Minority Influence
Minority influence is a type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established majority norms and this is achieved through the process of conversion
Conversion: the new belief/behaviour being accepted both publically and privately and can be seen as a type of internalisation
Conversion through minority influence generally occurs through informational social influence where a minority provide new information and ideas to the majority , therefore it takes longer because time will need to be taken for individuals to re examine their beliefs and behaviour in the light of new information
The gradual process by which minority opinions become majority ones is called social cryptoamnesia ( the snowball effect )
Minority influence is crucial in bringing about social change
Minority influence will be persuasive if the minority is consistant with its opinion or behaviour , shows confidence in its beliefs and appears unbiased
Consistancy is important as it shows commitment , especially is the minority have to resist to social pressures and abuses against their viewpoint
Serge Moscovici (1969)
Aim : To investigate the role of a consistant majority upon the opinions of a majority in an unambigious situation
Procedure : Participants placed in 32 groups of 6 , in each group 4 real participants and 2 confederates and participants were told it was an investigation into perception . Each group was shown 36 blue slides with filters varying the intensity of colour . In the consistant condition the confederates answered wrongly that the slides were green , in the inconsistant condition the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue . Answers given verbally
Findings : 8.2% agreement with the minority in the consistant condition , 32% agreeing atleast once . There was only 1.25% agreement in the inconsistant condition
Conclusions : Although minority influence is relatively small , consistancy is the important variable
Evaluation : Consistant minorities have an even greater influence on private attitudes , in another experiment where viewpoints were given privately there were greater agreement . Only female participants were used so results cant be generalised to males and research shows that females are more conformist . Unethical as involves deceit so may have endured mild stress . Research supports findings , eg meyers (2000)
Flexibility
Consistant minorities who are inflexible , rigid and uncompromising in their beliefs and behaviour will not be persuasive
If they are seen to be flexible by demonstrating an ability to be moderate , co-operative and reasonable , they will be persuasive
Research : Nemeth ( 1986 ) created groups of 3 participants and one confederate , they had to decide how much compensation to pay to the victim of a ski lift accident . When the confederate , acting as a consistant minority , argued for a low amount and refused to change his position he had no effect on the majority . When he compromised a little and moved to offering a slightly higher amount the majority changed their opinion to a lower amount
Research : Mugny and papastamou (1982) got participants to respond to questions about responsibility for pollution , they were also exposed to a minorities extreme views on how to control pollution . When to majority refused to budge from their opinion they were not persuasive however when they compromised they were seen as less extreme and were more persuasive
