minority influence

• Minorities have a tricky job to try and create a conversion process from the majority position, to the minority position. Research suggests that to bring this conversion, the minorities must adopt particular behavioural styles. The first is consistency, this can be seen as the most important of the 3 found. When the minorities remain consistent with their view, the majority may reassess the situation and consider the view more carefully. This is supported by moscovici's minority influence study.
• The next is flexibility. Mugny suggests that it is more effective at changing majority opinion due to the minorities being much less powerful so negotiating their position rather than enforcing it is seen as successful. However, they can’t be too flexible as this can be seen as inconsistent. The last is commitment. It is difficult to dismiss a minority when it adopts an uncompromising and consistent commitment to the view. It suggests certainty, confidence and courage in the view that will help the majority think deeper about the view being pushed by the minority.
• Moscovici did research into minority influence by using groups with 4 naïve pt and 2 confederates. He did different conditions; in the consistent condition the confederates repeatedly called the blue slides ‘green’. In the inconsistent they called them green on 2/3s of the trials. The consistent minority made change 8% of the time. The inconsistent didn’t differ much from the control group who said blue throughout.
• Nemeth 2010 argues that dissent, in the form of minority position, ‘opens’ the mind.

  As a result of the exposure to a minority position, people will search for information, consider more options and end up making better decisions. Dissenters liberate people to say what they believe and they stimulate divergent and creative thought even when they are wrong.

  This view is supported by researchers who studied the role of dissent in work groups, finding that the group had improved decision quality when exposed to a minority perspective.
• Mackie argues that the views of minority don’t necessarily lead to greater processing, but rather it is the majority who are more likely to create greater messages processing.

  We tend to believe that the majority of group members share similar beliefs to ours. If the majority express a different view from the one we hold, we must consider it carefully to understand why this is the case.

  By contrast, people tend not to waste time trying to process why a minority’s message is different, so it tends to be less influential.
• A tipping point discovered on how many people are needed to change an opinion. They developed social networks with ‘individuals’ free to chat across the networks. Each individual held a view, but researchers added an alternate view, said consistently. If both had the same view, reinforced it, another view, moved on. If the individual then also had the new belief, the listener adopted it. After a while opinion started to shift. This study concluded the percentage of committed opinion holders necessary to ‘tip’ the majority into accepting the minority position was just 10%.
• Despite the evidence for higher quality decision making, Nemeth 2010 claims it is still difficult to convince people the value of dissent.

  People accept the principle only on the surface ie they appear tolerant but quickly becomes irritated by a dissenting view that persists. May also fear creating a lack of harmony within a group by welcoming dissent or including being ridiculed by being associated with a ‘deviant’ point of view.

  As a consequence, this means that the majority view persists and the opportunities fir innovative thinking associated with minority influence are lost.