Social Influence - minority influence

Question 1

what is minority influence

Answer 1

a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
- lead to internalisation

Question 2

what is consistency

Answer 2

• most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs over time and between the individuals of the groups
• draws attention to the minority view

Question 3

what is commitment

Answer 3

• more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position
• making personal experiences
• minority isn’t acting out of self-interest
• augmentation principle

Question 4

what is flexibility

Answer 4

• more effective if flexibility is shown by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 5

what is the snowball effect

Answer 5

• minority view has become the majority view and change has occurred

Question 6

what is conversion

Answer 6

• switching from the majority view to the minority

Question 7

what was Moscovici’s study

Answer 7

-1969
- 6 people asked to view 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity
- state if the slides were green or blue
- each group there were 2 confederates who said the slide was green
- naive participant gave the wrong answer green on 8.42% of trials

• second group exposed to an inconsistent minority
• confederates said green 24 times and blue 12
• agreement with green fell to 1.25%
• third control group no confederates and all participants just identified the colour
• wrong answers 0.25%

Question 8

what is the research support for consistency

Answer 8

• Moscovici’s study showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing the views of others
• consistent minorities were the most influential

Question 9

what is the research support for deeper processing

Answer 9

• change in a majority’s position involved deeper processing of the minority’s ideas
• Martin et al (2003)
• presented a message supporting a viewpoint and measured the agreement
• 1 group heard the minority agree whilst another heard the majority agreed
• exposed to a conflicting view and measured again
• people were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to the minority group than the majority
• minority message had been more deeply processed

Question 10

why are artificial tasks a limitation of minority influence

Answer 10

• real life cases such as jury decisions and political campaigns the outcomes are more important
• lack in external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-world social situations