Minority influence

• What is minority influence?

  Refers to how one person or small group influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people. The minority may influence just one person, or a group of people (the majority) — this is different from conformity where the majority does the influencing. (Conformity is sometimes referred to as 'majority influence'.)
• What does minority influence lead to?

  Minority influence leads to internalisation — both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed. Three processes — consistency, commitment, flexibility
• What is commitment?

  Showing deep involvement

  Helps gain attention e.g. through extreme activities. Activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause. Augmentation principle — majority pay even more attention ('Wow, he must really believe in what he's saying, so perhaps I ought to consider his view').
• What is flexibility?

  Showing willingness to listen to others.

  The minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they don't appear rigid. Nemeth (1986) argued that being consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours is seen as rigid and off-putting to the majority. Instead, the minority should adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counterarguments.
• What is consistency?

  Always doing the same thing.

  Means the minority's view gains more interest. Consistency makes others rethink their own views ('Maybe they've got a point if they all think this Way and they have kept saying it'). • Synchronic consistency— people in the minority are all saying the same thing. Diachronic consistency— they've been saying the same thing for some time.
• What is diachronic consistency?

  Diachronic consistency— they've been saying the same thing for some time.
• What is synchronic consistency?

  Synchronic consistency— people in the minority are all saying the same thing.
• What is the process of minority influence?

  Individuals think deeply about the minority position because it is new/unfamiliar. Snowball effect— over time, more people become 'converted' (like a snowball gathering more snow as it rolls along). There is a switch from the minority to the majority. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. Gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred.
• What is a strength of consistency? (research support)

  P - one strength is research supporting consistency.

  E - Moscovici et 01. (1969, see facing page) found a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion

  E - Wood et 01. (1994) conducted a metaanalysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent were most influential

  L - This confirms that consistency is a major factor in minority influence
• What is a strength of consistency? (research showing role of deeper processing)

  P - Another strength is research showing role of deeper processing.

  E - Martin et al. (2003) gave participants a message supporting a particular viewpoint, and measured attitudes. Then they heard an endorsement of view from either a minority or a majority. Finally heard a conflicting view, attitudes measured again

  E - Participants were less willing to change their opinions to the new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority group than if they listened to a majority group.

  L - This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect

  C - In research studies (e.g. Martin et al.) majority/minority groups distinguished in terms of numbers. But there is more to majorities/ minorities than just numbers (e.g. power, status, commitment). This means research studies are limited in what they tell us about realworld minority influence.
• What is a limitation of minority influence research? (artificial tasks)

  P - One limitation is minority influence research often involves artificial tasks.

  E - Moscovici et al.'s task was identifying the colour of a slide, far removed from how minorities try to change majority opinion in the real world.

  E - In jury decision making and political campaigning, outcomes are vastly more important, maybe a matter of life or death.

  L - Findings of studies lack external validity and are limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real-world situations.