Minority influence

• minority social influence

  Influence of an individual or a small group upon a majority by changing the attitudes
• Moscovici

  -6 participants,4=naive,2=stooges

  -36 separate trials= blue and green slides being presented

  -constant condition=stooges said green every time

  -inconsistent condition=stooges said green 24 times and blue 12 times

  -control condition-6 naive participants only
• Findings of Moscovici

  -control condition=0.25%

  -consistent condition=8%

  -inconsistent condition=1.25%

  -if a minority is consistent= more impact on majority
• Factors that impact minority influence

  Consistency,flexibility,commitment
• Consistency

  -Always doing the same thing and makes people rethink their own values

  -Synchronic consistency=people in a minority are all saying the same thing

  -Diachronic consistency=they have been saying the same thing for some time
• Flexibility

  -Showing willingness to listen to others since the minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they don't appear rigid

  -Repeating the same arguments and behaviours is seen as rigid and off putting to the majority
• Commitment

  -Showing deep involvement

  -Activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause

  -Augmentation principle
• Snowball effect

  Over time people become converted and there is a switch from the minority to the majority
• Social Cryptoamnesia

  Where the majority forget the root cause of the social change helping to maintain the change
• Research supporting consistency,AO3

  Pro,meta analysis of almost 100 studies found that minorities seen as being consistent were the most influential
• Artificial tasks, AO3

  Con,moscovicis study consisted of minority influence by using colour slides in a lab setting which raises the question of ecological validity and is it possible to generalise the findings of a laboratory setting to other settings