minority influnce and social influence

• research support for consistency

  P: strength - evidence for consistency

  E: moscovici's study showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on the majority compared to an inconsistent opinion

  E: researcher conducted a meta-analysis on 100 similar studies and found that a consistent minority opinion was much more influential

  L: therefore a consistent minority opinion is much more effective
• Social Change

  Adoption of new beliefs or behaviors becoming widely accepted
• Suffragettes


  Group advocating for women's voting rights through consistent actions and sacrifices
• research support for deeper processing

  P: strength - change in majoritys position involves deeper processing

  E: one group heard majority agree with a view and one group heard minority agree with view

  E: people were less willing to change their view is they heard the view from a minority

  L: therefore minority message was much more deeply processed
• counterpoint 


  P: limitation - real world social influences are way more complicated

  E: majorities hold more power and status than the minority

  E: minorities are very committed to their cause due to hostility but in research they are just the smallest group

  L: therefore minority influence studies are limited in what they tell us about real world application
• artificial tasks 


  P: limitation - tasks involved in minority influnce research artificial

  E: research therefore dosen't reflect how minorities attempt to change behaviour of majorities in real life

  E: this is due to artificial tasks being used in minority influence research

  L: therefore minority influence studies lack external validity
• commitment

  minority must show commitment to their cause

  some minorities may engage in extreme tasks to show their commitment

  extreme activities that present a risk to minority shows greater commitment

  this is called the augmentation principle
• consistency

  minority must be consistent in their views

  over time, consistency increases the amount of interest form other people

  can be shown through synchronic consistency or diachronic consistency

  consistent minority makes majority rethink their views
• synchronic consistency

  everyone saying the same thing
• diachronic consistency

  everyone saying the same thing for a while now
• flexibility

  being consistent without compromising may be seen as rigid

  minority need to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counterarguments