Minority Influence

Question 1

What is minority influence?

Answer 1

This is when a minority group gradually influence the position of the majority (often occurs over time)

Question 2

Which type of conformity does minority influence lead to?

Answer 2

Internalisation - people genuinely come to accept the views as right and there own

Question 3

Which 3 factors affect the success of minority influence?

Answer 3

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

Question 4

How does consistency affect minority influence?

Answer 4

It helps to create interest in the minority position
Synchronic Consistency (consistency between all the different members) ppl think maybe they have a point if they all think that way
Diachronic Consistency (consistency over time) ppl think maybe they have a point if they keep saying that

Question 5

How does commitment affect minority influence?

Answer 5

Commitment, particularly self-sacrifice helps gain the attention of the majority bc they think they must really believe what they say - this leads to the augmentation principle and people consider their own view on the issue

Question 6

How does flexibility affect minority influence?

Answer 6

The minority must show consistency but at the same time willing to compromise - not dogmatism, this will just irritate the public and majority view

Question 7

What is the snowball affect and how does it relate to minority influence?

Answer 7

The snowball affect occurs when people begin to defect to the minority position, as this happens more and more ppl defect until eventually the minority view is now the majority

Question 8

What is the key study into minority influence?

Answer 8

Moscovici’s Blue-Green slides (1969)

Question 9

What were the aims, methods and findings of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 9

To see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer on a colour perception task.
172 female pcps - in groups of six - shown 36 slides of shades blue - in one condition the 2 confederates consistently said all 36 were green, in another they were inconsistent saying 24 green & 12 blue - consistent condition agreed on 8.2% of trials, only 1.25% for inconsistent

Question 10

What are the evaluation points for minority influence?

Answer 10

+ Research support for the importance of consistency - Moscovici et al
- Minority influence research often involves artificial tasks - Moscovici - limited generalisability
- There are limited applications for the minority influence research - real life social influence situations are more complex than min/maj influence
+ Research supports the role of internalisation in minority influence - variation of Moscovici in which answers were written increased conformity to min. position