Minority Influence

• Minority influence


  A minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion
• Consistency


  • Maintain belief over time and between all individuals involved
• Commitment


  • Demonstrate dedication to their position (augmentation principle)
• Flexibility


  • Shows possibility of compromise
• Snowball effect


  • Minority becomes majority with fast rates of conversion
• Deeper processing leads to ...


  Conversion
• Moscovici et al procedure

  32 groups of 6 females (2 confederates + 4 participants) shown 36 blue slides. They were told the aim was about colour perception and told to say the colour they saw.
• Moscovici et al conditions


  • Confederates said all slides were green
  • Confederates said ⅔ of slides were green
  • Control groups - no confederates
• Moscovici et al findings

  • 8.42% conformity when confederates consistent
  • 1.25% conformity when confederates inconsistent
  • 0.25% conformity for control group
• Wood - meta analysis of 100 similar studies and found consistent minorities the most influential
• Moscovici limitation - artificial task means lacking in external validity