minority influence

• Describe Moscovici’s study with minority influence

  • 4 naive pps
  • 2 confeds
  • Judge the colour of a series of blue slides which varied in intensity

  CONSISTENT COND- confeds called all slide green

  INCONSISTENT- called slides green for 2/3 trials, for the remaining third called slides blue

  CONTROL- no confederates

  • Consistent cond- called slides green on over 8% of trials, less for inconsistent, least for control

  FOLLOW UP- 16 discs, either blue or green, had to choose whether disk was either blue or green

  Consistent condition judged more discs to be green than inconsistent cond
• AO3 for minority influence

  • 😄 research support for consistency (moscivici et al)…
  • 😄 and flexibility (nemeth and brilmayer) - ski lift accident, discussed compensation, confed who compromised exerted more influence than one who didn’t
  • 😄 dissent has real world benefits- min position causes people to look for info, consider options and be more creative, improves decision quality
  • ☹️ maj tend to create more info processing than min - with min influence we don’t bother asking why it’s diff cause maj is more influential, so minority is less influential
• explain the three key aspects of minority influence


  • consistency- constantly draw attention to an issue, maintain and not deviate from a POV- state it's something that has needed to be dealt with for a long time. Causes majority to reassess the situation
  • commitment- staying loyal to your point of view and not deviating. Shows certainty and confidence in the face of a hostile majority. More commitment means the majority are more likely to take the minority seriously
  • flexibility- not being too dogmatic and be willing to compromise- negotiate rather than try to enforce their position. However can't be too flexible or there is a risk that minority can be seen as inconsistent