MINORITY INFLUENCE

• • Nemeth (1986) Participants in the inflexible condition (who refused to consider anything other than a low rate of compensation for people injured in an accident) had little or no effect on the majority; however, in the flexible condition, the majority members were much more likely to also compromise and change their view
• • Moscovici (1969) - Could a consistent minority influence the majority to give an incorrect answer, in a colour perception task? Yes they could: his consistent minority was 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority in persuading the majority
• Evaluation of minority influence

  Strengths

  • Research supports the idea of the consistent minority (Wood et. al's meta-analysis showed a strong effect size for consistency)
  • Real-world examples (as outlined above on this page) show that minority influence can and does happen, hence the theory has external validity
• Evaluation of minority influence

  Weaknesses

  • Moscovici's study asked participants to state the colour of a slide which is an artificial task which lacks mundane realism
  • Minority influence may in part be due to the personality of the people or main person associated with the group rather than with their cause e.g. charismatic cult leaders who persuade people to join their group