Minority Influence AO3

• Research does support the idea of consistency
• Wood conducted a meta-analysis of studies similar to Moscovici's, finding that minorities were the most effective
• This type of study does use artificial tasks and perhaps lacks external validity in terms of applicability to real life situations eg. jury service, political campaigning
• In Moscovici's study, only 8.42% of the trials saw evidence of minority influence
• However, when participants could write down their answer privately, more agreed with the minority- suggesting that minority influence is powerful- but people may not feel comfortable publicly acknowledging what they privately believe
• Nemeth believed this is because dissenting minorities are seen as disrupting group harmony and therefore dissenters are sometimes marginalised or belittled - losing a valuable opportunity for innovative thinking
• Nemeth's study on flexibility in minority influence

  1. Participants in groups of 3 with 1 confederate had to decide how much compensation to pay someone who'd had a ski-lift accident

  2. When the confederate refused to change their position when arguing for a low amount, there was no effect on the majority

  3. When the confederate compromised, and offered a slightly higher amount, the majority listened and went lower

  4. Suggesting minorities need to be flexible to be persuasive
• This also questions arguments for consistency