9) Minority Influence

Question 1

What is minority influence

Answer 1

• One person/group of poeople cam have a influence of the beliefs of others
• Leading to internalisation

Question 2

What are the three processes of minority influence and what are they

Answer 2

• Consistency, always doing the same thing
• Commitment, showing deep involvement
• Flexibility, willingness of listening to others and their ideas

Question 3

What are the two types of consistency

Answer 3

Synchronic consistency - people in minority all saying the same thing
Diachronic Consistency - they have been saying the same thing for a long time

Question 4

What is the snowball effect

Answer 4

The minority becomes the majority and eventually social change has occurred

Question 5

EV - Research support for consistency

Answer 5

• Moscovici found consistent minority opinion had a greater influence compared to inconsistent opinions
• Wood et al did a meta analysis of almost 100 studies and found the constant ones were much more influential
• Consistency is a major factor in minority influence

Question 6

EV - Research showing role of deeper processing

Answer 6

• Martin et al gave ps a message from either a minority or majority
• Less willing to change their opinions to a new conflicting view if they had listened to a minority compared to a majority
• Minority message more deeply processed

Question 7

EV - often research involves artificial task

Answer 7

• Moscovici study involved identifying the colour of a slide
• In jury decisions or political outcomes are vastly more important and serious
• lacks external validity