Minority Influence Flashcards
(8 cards)
What is minority influence?
A minority persuades the majority to change their beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours.
Likely leads to internalisation/conversion
CONSISTENCY - MOSCOVICI
CONSISTENCY
MOSCOVICI
when members share the same belief (synchronic) and retain it over time (diachronic)
suggests they feel that their view is correct
challenges existing majority views
- 172 females ppts in groups of 6, 2/6 confederates
- colour perception task - say colour of slide out loud
- consistent condition: said all 36 slides are green
- inconsistent conditio: said 24 slides are green and 12 blue
- cons- ppt agreed 8% of rounds, incons- ppt agreed 1% of rounds
COMMITMENT - MARTIN ET AL
COMMITMENT
MARTIN ET AL
engaging in extreme actions in order to draw people’s attention to their views
suggest their view is important and correct
requires people to think deeply about their view so they engage with it - augmentation principle
- gave ppts a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support
- ppts then heard a minority group agree with the initial view, whilst another group heard this from a majority group
- both groups were then exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again
- Martin et al found that people were less willing to change their opinion if they had listened to a minority group rather than if they were shared with a majority group
- minority message more deeply processed and had an enduring effect
FLEXIBILITY - NEMETH
FLEXIBILITY
NEMETH
inflexibility can be interpreted as extremism and may put people off
compromise deemed as reasonable and people will be more likely to engage
- groups of 3 ppt and 1 fed who had to decide how much compensation to pay a victim of a ski lift accident.
- when a consistent fed argued for a low amount and refused to change his position , he had no effect on the majority
- however when he compromised a little and suggested a slightly higher amount, the majority changed their opinion to the lower amount
- flexbility more persuasive
EVALUATION
EVALUATION
- Meta-analysis support for consistency - Wood et al
- Support for MI creating systematic processing
- Lacks external validity
EVAL: Meta-analysis support for consistency
Meta-analysis support for consistency
- Moscovici - consistent - 8% ppts agreed, inconsistent - 1% ppt agreed
- Wood et al reviewed ~100 studies and found consistent minorities most influential
- empirical support
EVAL: Support for MI creating systematic processing
Support for MI creating systematic processing
- ppts in Martin et al study had systematically processed the view believing that a minority position must involve a new or important viewpoint that would be worthy of deep consideration
- empirical evidence that MI creates deeper thinking
EVAL: Lacks external validity
Lacks external validity
- Moscovici - choosing between green and blue slides - artificial task
- different from real-life situations — e.g suffragette movement (significant issues)
- may not be able to explain the succes or failure of real-life movements, lacks mundane realism
