Minority Influence

• minority influence is when the minority group changes the attitudes and behaviour of the majority
• there are three stages of conversion

  • conflict - saying things and taking action in order to get people to pay attention
  • understanding - when the minority has the attention of the majority, the majority will try to understand the minority's viewpoint, behaviours and attitudes
  • validity - if the minority seems valid, the majority are persuaded by the minority
• in the end, the majority will internalise the attitudes of the minority and become converted

  conversion is a form of internalisation
• there are three steps to strengthening minority influence

  • consistency - for example, the suffragettes had a consistent message. all members agreed on the message and it didnt change over time or context. the more that they repeated it, the more the majority listened.
  • commitment - for example, the suffragettes thought their cause was more important than their lives and the law. they were willing to die and go to prison for what they believed in
  • flexibility - they took what they were given. they discussed with people who disagreed with them. they built on what they had
• social change is when there is a change in what is considered the norm
• the number of people who agree with this minority grows until it becomes the majority. this is called the snowball effect
• social cryptomnesia is when people forget where these new social norms and attitudes come from
• members of a majority internalise the beliefs and views of a consistent minority
• • the minority may seem wrong as they dont match the norm
  • but being consistent shows commitment to the cause and unwillingness to compromise
  • creates conflict - validation process
  • if theres no reason to dismiss the minority, then you begin to see things from their view
• social impact theory by Latane and Wolf

  argued that social influence occurs due to the combined effect of

  • strength
  • numbers
  • immediacy

  this theory says that minority and majority influence happen in the same way (opposing moscovci's conversion theory)
• a meta analysis of social impact theory studies found that a lot of studies relied on self-report

  it was then argued that support for social impact theory could actually be a result of demand characteristics
• minorities can become the majority through the snowball effect

  • needs the public to go from private acceptance to public expression
  • may happen due to social cryptoamnesia
• social cryptoamnesia is when the public changes from private acceptance to public expression

  until their view is accepted as the norm

  but people forget where the view originally came from