Minority influence and social change

• Minority influence

  Small group of people changing the views and opinion of other people to match those of minority influence
• the 3 factors that affect minority influence

  consistency, commitment, flexibility
• Consistency

  When minority maintains the same belief overtime, allowing majority to reassess the situation.
• What 2 ways can conformity be maintained


  Minority having consistent position overtime, members in minority group having same positions amongst themselves
• Commitment

  When minority are willing to put in time, effort and can take risks eg risk punishment to show they are serious in their cause ( augmentation principle)
• Flexibility and inflexibility

  if inflexible, it can make the minority group seem rigid and unwilling to compromise.

  if flexible, minority is seen as willing to accept valid reasoning for counter arguments
• Social change

  Sections of society adopts new belief or view that becomes widely accepted as the norm eg the woman’s suffrage
• Social influence

  Process in which individuals or groups change each others beliefs and behaviours
• Minority drawing attention of majority to an issue


  1. Holding rallies
• Consistency

  1. Minority maintains position overtime

  2. Majority reassess situation
• Commitments and flexibility

  1. Willing to take risks (risk punishment they are seen as more serious to the cause)

  2. Willing to accept reasoning valid counter arguments (e.g. hunger strikes)
• Legal changes of the law


  1. That fit with the minority beliefs

  2. Can bring about social change

  3. Classified as social norm
• Snowball effect


  1. Supporters for minority beliefs

  2. Produce converters

  3. Until it reaches a tipping point when minority becomes majority
• After social change

  1. Social crypto amnesia occurs

  2. Public are made aware of this social change

  3. Unaware of the original founder
• Moscovici

  Group of 6 females with 2 confederates amongst them, they were shown and had to judge the colour of 36 blue coloured slides. Findings shown that when confederates were consistently wrong, the participants conformity was 8.4%. When inconsistently wrong, conformity rate was 1.25%.

  in conclusion, consistency led to greater influence of majority