Minority influence

• What is minority influence?

  A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours.
• Who first studied minority influence and when?

  Moscovici in his 'blue slide, green slide' study (1969). This study along with others have drawn attention to three main processes in minority influence.
• Describe Moscovici et als 'blue slide, green slide study?'


  He demonstrated minority influence in a lab study where a group of 6 people (two confederates- the minority and four naive participants) were asked to view a set of 36 slides, each clearly different shades of blue, and were asked to state the colour of the slide out loud. There were three variables a consistent, an inconsistent and a control group. In the consistent group, confederates said the slides were green all the time. In the inconsistent group, confederates said the slides were green 24 times and blue 12 times. In the control group all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide.
• Describe the findings of each of the three groups of Moscovici's study: consistent, inconsistent and control?

  -Consistent: true participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of the trials, ie agreed with the confederates.

  -Inconsistent: agreement with the answer green fell to 1.25%.

  -Control: got colour wrong in just 0.25% of the trials.
• What was the conclusion of Moscovici's findings?


  Minorities can influence majorities and this is more likely to happen if the minority are consistent in their responses.
• What are the three main processes involved in minority influence that Moscovici's study has drawn attention to?

  Consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• Describe the importance of the minority being consistent with their views? What are the two forms of consistency?

  Consistency, overtime, increases the amount of interest from other people. Consistency can take the form of agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consistency- they're all saying the same thing) and/or consistency overtime (diachronic consistency-they've been saying the same thing for some time now). A consistent minority makes other people start to rethink their own views ('Maybe they've got a point if they all think this way') or ('Maybe they have got a point if they have kept saying it.)
• What is synchronic consistency?

  People in the minority are all saying the same thing.
• What is diachronic consistency?

  Where the minority say the same thing for a long period of time.
• Describe the importance of the minority demonstrating commitment to their cause/views?

  Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position e.g by making personal sacrifices. This is effective as it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest. Some minorities may engage in extreme activities that may present some risk to the minority as this shows greater commitment and causes majority members to pay even more attention ('Wow she must really believe what she's saying so perhaps I ought to consider her view.') This is called the augmentation principle.
• Who argued that consistency is not the only important factor in minority influence because it can be off-putting and why? What does he say to do and why?

  -Nemeth

  -because someone who is extremely consistent, who simply repeats the same old arguments and behaviours again may be seen as rigid and dogmatic. This approach on its own is unlikely to gain many converts to the minority position.

  -Instead, members of the minority need to be prepare to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments. The key is to strike the balance between consistency and flexibility.
• Explain the process of change in terms of the snowball effect?

  When you hear something new, you might think more deeply about it, especially if the source of this new view is consistent, committed and flexible. This deeper processing is important in the process of conversion to a different, minority viewpoint. Overtime, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position and have become 'converted.' The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion which is known as the snowball effect. Gradually the minority view has become the majority view and change has occurred.
• AO3: strength, research support for consistency. What two pieces of research evidence demonstrate the importance of consistency in changing the majority's views?

  -Moscovici et als blue/green slide study showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of other people than an inconsistent opinion. When the minority was consistent with their views that the slides were green and not blue, 8.42% of the true participants gave the same wrong answer. Whereas when the minority were inconsistent with their views, they said green 24 times and blue 12, agreement with the answer green fell to 1.25%. This demonstrates how minority influence is much more likely when the minority is consistent with their responses.

  -Wendy Wood carried out a meta analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen to be consistent were most influential.
• AO3: limitation, artificial tasks. Describe how the findings of minority influence studies are lacking in external validity and what this means?

  One limitation of minority influence research is that tasks involved are very artificial. This includes Moscovici et als task of identifying the colour of a slide. Research is therefore far removed from how minorities attempt to change behaviour of majorities in real life. In cases like jury decision making and political campaigns the outcomes are vastly more important, sometimes literally a matter of life and death. This means that findings of minority influence studies are lacking in external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-world social situations.
• AO3: strength, real world example. Describe a real world example of when the minority have influenced the majority?- supports the snowball effect and the three main processes in minority influence.


  A strength to minority influence is that there are real world examples of it occurring and of the processes drawn attention to by Moscovici's research attributing to it happening. For instance, recycling. There was a time in this country where very few people recycled cans, bottles, newspapers and the like. In fact many people who did were viewed by the majority with suspicion and anyone who carried out such 'green' activities were considered a bit strange. Overtime however, due to the consistency of those recycling, increasing numbers of people began to change their views and switch from the majority to the minority position- to the point where recycling is now viewed as normal (the snowball effect).
• AO3: discuss if the minority influence is a useful concept?

  In Moscovici et als study, the figure for agreement with a consistent minority was very low, on average only 8%. This suggests that the minority influence is quite rare and therefore some may argue not a useful concept. However when participants wrote down their answers privately, they were more likely to agree with the minority view. This suggests that the view expressed by people in public was only the 'tip of the iceberg' and in fact more people agreed with the minority view than the findings suggest.