Majority and Minority Influence

MAJORITY INFLUENCE - large group influences smaller sub-group or individual
1. ASCH - 1952 - LINE TASK MAJORITY INFLUENCE. Asch found people are more likely to conform when there are more than three confederates, beyond three makes no difference, conformity is stable. there was no significant consequences for conforming or resisting.
  1. ABRAMS ET AL - 2000 - THE SAME INFORMATION HAS DIFFERENT EFFECTS DEPENDING ON ITS SOURCE - in-group deviants are rejected even more if they deviate from the group norm
2. SOCIAL INFLUENCE - CIALDINI & GRISKEVICUS - 2010 - "when one person's attitudes, cognitions or behaviours are changed through the doings of another"
  1. people conform, comply and deviate from NORMS (beliefs and behaviours generated by a group and guide our interactions)
    1. humans crave to be part of a social group, such as social networking sites.
    2. COMPLY - go along with. CONFORM - internalise it. DEVIATE - go against it
3. SHERIF - 1936 - AUTOKINETIC STUDY - dark room, dot of light, asked how much the light moved, dark room impossible to judge distance, individual estimates become consistent over multiple channels. individual estimates changed when in a group. when other people were present, people changed their estimates to fall in line with eachother. group norm overtakes individual norm
  1. people conform in conditions of uncertainty or ambiguity, as people turn to eachother to decide about reality. logical thing to look to others and do it in many situations
4. WHEN DO PEOPLE CONFORM?
  1. 1. IN GROUPS OF THREE OR MORE.
  2. 2. UNANIMITY, if one person doesn't conform, others are less likely to as well
  3. 3. TASK DIFFICULTY - when lines are more similar, conformity rises
  4. 4. FEAR OF RIDICULE - conformity drops when people can write their responses in private
5. LEWIN - 1947 - ORANGE JUICE EXPERIMENT. TWO GROUPS, 1. group discussion and public annoucement. 2. individual discussion and private commitment. after two weeks and four weeks the group decision condition were much more likely to conform compared to the individual decision
6. FESTINGER - 1954 - SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY - people are motivated to hold beliefs that are correct and which they can feel confident about. they determine the correctness of their beliefs through PHYSICAL or SOCIAL REALITY TESTING. Physical reality testing is good when the ambiguity is concrete and have time. social reality testing is ood when the ambiuity is not concrete.
  1. SOCIAL REALITY TESTING - what you think about X, what do you think others feel about X. BELIEFS become stronger when the people we check with agree with our original view. we have a TENDENCY TO BELIEVE THAT OTHERS HOLD THE SAME BELIEFS AS US - FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT, which makes our beliefs particularly strong. social reality is sometimes so powerful it can replace objective reality
7. DEUTSCH AND GERARD - 1955 - THE NEED TO BELONG HYPOTHESIS - people onform publically to it in but do not change their private beliefs. and the NEED TO BE RIGHT HYPOTHESIS - strong motivation towards accuracy, tend to adopt the social information publically and privately. METHOD - participants entered an Asch-like conformity task. made judgements alone, in presence of others but alone, publically or finally privately but with a GROUP MOTIVATION to complete less mistakes. FOUND THE GROUP MOTIVATION CONDITION HAD THE MOST ERRORS. people therefore change their beliefs depending on what others are doing to feel like a part of the group, to understand something
8. THEORIES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE
  1. 1. RATIONAL. 2. IRRATIONAL. 3. DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO - DUAL PROCESS THEORIES
    1. dual process theories have a common theme - INFORMATIONAL influence - true inluence and private attitude change. NORMATIVE influence - MERE COMPLIANCE. TURNER - 1987 - 1991 - questioned this distinction because it over-emphasised the role of group supervision and downplayed the role of roup belongingness
  2. BARON AND KERR - 2002 - NON-CONORMERS - when there is deviance, conformity is threatened as they undermine certainty and create ambiguity. make the group look bad.
  3. SCHACHTER'S DEVIANCE STUDY - 1951 - discuss Jonny Rocco study, three confederates, deviant, slider (first agrees than changes) and mode (always agrees). FOUND THAT COMMUNICATION WAS LEAST FOR MODE, MOST FOR DEVIANT, LIKED THE DEVIANT THE LEAST.
9. MILGRAM - 1963 , 1974 - APPLY ELECTRIC SHOCKS TO ANOTHER PERSON to test conformity. Milgram influenced by World War 2, and the killings of 6 million jews. Many of hitlers workers were calmm and mild and were only doing what they did as they were "obeying orders". declare ourselves free from blame. told they were participating in a study of the effects of punishment on learning. people are socialised to respect the authority of the state. the partcipant (the confederate) stopped responding to the cues at 300V, the real participant was then prompted by the experiment if they did not treat the no response as a wrong answer like they were meant to. such prompts included "the experiment requires that you continue". EXPERTS predicted that ony 10% would obey to 180VOLTS when in reality nearly everyone did till 255V and 65% did till the end.
  1. evidence of foot-in-the-door persuasion, once people commited themselves to a course of action, it can be dificult for them to change their mind.
