Minority Social Influence

• refers to situations where one person or a small group influences the beliefs and behaviours of others
• leads to internalisation as people will change their private and public views
• consistency

  • minority has to stick to their beliefs and views which increases the level of interest from other people
  • diachronic consistency - being consistent over time
  • synchronic consistency - consistency between the group
  • makes other people rethink their own views
• commitment

  • the minority must demonstrate dedication to the cause
  • could involve engagement in extreme activities
  • known as the augmentation principle
• flexibility

  • important in minority influence but can be interpreted negatively
  • they need to be careful that they do not come across as dogmatic and rigid which can impact their cause negatively
  • needs to be adaptable and be willing to listen and accept valid counter arguments
• having a balance between consistency, commitment and flexibility is crucial to make and impact
• Moscovici et al (1969) - procedure

  • female participants placed in groups of 6
  • 4 real participants and 2 confederates
  • told it was an investigation into perception
  • participants were shown 36 blue slides, varying in colour intensity
  • answers were given verbally in the presence of the group
  • participants were wither in a consistent condition (minority answered green for all 36 slides) or an inconsistent condition (minority answered green for 24/36 slides)
  • both compared to a control group who experienced no minority influence
• Moscovici - results

  • percentage of agreement with the minority answer
  • consistent condition - 8.2%
  • inconsistent condition - 1.25%
  • control - <1%
• Moscovici - evaluation

  • all the participants were women - not generalisable
  • lacks mundane realism and population validity
  • artificial task which lacks ecological valididty
  • deceived his participants so didn't gain fully informed consent, but if he had they may have displayed demand characteristics
  • majorities are more powerful than minorities and minority influence in this case does not reflect the complexity of real-life minority influence of contrived situations - results may be limited in terms of real world applications
  • in a variation, they wrote down their answers privately rather than publicly saying them after being exposed to the confederate's views
  • participants agreement with the minority was then greater, suggesting they had been converted
• Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987)

  • support for flexibility
  • study in a stimulated jury situation
  • group members discussed the amount of compensation to give to a person involved in a ski lift accident
  • when one confederate suggested an alternate amount, this didn't affect the rest of the group and when the confederate compromised and showed a degree of flexibility it did have an effect on the group
  • this only happened when the flexible confederate shifted late in negotiations, rather than earlier and being seen as having caved to the majority