minority influence

• Minority influence

  refers to how one people or small group influences the beliefs and behavior of other people. The minority may influence just one person, or a group of people which is different to conformity where the majority does the influencing.
• Internalisation

  Minority influence leads to internalisation (where both public and private views are changed). This is done by three key elements : consistency, commitment and flexibility
• Consistency

  This means the minority's view gains more interest. Consistency makes others rethink their own views . The two types of consistency :

  1. Synchronic consistency - people in the minority are all saying the same thing
  2. Diachronic consistency - they've been saying the same thing for some time
• Commitment

  Helps gain attention. Activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause.

  Augmentation principle - majority pay even more attention ('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 counterarguments.
• Process of minority influence

  Individuals think deeply about the minority position because it is new/unfamiliar.

  Snowball effect - overtime, more people become 'converted' and then eventually there is a switch from the minority to the majority. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. Gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred.
• Evaluation

  One strength is research supporting consistency. Moscovici found a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on people than an inconsistent opinion. Wood conducted a meta-analysis of 100 studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent were more influential. This confirms that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is minority influence research often involves artificial tasks. Moscovici's task was identifying the colour of a slide, far removed from how minorities try to change majority opinion in the real world. 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 world situations.
• Evaluation

  One strength is the power of minority influence. Agreement with the minority was only 8% in Moscivici's study showing minority influence must be quite rare, so perhaps not a useful concept. However, more participants agreed with the minority when writing their answers privately. So those who do go public must be the tip of the iceberg and hold their new views strongly. Therefore minority influence is valid as it is a relatively unusual for of social influence but can change people's views powerfully and permanently.