minority influence

• who was moscovici

  the first to identify the process of minority influence as a contrast to majority influence and introduced the idea of minority influence to explain innovation
• what is minority influence

  a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade a bigger group if people to adopt their beliefs, behaviour and attitudes
• why is minority influence most likely to lead to

  internalization
• what is minority influence a crucial factor in

  bringing about innovation and social change and research has suggested that behavioral style especially consistency and commitment as well as flexibility are important factors in helping achieve minority influence
• why can minority influence not lead to compliance

  there is no desire to be liked by the group
• how can consistency lead to minority influence

  • overtime the consistency in the minority's view increases the amount of interest from others
  • can involve the minority all saying the same thing or they have been saying the same thing for some time
• why is consistent minority more likely to influence the majority behaviour or opinions

  the consistant minority makes the majority group re-think their own view because if others are consistently expressing this then maybe it is worth attending to and maybe there is a point to be considered
• how can commitment lead to minority influence

  minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their belief and behaviour by being consistent and by making personal sacrifices
• how can flexibility lead to minority influence

  • relentless consistency from the minority could be concidered counterproductive if it is seen by the majority as being unbearding and unreasonable
  • minority influence is more effective if the minority shows flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise and being slightly inconsistent in its position
  • minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they dont appear rigid and adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter arguments
• what is the snowball effect

  the minority becomes the majority and overtime more people become converted - switch from the minority to the majority and the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion until gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred
• what did moscovici study

  minority influence and the importance of consistency in his 'blue slide green slide' study
• what was the aim of miscovici study

  To investigate whether a consistent minority could influence the majority better than an inconsistent minority can
• what is the results of moscovici study

  • Group 1:Consistent – Over 8% naïve P’s said green
  • Group 2: Inconsistent – Only 1% naïve P’s said green.
  • Group 3: Control – 0.25% responses were green.
• what was moscovici method

  • 2 experimental groups where 2 of the ps were confederates of the experiment
  • ps shown a series of coloured slides all different shades of blue (pale to dark)
  • group 1 all confederates said the blue slides were green
  • the behaviour is consistent
  • group 2 all confederates said slides were green some of the time
  • behaviour is inconsitent
  • in control group all gave correct answer
• what is the conclusion of moscovici study

  Even though the conforming responses were small %, the minority were able to influence the views of the majority, especially if they were consistent.
• what does this study show about a consistent minority

  this study shows that consistent can help increase minority influence as the results of group 1 (8%) compared to group 2 (1%)
• what is a strength of minority influence (reseach evidence)(PEEL)

  P -research evidence demonstrates the importanceof consistency

  E - monscovci found that when group 1 was consistently saying green the conformity in MI was increased compared to when there was inconsistency in group 2

  E - -

  L - this confirms that consistency is a major key factor in MI and supports the MI theory
• what is a limitation of minority influence (artificial) (PEEL)

  P - MI research often involves artificial tasks

  E - moscovici's task was identifying the colour of a slide far removed from how minorities try change majority opinions on real life

  E - in jury decision - making and political campaigning outcomes are vastly more important maybe a matter of life or death

  L - finding of studies lack external validity and are limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real life situations
• what is a limitation of minority influence (generalization) (PEEL)

  P - another limitation is MI research is difficult to generalize

  E - moscovici only used female ps as he thought they would be more interested in colours

  E - males may not behave in the same way so they may be less likely to conform to the minority

  L - therefore we cannot generalize moscovici's findings to males