minority influence

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what is minority influence
a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
leads to internalisation in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours
who research minority influence
Moscovici 1969
procedure of Moscivici - group 1
a group of 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue-coloured slides that varied in intensity
in each group were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green
pps agreed with with the confederates= on 8.42% of the trails
procedure of Moscivici- group 2
exposed to an inconsistent minority
confederates said 'green' 24 times and 'blue' 12 times
agreement with green= 1.25%
procedure of Moscivci- group 3
no confederates
all the pps had to do was identify the colour of each slide
incorrect= on 0.25% of trials
conclusion of Moscivici's research
the confederates were in the minority but their views had an influence on the pps
the majority has more influence when they were consistent in calling the slides 'green'
processes of minority influence
commitment
consistency
flexibility
impact on consistency
consistency from the minority increases the amount of interest from other people
makes majority start to rethink their own views
types of consistency
synchronic consistency
diachronic consistency
what is synchronic consistency
the minority all saying the same thing
what is diachronic consistency
minority had all been saying the same thing for a long time
what is commitment
minority demonstrates dedication to their position
involves engaging in extreme activities
impact of commitment
draws attention to the minorities views
greater risk = greater commitment
causes majority group to pay more attention- augmentation principle
who researched flexibility
Nemeth 1986
what did Nemeth argue
that consistency us not the inly important factor in minority influence
consistency can be seen as unreasonable, unbending and rigid by the majority
the key is to strike balance between consistency and flexibility
Moscovici's conversion theory of majority influence
people compare their behaviour to the majority and their behaviour to fit in without considering the majorities views
involves compliance
conversion theory of minority influence
when a minority is consistent people may examine the minorities beliefs in detail because thy want to understand them
can lead to them being privately accepted
what is the snowball effect
over time increasing numbers of people convert from the majority position to the minority position
the more this happens= faster rate of conversion
strengths of minority influence
research evidence for consistency(Wood et al)
research support for deeper processing (Martin et al)
research of Wood et al 1994
carried out meta-analysis of 100 similar studies to Moscivici's
found minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential
suggest presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for minority influence
research of Martin et al 2003
presented a message and measured pps agreement
one group- heard a minority group agree
another group- heard a majority group agree
pps then exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were remeasured
if heard minority group= less likely to change opinions
limitations of minority influence
artificial tasks
lacks external validity
low in mundane realism
minority influence may be due to the personality of the people
what is mundane realism
refers to how an experiment mirrors the real world