Minority Influence

• What is Minority Influence?

  Its a form of social influence in which a minority of people, sometimes even just one person, persuade other to adopt their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. It leads to internalisation or conversion in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours.
• What three key features must a minority have/consider?

  Consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• Why is consistency important in minority influence?

  The minority must keep the same beliefs, both overtime and between all the individuals that are part of the minority.

  It's effective because it increases the amount of interest from other people and makes the majority start to rethink their own lives.
• What is diachronic consistency?

  Where the minority keep the same beliefs over time
• What is synchronic consistency?

  Where all members of the minority keep the same beliefs.
• Why is commitment important in minority influence?

  The minority must show commitment to their beliefs, this can be done by making personal sacrifices or engaging in extreme activities.

  This is effective because it shows that the minority is not acting out of self interest and the majority start to pay even more attention.
• Why is flexibility important in minority influence?

  Members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter arguments.
• Why could it be argued that flexibility is more important than consistency?

  Nemeth argued that consistency is not the most important factor because it can be off-putting and seems like the minority are rigid. Instead, members of the minority should be prepared to adapt their views and accept reasonable counterarguments.
• What was the aim of Moscovici's research?

  To investigate if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task.
• What was the sample in Moscovici's study into the effect of consistency on minority influence? What task were they told they were going to be doing?

  The sample consisted of 172 female participants who were told that they were taking part in a colour perception task.
• What was the procedure of Moscovici's study into the effect of consistency on minority influence?

  The participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue. The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide.

  Two of the participants were confederates and in one condition (consistent) the two confederates said that all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.
• What were the findings of Moscovici's study into the effect of consistency on minority influence?

  Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.42% of the trials, whereas in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials.
• What was the conclusion of Moscovici's study into the effect of consistency on minority influence

  Moscovici's results show that a consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority and the consistency is an important factor in exerting minority influence.