Minority Influence

• What is minority influence?


  A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviour. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviour.
• What is the procedure of Moscovici et al. (1969)?

  • Demonstrated minority influence in a study where a group of six people were asked to view a set of 36 blue-coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether the slides were blue or green
  • In each group there were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green on two-thirds of the trials. The participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials, 32% gave the same answer as the minority on at least one trial
• What is the procedure of Moscovici et al. (1969)? (2)

  • A second group of participants were exposed to an inconsistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%. For a third control group there were no confederates and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. They got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials
• What are the findings of Moscovici et al. (1969)?

  • A consistent minority were more likely (8.4%) to convince a majority that the colour of a slide was green when it was in fact blue, in comparison to an inconsistent minority (1.3%)
  • Minorities that make sacrifices are more likely to be influential
• What are the 3 requirements for a successful minority to influence a majority group?

  • Consistency
  • Commitment
  • Flexibility
• What is consistency?

  • Over time, the consistency in the minority's views increases the amount of interest from other people
  • Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority
  • It's effective as it draws attention to the minority view
• What are the 2 types of consistency?

  • Synchronic consistency
  • Diachronic consistency
• What is synchronic consistency?

  They're all saying the same thing
• What is diachronic consistency?

  They've been saying the same thing for some time now
• What is commitment?

  • Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, e.g. by making personal sacrifices
  • This is effective because if shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest
• What is flexibility?

  • Relentless consistency could be counter-productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable
  • Therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise
• What is the term 'snowball effect' in the conversion of the minority view to the majority view?

  • If you hear about something that you already believe in, it doesn't make you stop and think. But if you hear something new, you might think about it, especially is the source of this other view is consistent and passionate
  • Overtime increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position. They've become converted.
  • The more that this happens, the faster the rate of conversion= Snowball Effect. Gradually, the minority view has become the majority view, change occurred