Minority Influence

• Minority influence is the process by which a small group can change the beliefs or behaviour of others leading to internalisation / conversion.
• consistency: when the minority stays united and keep the same view over time
• synchronic consistency - all saying the same thing at the same time
• diachronic consistency - all saying the same thing for some time
• commitment : augmentation principle - personal sacrifices to show they are not acting out of self interest
• flexibility : minority should accept reasonable counter arguments from the majority
• process of change : the majority think deeply about the minority view and the snowball effect occurs, the minority becomes the majority
• moscovici group 1 : contained 4 participants and 2 confederates that had to identify 36 slides of various shades of blue. the confederates always chose green. 8.42% agreed
• moscovici group 2: like group 1 but the confederates chose green 24 times and blue 12 times. 1.25% agreed
• moscovici group 3: like group 1 but without confederates. 0.25% chose the wrong colour
• minority social influence strength : research evidence - in 100 similar studies the most consistent minorities were the most influential
• minority social influence weaknesses: artificial tasks - tile colour vs jury duty, gynocentric - mostly women so low population validity, females more likely to conform