minority influence

• Minority influence refers to a situation where one person or group has a significant influence on the opinions of others.
• minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation
• what is internalisation?

  both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed by the process
• what are the main processes in minority influence?

  1. Consistency
  2. commitment
  3. Flexibility
• How does commitment affect the processes of minority influence?

  minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention demonstrating commitment. this is called the augmentation principle
• How does flexibility affect the process of minority influence?

  member of the minority needs to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments. the key is a balance between constancy and flexibility
• how does consistency affect the process of minority influence?

  consistency increases the amount of interest from other people making people rethink their own views.
• synchronic consistency


  they're all saying the same thing
• diachronic consistency


  saying the same thing for some time now
• how is there research support for consistency as a process for minority influence?

  Moscovici's blue-green slides

  showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion

  Wood et al carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were more influential
• the more people that 'convert' to the minority, the faster the minority will grow. This is called the snowball effect.
• how is the research into minority influence effected by artificial tasks?

  identifying the colour of a slide is so far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life. in real-life situations outcomes are vastly more important. therefore the study lacks external validity
• How does the research into minority influence have real-life applicaton?

  They can inform minority groups the best way to behave in order to exert a maximum amount of influence. Worth considering that the techniques may not always be enough to change an opinion of an audience