Minority influence Flashcards
(17 cards)
what is minority influence
situations where one indivudal or a small group of people persuade a majority to change their beleifs, attitudes or behaviours
what does minority influence lead to?
internalisation as both an individuals public and prviate beleifs are changed by the process
how is minority influence possible
- being exposed to new information and ideas make ssome individuals pay attention and listen
- this info is rhen processed at a deeper level and a conversion occurs to the minority viewpoint
what is the snowball effect
over time increasing numbers of people may switch from the majority to minortiy
to create a minority influence what 3 behavioural styles need to be adopted
- consistency
- commitment
- flexibility
explain consistency
- the miniortiy’s views must be consistent in thier opposition to the majority
- the minority needs to be stable in their opinion over time
- needs to be an agreement by all the minority, either diarchronic or synchronic
what is Diarchronic
where the minoritys message stays the same over time
What is Synchronic
where their is consistency between members
explain commitment
- invloves being dedicated to the minority/cause by showing certainty, confidence and courage
- augmentation principle: someone performs an action when there are known constraints, their motive for acting is considered stronger, “will to act with confidence”
explain flexibility
- necessary to let others know you have taken onboard their conciderations in making your decsion
- minority accepts the possibility and is willing to compromise
- involves negotiating thier postion with the majority
what was the aim of Moscovici’s study
to investigate whether a minortity group were able to change the opinions of a majority group using a colour perception task
what was the procedure for Moscovici’s study
- ppts were placed in a group made up of 4 naive ppts (majority) and two confederates (minority)
- shown 36 colours of sldies and asked to state the colour, confederates were instructed to name the slides green
- 3 groups in the experiement:
1. consistent condition - confederates answered green for all 36
2. inconsistent condition - confederates answered green 24 times
3. control group - no confederates
what were the results from Moscovici’s study
- consistent condition ppts answered green in 8.4% of the trials (32% agreeing atleast once)
- inconsistent conditon ppts answered green in only 1.3% trials
- control conditon ppts answered green only 0.25%
what conclusions were made from Moscovici’s study
a consistent minorty challenges peoples origional views by making them listen to alternatives shwoing that minority influence can challenge and change opinions and beleifs of a majority
strengths: consistency
I: supporting evidence for the key role of consistency
E: Wood et al conducted a meta analysis of 100 minority influence studies and found minorties who were seen as consistently presenting an argument were most influencial changing opinions of a majority group
C:shows that consistency is a major factor in minorty infleunce increasing validity of the theory
stregnths: flexibility
I: supporting research for the key role of lexibility
E: Nemeth simulated a jury situation where ppts discussed amount of compensation to be paid for a ski accident. ppts in majorty group were infleunced to change opinions by confederates who put a differnt view point across with flexibilty by compromise in their arguments
C: shows that flexibility is a major faactor in minorty influence increasing the theory’s validity
Weakness: external
I: majority of research in minority influence lacks external validity
E: judging the colour of the slides is artifical. no real consequences to agreeing or not with a minority regarding colour, therefore task does not represent how minorites influence people in the real world EG: political campaining
C: the research is limited in what it demonstrates about how minority influence works in real life situations
