minority influence

• Minority Influence


  When a small group of people or even an individual changes the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of the majority
• Conformity


  An individual being influenced by the majority
• Minority influence


  Likely to lead to internalisation i.e. both public and private behaviour and beliefs align
• Factors which enhance the effectiveness of a minority

  • Consistency
  • Commitment
  • Flexibility
• Consistency


  The minority has to be consistent in their views i.e. promoting a specific 'message' which does not fluctuate or change over time
• Types of consistency


  • Synchronic consistency: The minority presents a united front and share the same view/message
  • Diachronic consistency: The minority have been arguing for their view/message for some time
• Consistency


  May produce a war of attrition i.e. the majority may begin to look seriously at the minority's stance, possibly admiring them for not veering from what they believe in - and gradually this can chip away the doubts and misgivings of most people
• Example of consistency


  • Climate change activists: the message is the same (i.e. the earth is dying) and, over time, more people are taking this seriously
• Commitment


  The minority has to show full commitment to their message and not be put off by naysayers and critics
• Example of commitment


  • The martyrdom of Emily Davison, a suffragette who flung herself in front of the king's horse at the Epsom Derby to raise awareness of women's right to vote
• Flexibility


  The minority should be able to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter opinions otherwise most people will be put off and may remain unsympathetic
• Example of flexibility


  • The popularity and acceptance of veganism: where once only highly specialist shops stocked vegan food it can now be found everywhere, probably because it features alongside non-vegan dishes in restaurants and there are vegan versions of meat-based dishes i.e. vegan food is not scary and can be enjoyed by everyone
• The process of change

  1. Consistency, commitment and flexibility make people think about the minority cause

  2. Over time, the increasing numbers who change from the majority to the minority, are the converted

  3. The more this process happens, the faster the rate of conversion from majority to minority

  4. This process is called the snowball effect - what starts out small gathers pace and picks up new members, like a snowball being rolled downhill

  5. Over time, the minority becomes the majority
• Research which investigates minority influence
• 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
• 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
• Strengths of minority influence research

  • 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
• Weaknesses of minority influence research

  • 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
• Social change is a shift or adaptation in social norms (behaviours, attitudes, customs, beliefs, habits)
• Social change is not sudden; it takes place gradually, sometimes without people realising that change is happening
• Examples of gradual social change

  • The move towards recycling at home began with people using communal recycling hubs (e.g. huge brown bins to deposit bottles) followed by people installing their own green/brown/blue bins both outside and inside their homes for different recycled items
  • If you had gone into a pub, restaurant or even cinema in the 1970s you would probably be overwhelmed by cigarette smoke (hard to imagine now!): public health campaigns over the decades helped to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking which eventually translated to official government policy
• Often minority influence is the driving force behind social change
• Examples of minority influence driving social change

  • Gay rights, in particular the right to marry someone of the same sex is something that - decades ago - would not have been considered possible
  • By drawing attention to the inequalities of heterosexual/homosexual experience (e.g. through campaigns such as Stonewall and celebrations such as Pride week) meant that discussions around gay rights could begin properly
  • By maintaining a consistent message and showing commitment to the cause, gay rights campaigners were able to show that this was a serious issue that warranted serious attention and consideration
  • Taking a flexible approach (e.g. using humour as a 'weapon'; avoiding a rigid and inflexible argument) has helped the gay rights cause to reach a wider audience and to find support from various sectors of society which can lead to deeper processing of the issue
  • Harvey Milk was the first openly gay politician to be elected in California: he sponsored a bill banning homosexual discrimination in hotels, housing and jobs and was assassinated for his stance (the augmentation principle)
  • The snowball effect can be seen in the year-on-year traction that was made by the gay rights movement culminating in gay marriage becoming legal in the UK in 2013
  • Gay marriage is now not regarded as unusual in many countries and TV shows such as Ru Paul's Drag Race, It's A Sin and Queer Eye highlight social cryptomnesia i.e. the change becomes part of the fabric of society to the extent that it's difficult to remember a time when things were different
• When writing about social change in the exam it is a good idea to think of examples and link these to the question
• Examples of social change to discuss in exams

  • Changing attitudes regarding working from home post-pandemic
  • Overseas long-haul air travel and climate change
  • Use of cruelty-free beauty products and cosmetics
  • Rising levels of anxiety and use of social media
• Use key terms such as social cryptomnesia, snowball effect, augmentation principle etc. as well as referring to changing government policy