AO1

• Define Minority influence

  -Refers to situations where one person or small group of people (i.e., a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people.

  -​Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation
• Outline the aim of Moscovici's study

  -to investigate the effects of a consistent minority on a majority
• Outline some of the procedure

  -A group of 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue-coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether the slides were blue or green.

  -There were two conditions inconsistent and consistent
• What was stated in the two conditions

  -inconsistent: confederates called slides green on only 2/3 of the trials and blue on the rest of the trials.

  -consistent: confederates consistently called slides green on every trial
• What were the findings on the consistent condition

  -naïve ppts called the slides ‘green’ (and converted to the minority) on 8.42% of trials.
• What were the findings on the inconsistent and control condition

  -Inconsistent condition – naïve ppts called slides ‘green’ (converted to the minority) on 1.25% of the trials. 

  -Control condition - ppts got the colour slide wrong on 0.25% of the trials.
• what was concluded

  -It is possible for the minority to have an influence over the majority, although, the success of minority influence is greatly increased by consistency.
• Outline how consistency impacts minority influence

  -The minority need to appear to be consistent in their beliefs and attitudes in order to draw the attention of the majority.
• Define synchronic consistency

  -agreement between the people in the minority group i.e., everyone says the same thing.
• Define Diachronic consistency

  -agreement/consistency over time i.e., saying the same thing for a long period of time.
• Outline how flexibility affects minority influence

  -Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency can be interpreted negatively and can be off-putting to the majority.

  -Instead, the minority should be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments.

  -The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.
• Outline how commitment affects minority influence

  -Minority influence is more powerful if the group demonstrates their dedication by making personal sacrifices. ​

  -In the past, minorities have engaged in extreme and risky activities to show their commitment to the cause.
• Majority groups are more likely to pay attention as it shows...

  -the minority is not acting out of self-interest. ​

  -This is the augmentation principle.