Social Influence;
Resistance to social influence;
Locus of control;
How you view your behaviour.
Internal locus of control - When a person believes success or failure is based on factors that they can control.
- Eg; effort, hard work, their own actions.
External locus of control - When a person believes success or failure is based on factors that they can't control.
- Eg; luck, fate, other peoples actions.
Minority influence;
A conversion process where the majority question their own viewpoint and internalise the minorities as there must be a reason they take the stand they do.
Deeper and longer lasting due to internalisation.
Commitment - Majority has more to lost by joining the minority, suggests certainty, confidence and courage in the face of a hostile majority.
Flexibility - Minorities are usually powerless compared to the majorities so they have to negotiate their position with the majority instead of forcing it.
Yet if they are too flexible then they may run the risk of being seen as inconsistent.
To win over a majority they need to show that they are willing to compromise, while still having some uncomprimsable ideas.
The more committed, then the minority is more likely to be taken seriously and then the majority may even take the minorities viewpoint as their own.
Consistency - When people first see a minority group with a different view, they believe that they are in the wrong.
If they are too rigid then they will be percieved as narrow minded and unwilling to consider others opinions.
Yet if the minority adopt a consistent stand others reassess the situation and consider the issue more carefully.
As there must be a reason why they take the stand they do and consistently fight for it.
Moscovici et al (1969);
Method - Lab experiment involving 192 women. In groups of 6 they were asked to judge 36 blue slides, the brightness of the blue varies but they were all blue.
2 of the 6 were confederates in one trial they said all the slides were green (consistent) yet in the other they said 24 were green and 12 were blue (inconsistent). There was also a control group with no confederates.
Results -
- 32% green at least once.
- Consistent groups = 8.4% said green.
- Inconsistent group = 1.25% said green.
- Control group = 0.25% said green (easy task).
Conclusion - Confederates were in the minority but their views influenced the participants, and found that minorities have more influence when they are consistent.
Social change through minority influence;
Occurs when society or a significant part of society changes its views and adopts new behaviours as the norm.
A consistent minority challenges the current belief.
5 steps to social change;
1 - Drawing attention to the issue - let everyone know that there is a problem, majority reassess their viewpoint.
2 - Cognitive conflict - minorities create a conflict in the majority and makes them think about the issue being challenged.
3 - Consistency of a problem - minorities tend to be more influential at bringing about change when they are consistent.
4 - The augmentation principle - if a minority is willing to suffer for their views they are seen as more committed and taken more seriously.
5 - The snowball effect - process they go through to be more influential, more people begin to agree with the minority, minority --> majority.
Social cryptoamnesia - where public opinion gradually changes overtime until the minority view is the norm, but people forget where the view originally came from.
Social change through majority influence;
Examples -
- LGBTQIA+.
- Suffragettes.
- Flat earthers = non-example as they didn't cause any change.
Examples -
- Covid 19, wearing masks was seen as the norm, leading to the majority wearing masks, minority were seen in a bad light which lead to even more conforming.
- 'most of us don't drink and drive', stating that 4/5 didn't, promoting that its the norm not too, decreasing the number of people drinking and driving.
The majority perceiving something as a norm so that the minority change to fit that norm. Where the actual norm is publicised and communicated as the minority so that they conform to the majorities viewpoint.
The majority have the power to establish norms which can be used to nudge the minority into doing what they want.
