minority influence

minority influence
1. small group of people influence the beliefs and behaviour of others
  1. most likely to lead to internalisation
    1. public and private beliefs change
      1. Moscovici first studied this
2. consistency
  1. if the minority are consistent then more people are going to believe them
    1. synchronic consistency - they're all saying the same thing
      1. diachronic consistency - they've been saying it for a long time
3. commitment
  1. minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention - shows commitment
    1. this is called augmentation principle
4. flexibility
  1. Nemeth
    1. if you are always consistent then you could be seen as rigid
      1. minorities have to adapt their point of view and accept counter arguments
5. the process of change
  1. if you hear something new it will make you stop and think
    1. especially if the person is passionate about it
      1. people will change from majority to minority
        the more this happens the faster the rate of change
        snowball effect
        minority becomes majority and views have changed
evaluation
1. research support for consistency
  1. Moscovici
    1. a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect than an inconsistent one
  2. wood
    1. meta analysis over 100 studies
      1. minorities who were consistent were most influential
2. research support for depth of thought
  1. Martin
    1. one group heard a minority group agree with a point
      1. another hard a majority group agree
        people were less willing to change their opinion if they had listened to the minority group
        the minority message had been more deeply processed
3. artificial tasks
  1. limitation
    1. Moscovici experiment has a low mundane reality
      1. lacks external validity
        doesn't show how minority groups work in real life
evaluation +
1. research support for internalisation
  1. Moscovici
    1. one variation was to write down their views to what colour the slide was
      1. agreeing with the minority went up
        showing a private change but too scared to say it publicly
2. limited real world applications
  1. it's not just about how many people agree
    1. in real life it is more complicated
      1. majorities usually have more power and money
      2. minorities are very committed
      3. minorities usually have loyal supporters

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minority influence

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	Created by Daisy U about 8 years ago