Minority influence Flashcards
Define minority influence.
One person or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people. This is distinct from conformity (where the majority is doing the influencing). In both cases the people being influenced may be one person, a small group or a large group.
What are the three topics involved in minority influence?
Consistency Commitment Flexibility
Explain consistency in terms of minority influence.
The minority must be consistent in their views. Over time, this consistency increases the amount of interest from other people. A consistent minority makes other people start to rethink their own views.
Explain commitment in terms of minority influence.
The minority must commit to their cause or views. Sometimes minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that these extreme activities present some risk to the minority because this shows greater commitment. Majority group memvers then pay even more attention. This is called the augumentation principle.
Explain flexibility in terms of minority influence.
Someone who is extremely consistent, who simply repeats the same old arguments and belabours again may be seen as rigid and unbending. This approach on its own is unlikely to gain may converts. Instead, members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt to their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments. Overtime, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position and become converted. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion and this is called the snowball effect.
Give a strength of minority influence. (Research support for consistency).
One strength is research evidence demonstrating the importance of consistency. E.g Moscovicis ‚ blue slide, green slide‚ study. He conducted a re-run of Asch‚Äôs experiment, but in reverse, Instead of one subject amongst a majority of confederates, he placed two confederates together with four genuine participants. The female participants were given eye tests to ensure they were not colour-blind. They were then placed in a group consisting of four participants and two confederates. They were shown 36 slides which were clearly different shades of blue and asked to state the colour of each slide out loud. In the first part of the experiment the two confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides. They were totally consistent in their responses. In the second part of the experiment they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. In this case they were inconsistent in their answers. In condition one it was found that the consistent minority had an effect on the majority. The participants said ‘green’ on over 8% of the trials. A third (32%) of all participants judged the slide to be green at least once. Minorities can influence a majority, but not all the time.
Give 2 limitations/criticisms of Moscovici’s study on minority influence.
This study has been criticised for its lack of ecological validity. The study was a lab experiment and also seems unlikely to occur in a real life setting. Moscovicis participants knew that they were in a study so it is possible they responded to demand characteristics. In Moscovici’s study, the figure for agreement with a constant minority was very low, on average only 8%. This suggests that minority influence is quite rare and not a useful concept.
