Minority influence
Specification: Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
So far, we have examined research that focuses on the persuasive power of the majority and our willingness to obey an authority figure. However, social influence can occur when a minority (small group) changes the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of a majority; this is known as minority influence.
Psychologists have identified different factors that can enhance the effectiveness of a minority, including: consistency, commitment and flexibility.
Consistency
Consistency refers to the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority members share the same belief and retain it over time. This then draws the attention of the majority group to the minority position. One of the most influential experiments investigating minority influence was conducted by Moscovoci (1969).
Aim: To see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer, in a colour perception task.
Method: His sample consisted of 172 female participants who were told that they were taking part ina colour perception task. The participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue. The participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide.
Two of the six participants were confederates and in one condition (consistent) the two confederates said that all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.
Results: Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials, whereas the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials.
Conclusion: Moscovici’s results show that a consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority and that consistency is an important factor in exerting minority influence.
Commitment
On occasion, minorities sometimes engage in very risky or extreme behaviour in order to draw attention to their views. In psychological terms, it is important that these behaviours place the minority at risk in order for them to demonstrate commitment to their cause. This is called the augmentation principle, as the majority then in turn pays more attention to the actions being taken and is therefore more likely to integrate it into their personal viewpoints, augmenting its importance, due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority.
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority is willing to compromise. This means they cannot be viewed as dogmatic and unreasonable.
Aim: Nemeth (1986) believed that consistency was not the most important factor in minority influence, suggesting that it can often be misinterpreted as a negative trait. She set about investigating the idea of flexibility as a key characteristic of successful minorities who exert pressure.
Method: Participants, in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski-lift accident.
One of the participants in each group was a confederate and there were two condition:
When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position (inflexible).
When the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible).
Results: Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority; however, in the flexible condition, the majority members were more likely to also compromise and change their view.
Conclusion: Nemeth’s research highlights the importance of flexibility, and questions the idea of consistency, suggesting that striking a balance between the two is the most successful strategy for a minority to adopt.
Evaluating Minority Influence
Moscovici used a biased sample of 172 female participants from America. As a result, we are unable to generalise the results to other populations, for example male participants, and we cannot conclude that male participants would respond to minority influence in the same way. Furthermore, research often suggests that females are more likely than males to conform and therefore further research is required to determine the effect of minority influence on male participants to improve the low population validity of this experiment.
Moscovici has also been criticised for breaching ethical guidelines during his study. He deceived his participants, as they were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test when in fact it was an experiment on minority influence. This also means that Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent. Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, Moscovici’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results, as if the participants were aware of the true aim, they might have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently. This, a cost-benefit analysis would deem that the insight gained from such research was worth the short-term cost to the participants which could be dealt with by means of a debrief following the study.
There are methodological issues with research into minority influence. Judging the colour of a slide is an artificial task and therefore lacks mundane realism, since it is not something that occurs every day. Research conditions are criticised as being too far removed from cases of real-world minority influence such as political campaigning. The implications of real-world cases are also grossly disproportionate to those seen in a lab setting as they can, for some people, literally be cases of life or death and as such Moscovici’s research lacks external validity.
Moscovici’s research into minority influence provides support for informational social influence. In one of his variations, participants were asked to write down their answers rather than say the colour of the slide out loud. This meant that their response was private and not shared with the other group members. Under these circumstances, it was found that agreement with the minority position was in fact higher, suggesting that they had internalised the viewpoint as true and correct. Moscovici suggests that the majority was convinced of the minority’s argument but found it easier to confess this privately, as being associated with a minority position may seem ‘radical’.
Possible exam questions
Identify which of the following has the smallest impact on minority influence: (1 mark)
a) consistency
b) flexibility
c) inconsistency
d) commitment
Define what is meant by minority influence. (2 marks)
Moscovici had three conditions in his famous blue/green slide experiment. The first group of participants was exposed to a consistent minority, the second to an inconsistent minority and the third acted as a control group. Explain what is meant by the term ‘control group’. (2 marks)
Identify three behaviours that enable a minority to influence a majority. (3 marks)
In relation to minority influence, explain what is meant by the terms consistency and flexibility. (4 marks)
A small group of environmentally‐conscious A level students are protesting for their sixth form to become ‘paper‐free’ for the next academic year, to save precious world resources. Recently, they had a meeting with some teachers as representatives of the whole teaching staff at the college. The staff told the students that the sixth form could become ‘paper‐free’ if they could convince the rest of the students it was a great idea.
Use your knowledge of conformity and minority influence to explain the factors that will determine how successful the small group of students will be. (7 marks)
Outline and evaluate research into minority influence. (16 marks)
