Minority Influence:evaluation

• A strength of the minority explanation is that there is research support from Moscovici . Research showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion, this suggests that consistency is a major factor in the minority influence, however there are problems faced with this research. For example, the tasks involved are artificial making research far removed from how minorities attempt to change majority behaviour this means findings lack external validity and are limited.
• Another strength is that research supports the idea that minority influence leads to internalisation. This was shown by the variation of Moscovici study where participants were allowed to write answers down so it was private. Private agreement with the minority was greater in these circumstances showing it is possible to convert to a minority view without acknowledging it publicly. This supports Moscovici's argument that minority influence involves different processes to conformity which involves public acceptance of the majority's influence
• A weakness of the research into minority influence is that it has limited real world applications. For example tasks and studies are often trivial so it's hard to see why any participant would be that motivated to accept 1 opinion over another. This is a weakness as it means findings of minority influence like Moscovici's are lacking in external validity and are limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real life social situations.