minority influence

• minority influence definition

  a form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours - can lead to internalisation
• Moscovici's study (1969)

  a group of six people was asked to view a set of 36 blue sides that varied in intensity and stated whether the slides were blue or green

  2 confederates in each group, the first groups confederates consistently said the slides were green, true participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials agreeing with the confederates

  second group was exposed to an inconsistent minority (the confederates said green 24 times and blue 12 times) and agreement with green fell to 1.25%

  shown 3 main processes in minority influence: consistency, commitment and flexibility
• consistency

  minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority, it is effective as it draws attention to the minority view
• commitment

  minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example making personal sacrifices, this is effective because if shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest
• flexibility

  relentless consistency could be counter-productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable, therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise
• minority influence evaluation strengths

  demonstrates the importance of consistency as shown is Moscovicis study as the first group gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials agreeing with the confederates
• minority influence evaluation limitations

  the tasks involved in Moscovici's study are artificial as asking to name the colour of 36 slides lacks mundane realism meaning the findings will not reflect the real world so it is lacking external validity

  
  

  Bashir (2013) - people are put off by stereotypes so advises minorities to not act in stereotypical ways, this contradicts the minority explanation as consistency and the augmentation principle can easily reinforce stereotypes