minority influence Flashcards
(8 cards)
what does minority influence mean
*form of social influence
*members of majority group change their beahviour bcs of minority influencing decion
*leads to internalisation
what 3 things do u need for minority influence
*consistency- minority need to repeat same beliefs over time (diachronic synchrony) and between all individuals (synchronic consistency)- makes majoritu consider idea.
*commitment- must show dedication and make personal sacrifices.
*some enage in extreme activities to draw attention- majority pay attention- augmentation principle.
*flexibility- too much consistency- dogmatic and rigid
*should accept diffrent povs, adapt their pov, accept reasonable counter argfuments to strike a balance
16 m plan for minority influence
AO1:
Moscobi et Al
-controlled lab experiment
- 172 women with 2 conditions.
-In condition one confedrates were told to inconsistently call blue slides green; showing little commitment- 1% of majority changed their minds.
*when they were consistent and called ALL slides green (consi and commited) 8% of maj changed gtheir answers.
AO3:
Support:
P- Rs to sup flexibilty by Nemeth and Bilmayer.
E- conducted mock jury situationto decide amount of comp paid to someone involved in ski- lift accident.
E- when conf put alt point of view and refused to change position, had no effect on group. When compromised, did have influ on group as conf was flexible in his opinion able to chnage majority opinion.
L- supports that flex is important feature of minority infleunce.
Limitation:
P-can be criticided for gender bias especifically beta bias.
E- he conducted the research on only female participants and then generalised that a consistent minority (confederates repeatedly calling a blue slide “green”) is more effective in influencing the majority than an inconsistent minority.
E- However, research suggests men and women may conform differently, meaning these findings may not apply equally to both genders. Since women are generally thought to be more conformist than me), the level of influence observed in the study might not be the same for male participants.
L-therefore limiting the validity of rs into minority influence.
P- lacks mundane realism, as it used unrealistic task of stating colour of slide.
E- diff to generalise findings to explain ghow minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majority in real life social situations where outcomes more important.
E- for eg minority may be less influ in jury setting when deciding verdict for serious crime.
L- lowering external validity of rs.
Whats social change
*change in behaviours, attitudes, laws on a large scale
Process of social change
*minority influence- 3 principles- majority- internalisation- snowball effect- social crypto amnesia
What does the snowball effect mean
*few members of the majority start to move towards the minority
*influence of minority starts to gather momentum as more ppl pay attention.
*eventually minority idea becomes majority- snowball effect
What does social crypto amnesia mean
*when majority remembers minoritys idea but not that idea came from minority group
AO3 social change
Support:
P- real life evdience to support the role of minotity influence in social change from suffragette movement
E- minority grp of women showed consistency by havging belief that women should have equal rights between all members, over long period of time. They showed dedication by going on hunger stike and flexible as they ccepted womens voting age of 30 despite mens being 21.
E- Majority internalised the idea that women should have equal rights and now society’s behavipurs, attitudes, laws have changed.
L- showing real life role of social chnage.
Discuss:
P-critics argue that minority influ may be limited as they can be seen as deviant in the majoritys perspective,
E- so majority may not want to chnage views to be in line with them as they themselves ,ay be seen as deviant.
E- Message from minority may be forgotten whilst ppl focus on deviant behaviour .
L- limitimg social change and possibly why sufr movement took sig amount of time to implement social chnage.
Limitations:
P- alt exp for how minorit group cause social change is thru NSI.
E- this where minority groups can provide info about what others r doing. for eg telling young people that most young ppl dont smoke to deter smoking bhaviours
E- means that social chnage encouraged by drawing attention to what maj are doing and how indi can be seen as more desirable rather than thru minority influ processes like consit.
L- could be several social influence processes that con to social chnage.
P- however Foxcroft conducted meta-analysis where social change attempted thru social norms and NSI, including reducing alc consum in students.
E- found that NSI to bring about social change only lead to small reduction in drinking quant and no impact on frequency.
L- suggests NSI doesnt produce long term social change, limits use of this social influ process to bring change.
