Minority Influence Flashcards
What is minority influence?
Social influence where members of the majority are influenced by members of the minority group
-A consistent, committed approach from the minority leads to members of the majority wanting to understand why the minority holds these views
-As a result of this, conversion to the minority’s views are usually stronger and longer lasting
What are the three conditions for a minority influence?
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
What is Consistency?
When minority is consistent, others come to reassess their beliefs and consider them more carefully
A meta-analysis showed that most successful minority influence took place when the minority were consistent in expressing their beliefs
What is commitment?
Commitment shows certainty and confidence in their beliefs
Minorities are usually more committed than majorities, because joining/ being part of a minority requires a greater risk and cost than a majority
Commitment persuades members of the majority to take their opinion seriously or even join them
What is flexibility
Flexibility is more successful at winning arguments than rigidity
Because they hold less power and cannot force the majority to adopt their views, they must negotiate with the majority
However, too much flexibility is inconsistent and forms a weak argument. The balance must be right
Who carried out the blue slide/ green slide study?
Moscovici et al.
What was the procedure of Moscovici’s study?
172 American Females
Each group was made up of 4 real ppts plus two confederates
The group were showed a series of blue slides of different shades and asked to judge whether or not the slide was ‘blue’ or ‘green’
In one variation, 2 confederates repeatedly called the blue slides ‘green’ (consistent)
In another variation, 2 confederates called the blue slides ‘green’ 2/3 of the time (inconsistent)
There was a control group who had NO confederates
What were the findings of Moscovici’s study?
Control group got it right almost 100% of the time (said ‘blue’)
Consistent minority influenced ppts to say ‘green’ (incorrect) on over 8% of the trials
Inconsistent minority had little influence, and results were similar to that of the control group
Moscovici’s theory of change
Explains how social change from a minority occurs:
Consistent views
Make sacrifices
-e.g Rosa Parks willing to sacrifice her freedom by refusing to give up her seat
Similarity to the majority
-age, gender, race, sexuality etc.
-it was found that straight men have greater convincing power than gay men when fighting for gay rights, because they relate to the people who hold negative views about gay people
AO3 -
Bias Sample
The sample was made up of 127 AMERICAN FEMALES
-The findings therefore cannot be generalised to other populations, like Asians, or Males
AO3 -
Deception (ethical issue)
Moscovici deceived ppts by telling them they were taking part in a colour perception study
-This means Moscovici was unable to gain fully informed consent
However, deception was needed in this study in order to avoid demand characteristics
AO3 -
Do we really process the minority’s message more
Mackie argues the opposite- we process the majorities message more
She argues that if the majority go against someones view, they are more likely to consider why that is, and in turn consider that it could be the correct view
AO3 +
Research support for flexibility
Researchers studied group members discussing the amount of compensation which should be awarded to a victim of a ski lift accident
-When the (confederate) minority was rigid, they were unsuccessful
-However, when a different confederate who was also part of the minority was compromising with the majority, they exerted an effect on the majorities decision.
