minority influence

• what are the 3 factors that make minorities more influential?

  1. consistent
  2. committed
  3. flexible
• outline the principle of consistency in minority influence

  consider why they hold a particular view

  • reasoning as to why they're confident to maintain it over time

  synchronic - all saying the same thing

  diachronic - saying the same thing for a while
• outline the principle of commitment in minority influence

  people endure personal sacrifice for their viewpoint, more likely to be taken seriously

  • consider why people are willing to make sacrifices

  augmentation principle - majority group pays more attention
• outline the principle of flexibility in minority influence

  minorities are outnumbered, little power, need to negotiate a solution

  • avoids being seen as "difficult"
  • encourages listening and discussion
• what's the role of identification in minority influence?

  Maass & Clark

  • exposed to minority opinion on gay rights
  • different minorities perceived as self-serving so not influential

  
  

  • more likely to identify with similar minority
  • consider their view and change behaviour to be in line with theirs
• outline the method of moscovici et al's study

  • US female students assigned to groups of 6 (4x NP and 2x C)
  • shown blueish slides and asked to judge colour

  "consistent" - confederates always said green

  "inconsistent" - green 2/3 of the time and 1/3 blue

  control - always said blue
• what were the findings of moscovici et al's study?

  "inconsistent" - no real influence

  "consistent" - 8% influence

  • judged more discs as green, private behaviour was influenced
• what did moscovici et al's study conclude?

  behavioural style in minority influence and power of consistency

  
  

  not as powerful as majority influence
• outline how the process of change occurs with minority influence

  deeper processing helps with conversion

  • hearing something new makes you think about it

  snowball effect - more people switch to minority, faster rate of conversion, minority becomes majority
• outline evaluation point 1 for minority influence

  research support

  • Moscovici - consistency impacts minority influence
  • meta-analysis of 100 studies replicated findings
  • increased validity
• outline evaluation point 2 for minority influence

  supporting evidence

  • Martin et al - less willing to change views after hearing minority group
  • deep processing had more enduring effect
  • increases internal validity
• outline evaluation point 3 for minority influence

  artificial tasks

  • identifying colour of a slide
  • doesn't relate to real life e.g. jury decisions
  • lacks external validity