minority influence

• form of social influence where members of majority group change their beliefs or behaviours as a result to exposure to a persuasive minority.
• successful minorities have: consistency, commitment (suggests certainty and confidence) and flexibility (must negotiate their position rather than trying to enforce that)
• miscovici: colour perception, pp randomly selected. Aim to observe how minorities can influence a majority.
• miscovici procedure: lab experiment, 172 female pp, group of 2 confederates (minority) and 4 participants (majority). Shown 36 blue sides, each different shades of blue, each asked to say whether the slide was blue or green. the confederates said green on 2/3 trials, constant minority view.
• miscovici findings: when the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of people said green. BUT when inconsistent confederates 1% said slides were green. Shows consistency is crucial for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority.
• • methodological issues, artificial tasks, lacks mundane realism, too far removed from cases of real world minority influence.
• • ethical issues, deceived pp - they were told it was a colour perception test so no fully informed consent.
• • gender bias, 172 females, research suggests females more likely to conform.
• • real life application, because can inform minority groups on how to exert maximum influence.