Moscovici et al

• Procedure

  • 172 females from America.
  • Each group was made of 4 naive participants and 2 confederates.
  • In the consistent condition, the confederates repeatedly called the blue slides green.
  • In the inconsistent condition the confederates called the blue slides green on 2/3 of the trials.
  • Control condition of 6 naive participants saw all call the slides blue.
• Findings

  • Consistent minority influenced the naive participants to say green on 8% of trials.
  • The inconsistent majority had little influence, convincing 1.25% of the trials.
  • When asked to sort 16 coloured disks on the spectrum n of blue to green, those in the consistent condition judged more chips to be green than those in the inconsistent condition.
  • This suggests the initial influence was at a private level rather than a public one.
• Generalisability

  • Androcentric (172 women)
  • They were all American
  • Sample size was large but still lacks representation
• Reliability

  • Easy to replicate (control conditions and lab experiment)
  • Variables under fine control
  • Confederates number standardised
  • Slide show standardised
• Application

  • Helping protesting groups apply consistency to have a greater impact.
  • Used in institutions for changing ideals
  • Minority group activists
• Validity

  • Low ecological validity - artificial environment and situation
  • Increased validity as demand characteristics were stopped through deception on the studies aim
• Ethics

  • Participants deceived on studies aims
  • No informed consent
• Nemeth argues minority opinion opens the mind, and encourages people to search for more information.
• Mackie argues that people tend not to waste time processing a minorities message, making less influential.
• Nemeth and Brilmayer studied minority influence in the case of ski accident. When a confederate put forward an alternative view and refused to change his position, it had no effect, but when he compromised, there was some degree of shift found.
• Internalisation

  • When Moscovici asked his participants to privately write answers on their paper, he found that private agreement with the minority was higher than public.
  • Therefore the participants were convinced through internalisation.