. People will question why they are so consistent, drawing attention.
• MI. Synchronic consistency - the minority all believing and expressing the same thing in one instance.
• MI. Diachronic consistencry - the minority expressing the same thing over time.
• MI. Commitment - the majority are likely to pay attention to behaviour that shows dedication. When we see the minority putting themselves at risk, it shows dedication.
• MI. Flexibility - relentless consistency can be damaging. Minorities need to adapt and possibly compromise.
• MI. Moscovici etal ( 1969 ) investigated whether a minority can influence a majority and reverse the usual direction of social influence.
• Moscovici etal ( 1969 ) ppts were pre-tested for colour blindness. All ppts were female because he thought they would be more interested in colour. There were 32 groups of 6. There were three conditions: consistent, inconsistent and control.
• Moscovici etal ( 1969 ) Each condition involved 6 people - 4 naive ppts ( majority ) 2 confederates ( minority ). Ppts were asked to describe the colour of 36 slides, they were all blue with different filters.
• Moscovici consistent - 2 confederates described all 36 slides as green.
• Moscovici inconsistent - 2 confederates described 24 out of 36 slides as green and the rest as blue.
• Moscovici control - no confederates
• Moscovici consistent - 8 % of ppts answered green and 32 % conformed at least once.
• Moscovici inconsistent - 1 % of ppts answered green
• Moscovici control - 0.25 % answered green
• Moscovici conclusion - minority can have an influence over the majority, especially when the majority is consistent.
• AO3. The population validity is low. Moscovici used a biased sample of 172 females from the USA. This experiment cannot be generalised to anyone outside of the US or to men. Therefore this experiment lacks population validity and more research is needed. Also, Moscovici demonstrated gender bias and stereotypes when assuming women would want to look at colours more than men
• AO3. Judging the colour of slides is artificial. This means the study lacks mundane realism. the experiment is controlled and not like minority influence in real life, for example real life majorities have power and status, and it is harder for the minority to overpower them. This shows that Moscovici" study lacks ecological validity.
• AO3. This shows support for informational social influence. In one variation, ppts were asked to write down their response ( private answer ). This showed agreement with the minority was higher than the original study, suggesting ppts had internalised the viewpoint. Moscovici suggests this is because it is easier to agree with a minority privately rather than being publicly associated.
• AO3. Moscovici has been criticised for breaching ethical guidelines during his study. He deceived his participants, they were being told that they were taking part in a colour perception test, when it was an experiment on minority influence. This means that Mosovici did not gain informed consent. Although this is unethical, the study required this in order to achieve valid results, in order to avoid demand characteristics. This ethical issue could be dealt with by the means of a debrief