minority influence

• Minority influence occurs when a minority (small group) changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority
• Factors that can enhance the effectiveness of a minority

  • Consistency
  • Commitment
  • Flexibility
• Consistency


  1. Minority members share the same belief and retain it over time

  2. Draws the attention of the majority group to the minority position
• Augmentation principle


  Minorities engage in very risky or extreme behaviour to draw attention to their views, demonstrating commitment to their cause, which the majority then pays more attention to
• Flexibility


  Minority is willing to compromise, so they cannot be viewed as dogmatic and unreasonable
• Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials, whereas in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials
• Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority; however, in the flexible condition, the majority members were much more likely to also compromise and change their view
• The staff told the students that the sixth form could become 'paper-free' if they could convince the rest of the students it was a great idea


  The factors that will determine how successful the students are at influencing the rest of the students include consistency, commitment and flexibility
• Control group


  A group that acts as a comparison and is not exposed to the independent variable
• Consistency


  Displaying consistency of viewpoint and intended outcome
• How the small group of students can be successful in convincing the rest of the sixth form to go 'paper-free'

  1. Demonstrate consistency and commitment

  2. Show flexibility in their views

  3. Use social cryptoamnesia or snowball effect

  4. Influence through informational social influence/internalisation
• Moscovici (1969) and Nemeth (1986) concluded that a consistent, committed and flexible minority is most effective in influencing an individual