Minority Influence

• Occurs when those who are in a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours
• Internalisation is publicly changing behaviour to fit in with a group while also agreeing with them privately

  An internal and external change in behaviour

  The deepest level of conformity
• Ways to change someone's opinion:

  • Drugs
  • Religion
  • Politics
  • Environment
• Moscovici et al (1969) stated that being consistent and unchanging in a view is more likely to influence the majority than if a minority is inconsistent and changes their mind
• Moscovici et al (1969) - Procedure

  Female participants were shown 36 blue sides of different intensity and asked to report the colours

  There were two confederates (minority) and four participants (majority)

  Consistent condition - in the first part of the experiment, the confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides, they were consistent

  Inconsistent condition - In the second part they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times, they were inconsistent
• Moscovici et al (1969) - Findings

  When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of participants said the slides were green

  When the confederates answered inconsistently about 1% of participants aid the slides were green
• Consistency

  If a view is consistent amongst others, this increases the interest from others

  Synchronic consistency - all saying the same thing

  Diachronic consistency - saying the same thing for a long period of time
• Commitment

  Extreme activities can draw attention to the minorities

  Majority groups may pay more attention

  The augmentation principle - the willingness to sacrifice things for a cause (Jail, death)
• Flexibility

  Nemeth (1986) argues that consistency isn't the most important factor that affects the majority as it can be interpreted negatively

  If we can repeat our arguments over time, it can be seen as unbending, dogmatic and inflexible. This can put off the majority and can reduce chances of changing their opinion

  The minority need to be prepared to be flexible and prepared to adapt their views

  Both consistency and flexibility are important
• How does change occur - Depth of thought

  If we hear something we agree with it doesn't necessarily make us think

  Whereas, if we hear something we don't agree with, it makes us stop and think - especially if its convincing and passionate

  This promotes deeper thinking and initiates the process of conversion to the minority view point

  Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority viewpoint to the minority viewpoint

  The more this happens, the faster the conversion rate - the snowball effect
• Latane (1981) Social Impact Theory - Strength

  this is how important influencing an individual or group of people is to the person

  Trans-situation strength - this exists no matter what the situation is, including the sources age, appearance, authority, and perceived intelligence

  Situation specific - this looks closer at the situation at hand and the behaviour the target is being asked to perform (EG, you may be more likely to listen to a doctor for medical advice, but not designing advice)
• Latane (1981) Social Impact theory - Immediacy

  Someone is more likely to influence another if they are close to each other at the time of the influence

  Physical immediacy - how physically close to the source is the target

  Temporal immediacy - target is more likely to be influence immediately gayer the source has tried to influence them

  Social immediacy - If the source is close friends or family members with the target, they may be more likely to influence the,

  If someone is of the same gender, sexuality, or religion they may be more likely to be influenced as they're more relatable
• Latane (1981) Social Impact theory - Number

  This involves the number of people there is in a group

  There is a rule called psychosocial law which state that at some point, the number of influencers has less of an effect

  influence significantly increases up to 5 or 6 sources

  Once past this, the impact increases but at a decreasing rate