Nemeth (1986)

• nemeth investigated flexibility
• Participants, in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give a victim of a ski lift accident
• 1 ps in each group was a confederate.

  They had two conditions:

  1. When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change (inflexible)
  2. When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation, but was compromised (flexible)
• results:

  • inflexible condition: the minority had little or no effect on the majority
  • flexible condition: the majority was much more likely to compromise and change their view
• Nemeth’s research highlights the importance of flexibility but questions the idea of consistency
• eval:

  On the one hand, Moscovici shows that minorities need to be consistent, whereas Nemeth shows that minorities need to be flexible