Minority Influence

• Minority influence refers to how small groups of people can persuade larger groups to accept their ideas and opinions. This can lead to positive social change if these ideas challenge existing norms and values.
• Using your knowledge of minority influence, explain how Jenny might be able to persuade the rest of the department to accept her view.

  • should demonstrate consistency by not deviating from her view (link to stem) despite social pressure – (link to stem)
  • should demonstrate commitment by placing herself at some risk/inconvenience – (e.g. link to stem) - drawing more attention to her ‘cause’ (augmentation principle)
  • should demonstrate flexibility by adapting her view/accepting other valid counterarguments
  • over time, the rest of the department may become ‘converted’ (snowball effect)
• Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation.
• 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙎𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙔:

  • The minority must be consistent in their views.
  • Over time, consistency increases the amount of interest from other people.
  • Consistency can be synchronic (everyone says the same thing) or diachronic (they say the same thing for a long time).
  • A consistent minority makes other people rethink their own views.
• 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙄𝙏𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏:

  • The minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause or views.
  • Sometimes, this takes the form of dangerous or extreme activities to draw attention.
  • These activities must pose a risk to the minority because this shows greater commitment and that they are not doing it for self-gain.
  • Majority group members then pay more attention - the augmentation principle.
• 𝙁𝙇𝙀𝙓𝙄𝘽𝙄𝙇𝙄𝙏𝙔:

  • Someone who repeats the same thing over and over (is extremely consistent) can be dogmatic, rigid, and boring.
  • This approach is unlikely to gain many converts to the minority position on its own.
  • Members of the minority must be prepared to adapt to or accept reasonable and valid counterarguments.
  • The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.
• 𝘿𝙀𝙀𝙋𝙀𝙍 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙂:

  • Hearing something new is more likely to make you stop and think deeply about it, especially if it is a consistent, committed and flexible message.
  • Deeper processing is an important factor in the conversion of the majority view to the minority view.
• 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙉𝙊𝙒𝘽𝘼𝙇𝙇 𝙀𝙁𝙁𝙀𝘾𝙏:

  • The more converts a minority view gains, the faster the rate of conversion.
  • The snowball effect is described as the minority view gradually becoming the majority view (after which it is said change has occurred).
• 𝙈𝙊𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙄'𝙎 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝘿𝙐𝙍𝙀:

  • Six people were asked to view a set of 36 blue-coloured slides that varied in intensity, and then state whether the slide was blue or green.
  • In each group, two confederates consistently said the slides were green.
• 𝙈𝙊𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙄'𝙎 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝘿𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎:

  • The true participants gave the same wrong answer (green) in 8.42% of trials.
• 𝙈𝙊𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙄'𝙎 𝙎𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙉𝘿 𝙂𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙋:

  • A second group of participants was exposed to an inconsistent minority (confederates said 'green' 24 times and 'blue' 12 times).
  • In this case, agreement to the answer 'green' fell to 1.25%.
• 𝙈𝙊𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙄'𝙎 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝘿 𝙂𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙋:

  • Moscovici's third group was a control group in which there were no confederates.
  • Participants got the answer wrong in just 0.25% of trials.
• Why was a control group used in Moscovici's study?

  To make a fair comparison between the conditions of the IV. It shows that the findings for a consistent and an inconsistent minority were the result of the experimental manipulation and would not have happened without it.
• What conclusions can be made from Moscovici's study?

  A minority must be consistent in its viewpoint (members must be in agreement) if it is going to influence the opinions of a majority.

  The study also provides evidence that minorities are not very influential whether they are consistent or not (because the naïve participants were not swayed on the vast majority of trials).
• Moscovici's results are given to two decimal places. What does this mean?

  This refers to the degree of precision in our data. Two decimal places means each datum has two numbers to the right of the decimal point.
• (𝗦)

  𝟭. 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗬:

  Moscovici's blue-green slide study showed that a consistent minority was more effective than an inconsistent one.

  Wood et al. conducted a meta-analysis of over 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen to be consistent were the most influential.

  This suggests that presenting a consistent view is a minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence the views of a majority.
• (𝗟)

  𝟮. 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗞𝗦:

  Moscovici's blue-green slide study (identifying a colour) is highly artificial and far removed from how minorities attempt to influence majorities in the real world.

  In cases such as jury decision-making and political campaigning, the outcomes are often vastly more important (sometimes life or death).

  This means that research into minority influence lacks external validity and is very limited in real-world application.
• (𝗦)

  𝟯. 𝗣𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗟𝗨𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘:

  Minority influence is rare: the consistent minority only changed the majority view in 8% of trials. It cannot be useful in explaining most of social influence.

  However, it was found that participants were more likely to agree with the minority view when they privately wrote their answers down instead.

  Those who do ‘go public’ must hold their new views strongly - this is internalisation.

  Therefore, although minority influence is relatively unusual, it is a valid form of social influence because it influences people powerfully.
• Diachronic consistency -> The minority has held the same view for a period of time.
• Synchronic consistency -> All the members of the minority agree with each other.
• The two types of consistency in minority influence are synchronic and diachronic.
• In Moscovici's study, the proportion of participants agreeing with an inconsistent minority was 1.25%.
• In Moscovici's study, the proportion of participants agreeing with a consistent minority was 8.42%.
• In Moscovici's study, the proportion of participants who got the answer wrong in the control group was 0.25%.
• Consistency can easily be interpreted by the majority as a rigid and unbending refusal to compromise. Therefore, it is ideal to achieve a balance between consistency and flexibility.
• Snowball effect -> The minority view eventually becomes the majority view.
• Deeper processing -> The majority thinks more carefully about the minority view.
• Augmentation principle -> Personal sacrifice for the cause shows a lack of self-interest.
• Conversion -> Internalisation of the minority view.
• Moscovici's blue-green slide study looked at the importance of consistency in minority influence.