Social Influence - Minority Influence

• Minority influence


  Situations where one person or a small group of people (the minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people
• Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation- both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed by the process
• Consistency


  The minority must be consistent in their views. Over time, this consistency increases the amount of interest from other people.
• Consistency


  • Can take the form of agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consistency-they're all saying the same thing), and/or consistency over time (diachronic consistency-they've been saying the same thing for some time now)
• A consistent minority


  Makes other people start to rethink their own views
• Commitment


  The minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause or views. Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views.
• Minority group members engage in extreme activities that present some risk to them


  Majority group members pay even more attention
• Flexibility


  Members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments. The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.
• Hearing something you already agree with doesn't usually make you stop and think. But if you hear something new, then you might think more deeply about it, especially if the source of this other view is consistent, committed and flexible.
• Process of conversion to a different, minority viewpoint


  1. Deeper processing of the minority view

  2. Increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position

  3. Snowball effect as the minority view becomes the majority view and change occurs