Consistency
Moscovici stated that being consistent and unchanging in a view is more likely to influence the majority than if a minority is inconsistent and chops and changes their mind.
A distinction can be made between two forms of consistency:

Diachronic Consistency (i.e. consistency over time) - the minority sticks to its vies and does not change them.
Synchronic Consistency (i.e. consistency between its members) - all members agree and back each other up.

Consistency may be important because:

Confronted with a consistent opposition, members of the majority will sit up, take notice, and rethink their position (i.e. the minority focuses attention on itself).
A consistent minority disrupts established norms and creates uncertainty, doubt and conflict. This can lead to the majority taking the minority view seriously. The majority will , therefore, be more likely to question their own views.

Moscovici conducted an experiment, in which female participants were shown 36 blue slides of different intensity and were asked to report the colours. There were two confederates (the minority) and four participants (the majority).
In the first part of the experiment, the two confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides. They were totally consistent in their responses. In the second part of the experiment, they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. In this case, they were inconsistent in their answers. A control group was also used consisting of participants only - no confederates.
When the conferderates were consistent in their answers, about 8% of participants said the slides were green. When the confederates answered inconsistently, about 1% of participants said the sides were green.

	Created by Tom Povey over 10 years ago

Inc. Minority Influence