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Minority Influence (Minority Influence (Minority influence leads to…
Minority Influence
Minority Influence
Minority influence leads to internalisation both - both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed
Three processes: Consistency, Commitment, Flexibility
Consistency makes others rethink their own views.
-Synchronic Consistency - People in the minority saying the same thing
-Diachronic consistency - They've been saying the same thing for some time.
Commitment
Activities must create some risk to the minority to demonstrate commitment to the cause.
-Augmentation Principle: Majority pay even more attention
Flexibility
Nameth (1986) argued that being consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviour is seen as rigid and off-putting to the majority
Instead, the minority should adapt their point of view and accept reasonable counter-arguments
Snowball Effect
Over time, more people become 'converted' - from the minority to the majority. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. Gradually the minority view becomes the majority and social change has occurred
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Evaluation
Weakness: results from studies into minority influence are not generalisable
Research studies make a clear difference between the minority and majority, but real life is more complex. There is more involved in the difference between a minority and majority than just numbers, for example, majorities usually have more power and status. This means that results from minority influence studies cannot be generalised as the investigations do not reflect real life accurately enough
Strength: supported by research evidence
Moscovici et al showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on others than an inconsistent opinion. Wood et al (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were the most influential. This suggests that consistency is a major factor in minority influence
Weakness: many of the tasks used in minority influence are artificial
Research is therefore far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of a majority in real life. This means that the findings of minority influence studies are lacking in internal vaidity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real life
Strength: supported by research evidence
In a variation of Moscovici's blue-green slides study, participants were allowed to write their answers down. Private agreement with the minority position was greater in these circumstances; it appears that members of the majority were being convinced by the minority argument and changing their views, but were reluctant to admit this publicly. This shows that the minority influence can still make people internalise their views even if they won't admit it publicly