Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Social influence
and social change
- It is argued that minority
influence is the only type
of social influence which
causes social change.
- This is because with majority
influence, the majority are
already in favour of the subject,
so there is no change, and with
obedience it is usually only one
or a few people obeying an
authority figure, therefore not
creating majority social change.
- There are five main factors
which allow a minority to
influence social change:
- 1. Consistency
- consistent
behaviour,
persistence,
unanimity.
- 2. Evidence of personal
commitment (and self-sacrifice).
- 3. Use of reasoned arguments
- evidence of understanding
other points of view.
- 4. Be similar to the majority
in terms of age, gender,
class and sometimes race.
- 5. Develop a
'snowball effect' -
social cryptoamnesia.
- In which the majority
forget how, why and
when they were
persuaded to agree so
they end up internalising
the views of the majority.
- People who are or have been in high political
power are in a position of minority influence
over a large majority of the population.
- Many of them show one or more of the five factors
that minorities use in influencing social change.
- Gandhi showed personal commitment and self
sacrifice, Hitler showed consistency, Obama uses
reasoned arguments and Martin Luther King was
similar to the majority in terms of age, gender and class.
- A study by Moscovici et al. found that
consistency is an important factor in
minority influence. They found that 8% of
the people in a group containing a minority
of consistent confederates who gave the
wrong answer conformed, whereas only
1% in a group where the minority gave the
wrong answer inconsistently.
- Moscovici also found that consistent minorities
have an even greater influence on private attitudes.
- Enter text here
- This shows that when influenced by a minority, a person does
not only comply, they also internalise the opinions given.
- Research by Nemeth and Kwan found that
when participants are doing tasks which require
divergent thinking, minority influence leads to
better performance than majority influence.
- It is easier to follow what one person is
doing than what a group of people are doing.