minority influence

• social change

  drawing attention -> consistency -> augmentation principle -> deeper understanding -> snowball effect -> social cryptoamnesia
• social change is the process by which society changes beliefs, attitudes and behaviour to create new social norms
• social change - lessons from conformity research

  allies - a large group are generally more persuasive than a smaller group

  information social influence - persuaded by group when they think they have more information

  evidence to support: asch and jenness
• social change - lessons from obedience research

  gradual commitment - more likely to be persuaded if initial request isnt significant

  legitimate authority - people can be persuaded by an individual if they are considered authority or celebrities

  evidence: milgram and milgram again
• social change - lessons from minority influence research

  consistency, commitment and flexibility
• minority influence is a type of social influence that motivates the individuals to reject the established majority group norms and be gradually won over to a minority viewpoint
• consistency - a minority must be consistent in their views

  synchronic = between group, diachronic = over time

  consistency increases amount of interest and draws attention
• moscovici provides evidence

  perception experiments where p's had to identify the colour of a series of blue slides, the minority group consistently answered green for all slides were 6x more likely to influence the majority
• flexibility - a minority must be flexible with their demands. extreme consistency can be off putting and unlikely to gain converts

  doesn't alienate majority, prevents minority as reasonable, increases chances of snowball effect
• nemeth

  p's in groups of four had to agree on amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski lift accident. in one condition, minority argued for a low rate and didn't change, the minority had little to no effect
• commitment - a minority must be committed to their cause. augmentation principle - willingness to engage in activities involving personal risk indicates strong belief