Minority influence

• what is minority influence

  where a small group of people manage to persuade a larger group - a form of social influence, can lead to a snowball effect
• why does it occur

  it occurs because of conversion where majorities become gradually won over by a minority viewpoint
• explain conversion and which type of social influence it would be

  the majority member agrees publicly but also privately so is internalisation of the view of the minority, usually caused by ISI as there is no pressure to fit in with the minority
• what are the 3 factors that affect minority influence

  1. flexible

  2. consistent

  3. committed
• explain flexibility in minority influence

  Minorities who are uncompromising/dogmatic are not persuasive, whereas ones that will compromise have more effect

  BUT: too much and they are inconsistent
• is there any research to support the effectiveness of flexibility

  Nemeth - groups of 3 had to decide how much compensation to pay a victim of an accident.

  When the minority confederate argued a low amount and was inflexible he had no effect. If he compromised a little (moving to a slightly higher amount) the majority agreed to a lower amount, suggests minorities are only effective if they are flexible
• explain consistency in minority influence


  Minorities are more persuasive if they are unchanging in their view and keep repeating their stance
• explain commitment in minority influence

  can be shown by taking actions in support of the minorities cause (in some cases this might be extreme action)
• what is the effect of consistency and commitment

  they create enough doubt about established norms to get the majority group individuals to re-examine their current beliefs, research to support comes from Moscovici
• what was the aim of Moscovici's study


  to investigate the role of a consistent minority upon the opinions of a majority in an unambiguous setting
• what were the p's told the study was about

  a study into perception
• what were each group made up of

  32 groups of 6

  4 = real p's, 2= confederates

  ALL female
• what were each group shown

  36 blue slides, with filters varying the intensity of the colour
• what were the procedures for the consistent and inconsistent condition

  consistent: confederates answered wrongly that the slides were green, in every trial

  inconsistent: confederates said that 24 were green and 12 were blue
• what were the findings for the consistent/inconsistent group

  consistent: 8.2% agreement with minority, 2% agreeing at least once

  inconsistent: 1.25% agreement
• what was the conclusion from the study

  the consistent condition had a slightly higher level of agreement, showing that although minorities influence is relatively small (8.2%) consistency is the most important variable
• what was a strength of this study

  + supporting research; other research has found minorities to be persuasive if consistent and committed to their view, showing high reliability
• what are the weaknesses of this study

  - low population validity; used only female p's as he believed them to be more interested in colour, results cannot be generalised - some research has even found females to be more conforming than males

  - ethical issues; deception and informed consent as they were told the aim of the study was something different
• what is social change

  the process of changing societies beliefs, attitudes and behaviour to create new social norms (expected ways of thinking/behaving)

  Minority influence is a crucial part of bringing about social change
• what are some historic examples of minority groups changing societal views

  + suffragettes: challenging British Law to voting rights

  + gay marriage: legalised in 2013

  - Nazi Germany ideology
• what is the process of minority influence on social change

  1. draw attention to the issue

  2. consistency of belief is essential

  3. cognitive conflict: minority creates a conflict between what the majority believe and what the minority advocate

  4. augmentation principle - if a minority is willing to suffer if it amplifies their position, it shows commitment to the cause

  5. snowball effect - once a few majority people are won over, a gradual increase in pace of people moving viewpoint happens
• what is social change often followed by

  social crypto amnesia - the acceptance of the minority view followed by forgettimg the role the minority played
• what's the difference between majority and minority influence in social change

  majority influence: more for maintaining social order, an immediate and unthinking process, which is sometimes broken down over time by minority influence

  minority influence: involves fundamental changes in beliefs so leads to new ideas being adopted into mainstream practices - known as conversion
• what role does social influence play in social change - conformity/obedience/minority influence

  conformity: once a minority view becomes the majority, conformity seeks to maintain the belief

  obedience: maintains the new belief and upholds the change

  minority influence: minority can use consistency, flexibility and commitment to increase chances of change
• what evidence is there of people resisting social influence in studies we've looked at

  Milgram: 35% disobeyed at some point

  Asch: 25% didn't conform at all

  Hofling: 1 nurse didn't obey

  Zimbardo: several guards resisted acting sadistically
• what leads to resisting social influence

  - external situational factors - their social support

  - internal dispositional factors (personality) - their locus of control
• what is social support

  other people resisting social influence (dissenters) can reduce pressure to conform/obey as they offer social support
• why does social support increase resistance

  other defiant people means disobedience stands out less and makes it more acceptable to also disobey
• where is there evidence for social support

  + Milgram - presence of disobedient confederates lowered obedience to 10%, supporting that social support can reduce pressure to obey.

  + Asch - adding confederate dissenters dropped conformity to 5.5% (when the confederate gave a correct answer) and to 9% (when the confederate gave a different incorrect line)

  this supports that giving a person dissenting from majority (i.e social support) can reduce pressure to conform even if they are inaccurate
• what is the Locus of Control

  refers to a person's perception of personal control over their own control
• it is measured on a scale of high internal to high external, what does each mean

  internal: individual believes their life is determined by their own decisions and efforts

  external: individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors
• outline the characteristics then explain the effect that an internal LOC would have on someone's influence from others


  High level of personal control over their lives and behaviour. Take personal responsibility for it 'I made it happen!'

  - High Internals actively seek out info which will help them personally and are less likely to rely on others.

  - They are more achievement orientated and can resist pressure from others.
• outline the characteristics then explain the effect that an external LOC would have on someone's influence from others


  The belief that life is determined by external/environmental factors, such as luck. 'Wrong place, wrong time!'

  - High Externals are more likely to be influenced by others as they don't believe they exercise personal control over their lives
• what research supports that a person with internal LOC is more likely to resist social influence


  + Japanese (more external) tended to conform more than Americans HOWEVER extreme generalisation

  + Milgram: those that were disobedient had higher internal LOC

  + Spector: gave LOC questionnaire to students, those with high external LOC tended to conform more

  (for all): supporting LOC's can affect ability to conform/resist as those with external personalities conformed more and vice versa
• is there research that goes against LOC affecting conformity

  - data from obedience studies over a 40 year period was analysed: showing people have become more resistant to obedience and more external on LOC

  This contradicts theory as research suggests the opposite, that a more external LOC will be more resistant

  - standard Rotter Questionnaire assessment: used to test LOC, p's may show social desirability bias which lowers internal validity as p's don't reveal true beliefs