minority influence

• minority influence is a form of social influence where persuasive minority changes the attitudes and behaviours of the majority
• social change is when a whole society adopts new beliefs/ ways of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as a norm
• factors enhancing effectiveness of minority

  • consistency
  • commitment
  • flexibility
• consistency refers to over time period consistency in minorities view increases the amount of interest from other people

  • consistency makes others rethink own views
• 2 types of consistency

  • synchronic consistency
  • diachronic consistency
• synchronic consistency is where people in minority all say the same thing
• diachronic consistency refers to whether people have been saying the same thing for long time
• commitment refers to minorities engaging in extreme activities to draw attention to their cause

  • important that the extreme activities are at some risk to minorities as it demonstrates their commitment to the cause
  • commitment increases amount of interest further from other majority group members - augmentation principle
• flexibility is the minorities willingness to compromise - when majority group sees minority group is willing to compromise or engage in discussion - minority is taken more seriously and treated with respect

  • if minority group is seen as too demanding/fitted with own decisions showing no flexibility then people are likely to be put off.
• moscovici - supporting evidence for minority influence (can be used as eval point)

  • studied minority influence using blue slide, green slife study
  • ptts given eye tests (ensure no colour blind) - placed in group of 4 ptts and 2 confederates
  • shown 36 slides - asked to state each colour out loud
  • confederates answered green for all slides (consistent) - in second part answered green 24 times and blue 12 times (inconsistent)
• findings of moscovici's experiment for minority influence

  • control group used for comparison (025% of control group response was green)
  • 1.25% ptts in experimental group answered green (confederates had inconsistent answers)
  • 8.42% responded green when confederates had consistent answers
  • moscovici's experiment suggests minorities can influence majorities - highlights minority are more effective when consistent in responses and when inconsistency occurs the minority are likely to be ignored
• evaluation for minority influence

  • sample bias - moscovici
  • lacks ecological validity
  • research to support (Nemeth
• sample bias - moscovici as eval point for minority influence

  • used biassed sample of 1772 female ptts - unable to generalise results to other populations (males)
  • therefore cannot conclude male ptts would respond to minority influence in same way as females
  • limits explanation due to not being generalisable other than to females - limits application of findings relating to minority influence
• lacks ecological validity as eval point for minority influence

  • moscovicis study was conducted in artificial setting of lab - peets were aware they were being observed and their behaviour was being recorded
  • weakness to experiment as investigation isnt measuring real life minority influence
  • therefore results cannot be generalised beyond the research whereby it cannot represent real life minority influence
• research to support - nemeth as eval point

  • nemeth investigated flexibility in groups (4) agree on amount of compensation given to victim of ski accident
  • 1 ptt in each group was confederate (minority)
  • 1st condition - minority argued for lower rate and refused to change
  • 2nd condition - minority argued for low rate - compromised offering higher rate
  • found minority had little effect on majority for inflexible condition- majority more likely to compromise and change views in flexible condition
  • highlights importance of flexibility - supports being factor enhances effectiveness of minority
• controversial point for nemeth's study into flexibility

  • moscovici shows minorities being consistent as key in minority influence which goes against flexibility