Minority influence

• how does a minority change the opinions of others?

  internalisation- both public and private beliefs are changed.
• what are the three process of minority influence?

  consistency, commitment, flexibility.
• consistency

  means the minority's view gains more interest. it makes other rethink their own views. two types of consistency:

  1. synchronic consistency: people in the minority are all saying the same thing
  2. diachronic synchrony: they've been saying the same thing for a long time.
• what are the two types of consistency?

  synchronic and diachronic.
• synchronic consistency


  people in the minority are all saying the same thing.
• diachronic synchrony


  people in the minority have been saying the same thing for a long time.
• commitment

  helps gain attention (e.g. through extreme activities). activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause.

  augmentation principle: majority pay even more attention ('wow he must really believe in what he's saying, so perhaps I ought to consider his view')
• augmentation principle


  the majority pays even more attention, e.g. 'wow he must really believe in what he's saying, so perhaps I ought to consider his view'
• flexibility


  the minority should balance consistency and flexibility so they don't appear rigid.

  nemeth argued that being consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours is seen as rigid and off-putting to the majority.

  instead, the minority should adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter-arguments.
• snowball effect


  over time, more people become 'converted'- switch from the majority to the minority. the more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred.
• who conducted a study into minority influence?

  moscovici et al.
• procedure of moscovici et al.: the blue-green slides

  • group of six people viewed 36 blue-green coloured slides varying in intensity, the stated whether the slides were blue or green
  • study had three conditions: (1) confederates consistently said the slides were green. (2) confederates were inconsistent about the colour of the slides. (3) a control group (no confederates).
• findings & conclusions of moscovici et al.: the blue-green slides

  • consistent minority condition: participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of trials, 32% gave the same answer on at least one trial.
  • inconsistent minority condition: agreement fell to 1.25%
  • control group: participants wrongly identified colour 0.25% of the time.
• limitation of minority influence research: artificial tasks

  moscovici's task was identifying the colour of a slide, far removed from how minorities try to change majority opinion in real life. in jury decision-making and political campaigning, outcomes are vastly more important, maybe a matter of life or death. findings of studies lack external validity and are limited in what they tell us about how minority influence works in real-life situations.
• strength of minority influence: research support

  moscovici varied his study: participants wrote their answers down, so their responses were private. agreement with the minority was greater. this shows that internalisation took place. members of the majority had been reluctant to admit their 'conversion' publicly. this shows people may be influenced by a minority but don't admit it, therefore the effect of the minority is not apparent.
• limitation of minority influence: applications of research are limited

  studies make a clear distinction between majority and minority, but real-life situations are more complicated. the difference is about more than just numbers. majorities usually have power and status. minorities are committed and tight-knit groups whose members know and support each other. minority influence research rarely reflects the dynamics of these groups so findings may not apply to real-life minority influence situations which exert a more powerful influence.
• strength: research demonstrates important of consistency


  moscovici et al. found a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on people than an inconsistent opinion. wood et al. conducted a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent were most influential. this confirms that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.