Resistance

• Reasons for not conforming: independent behaviour, anti-conformity, social support.
• Independent behaviour - behaviour that is not altered despite pressures to conform or obey.
• Anti-conformity - when someone deliberately goes against others.
• Majority Influence - people try to fit in. They comply or conform with little scrutiny.
• Minority influence - creates a conversion process. The minority will influence the majority to look into their view and adopt it.
• For a minority to have influence, it must be consistent, committed and flexible.
• MI. Consistency - keeping the same beliefs over time and between individuals. People will question why they are so consistent, drawing attention.
• MI. Synchronic consistency - the minority all believing and expressing the same thing in one instance.
• MI. Diachronic consistencry - the minority expressing the same thing over time.
• MI. Commitment - the majority are likely to pay attention to behaviour that shows dedication. When we see the minority putting themselves at risk, it shows dedication.
• MI. Flexibility - relentless consistency can be damaging. Minorities need to adapt and possibly compromise.
• MI. Moscovci etal (1969) wanted to investigate whether a minority can influence a majority and reverse the usual direction of social influence.
• Moscovci etal 1969. ppts were pre-tested for colour blindness. All ppts were female because he thought they would be more interested in colour. There were 32 groups of 6. There are three conditions; consistent, inconsistent and control.
• Moscovci etal 1969. Each condition involved 6 ppts present - 4 naive ppts (majority) 2 confederates (minority). Ppts were asked to describe the colour of 36 slides, they were all blue with different filters.
• Moscovci consistent - 2 confederates described all 36 slides as green.
• Moscovci inconsistent - 2 confederates described 24 out of 36 slides as green and the rest as blue.
• Moscovci control - no confederates.
• Moscovci consistent - 8% of ppts answered green and 32% conformed at least once.
• Moscovci inconsistent - 1% of ppts answered green
• Moscovci control - 0.25% answered green
• Moscovci conclusion - minority can have an influence over the majority, especially when the majority is consistent.
• Moscovci AO3. He used a biased sample of 172 females from the USA. This experiment cannot be generalised to anyone outside of the US or to men. Therefore this experiment lacks population validity and more research is needed.
• Moscovici AO3. Judging the colour of slides is artificial. This lacks mundane realism. This experiment is controlled and not like minority influence in real life, for example real life majorities have power and status. This shows that Moscovici lacks ecological validity.
• Moscovici AO3. This shows support for informational social influence. In one variation, ppts were asked to write down their response (private answer). This showed agreement with the minority was higher than the original viewpoint, suggesting ppts had internalised the viewpoint. Moscovici suggests this is because it is easier to agree with a minority privately rather than being publicly associated.