Minority Influence

Question 1

What are the factors that make minority influence successful?

Answer 1

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
Explaining the process of change;

Question 2

What is synchronic consistency?

Answer 2

agreement between people in the minority group;

Question 3

What is diachronic consistency?

Answer 3

agreement over time;

Question 4

Why is commitment effective?

Answer 4

extreme activities from minority groups draws attention to their cause;

Question 5

What is the augmentation principle?

Answer 5

more risk = more commintment = more attention;

Question 6

How is flexibility effective?

Answer 6

Minority groups have to be prepared to adapt views and accept reasonable counter arguments

delicate balance between consistency and flexibility;

Question 7

What does explaining the process of change involve?

Answer 7

Factors such as consistency, commitment and flexibility draw attentiuon to the cause, but etpoc can lead to conversion- deeper cognition process= changing thoughts and behaviour;

Question 8

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 8

the more people who are converted, the faster the rate of conversion;

Question 9

Explain Martin et al’s procedure

Answer 9

• presented a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured participant’s agreement
• one group of ps then heard a minority group agree with the initial view
• other group heard the majority agree
• ps were finally exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again;

Question 10

Explain Martin et al’s findings

Answer 10

• people were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to minority group
• this suggests that the minority messgae had been more deeply processed;

Question 11

Explain Moscovici’s procedure and findings

Answer 11

• group of ps asked to view set of 36 blue coloured slides thatg varied in intensity
• had to state where slides were blue/green
• 2 confederates consistently said green
• true ps gave same wrong answer 3.42% of the trials;