    1. another factor involved in obedience is immediacy, for example, when the victim was neither seen nor heard, conformity rose to 100% completed till the end.
      1. proximity / immediacy of the authority figure also played a part on conformity, as obedience is reduced when the experimenter is absent.
        another important factor is the legitimacy of the authority figure.
MINORITY INFLUENCE - individual or small group influences large group
1. REAL WORLD EXAMPLES
  1. SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT - 1920s
  2. GREENPEACE - 1980s - today
2. MINORITIES influence the majority through behavioural style (consistency), flexibility and compromise, style of thinking and identification
  1. 1. CONSISTENCY. - MOSCOVICI - 1969 - the most important aspect of behavioural style is consistency. all members should repeadedly and consistenly state the same message
    1. MOSCOVICI, LAGE & NAFFRECHOUX - 1969 - 3 conditions. there is a blue screen, 4 real pps, 2 confederates, one group say the slide is always green, the second group says sometimes green and control is all real participants. group one all conform
      1. CRITIQUE BY SAMPSON - 1991 - poor ecological validity and female students as participants unrepresentative
      2. NEMETH ET AL - 1974 - variation on the procedure. condition one, randomly confederates said slide was "Green" or "Blue-Green", condition two were systematically said "Green" to brighter slides and "Blue-Green" to darker ones. last condition just said "Green" on all trials. most influenced (21%) by the systematic and consistent condition to colours (cond 2)
  2. 2. FLEXIBILITY AND COMPROMISE - MUGNY & PAPSTAMOU - 1980 - consistency alone is not sufficient for a minority to influence the majority. the consistent minority should be seen as flexible and compromising instead of rigid and uncompromising, then they have a better chance of changing the majority
    1. NEMETH - 1987 - MOCK JURY EXPERIMENT - compensation for victim of ski lift accident. confederate 1 didn't compromise, confederate 2 compromised with majority and the majority did the same
  3. 3. STYLE OF THINKING - PETTY ET AL - 1994 - need to think deeply about the other views being put forward, so engage in systematic thinking and processing
    1. SMITH ET AL - 1996 - minority should get the majority to think about an issue, then they stand a good chance of influencing the majority
  4. 4. IDENTIFICATION - people identify with those similar to themselves, if identify the majority are more likely to take the minority views seriously
    1. MASS ET AL - 1982 - gay minority arguing for gay rights had less influence on a straight minority than a straight minority arguing for gay rights
UNANIMITY - if one confederate gives the correct answer, the true participant was less likely to conform
IS MAJORITY AND MINORITY INFLUENCE THE SAME OR DIFFERENT?
1. SAME
  1. LATANE AND WOLF - 1981 - SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY - the SIT can explain maj and min through three factors, 1. STRENGTH OF MESSAGE (numbers or consistency) 2. STATUS AND KNOWLEDGE (one person expert has similar influence to majority of non-experts. 3. IMMEDIACY (closer psychologically or physically to influencer, greater the message).
    1. MOSCOVICI & NEMETH - 1974 - argue that a minority of one is more influential than a minority of more than one, one person is more likely to be consistent over long periods of time
2. DIFFERENT
  1. MOSCOVICI - 1980 - majority influence results in COMPLIANCE (not believing in private), whereas minority inlfluence results in CONVERSION (believing in private but not acknowledging in public). MINORITY MAKES PEOPLE OPEN MINDED, MAJORITY MAKES PEOPLE THINK NARROW MINDEDLY
    1. MOSCOVICI - 1980 - majority based on public compliance, normative influence - do what is the group norm. minority influence not based on normative, but based on informational social influence, providing the majority with new ideas so that they re-examine their views
  2. MOSCOVICI - 1980 - DUAL PROCESS THEORY - MAJORITY = compliance, social comparison process, normative, public conformity. MINORITY = conversion, force others to think more deeply, private conformity
    1. EVIDENCE - MOSCOVICI & PERSONNAZ - 1980, 1986 - accept majority views passively, minority views involve cognitive reconstruction. BLUE-GREEN EXPERIMENT, pps publically called out the colour, then privately wrote down the colour of the slide. when confederate absent, minority influence rose.
SOCIAL INFLUENCE - ALLPORT - 1954 - thoughts, feelings and behaviours influenced by real, imagined or implied presence of others
difference between cooercive compliance (agree don't believe) and persuasive influence on the other (believe). compliance does't reflect internal change so only persists when being watched
KELLEY - 1952 - REFERENCE GROUPS are groups that are psychologically significant for people's attitudes and behaviours, either behave in accordance or opposition. whereas MEMBERSHIP GROUPS are groups to which we belong. positive reference group = conformity.
1. BOCHNER AND INSKO - 1966 - information can be inluential when it originates from an expert source. more likely to accept info from an expert source until the idea became implausible
POWER AND INFLUENCE
1. MOSCOVICI - 1976 - POWER is the basis of compliance, MOSCOVICI contrasts power with influence, saying they are two seperate things. the relationship between power and influence is not clear-cut
  1. POWER is the control through domination which produces compliance and submission. if people have power they do not need inluence, and if they can influence effectively, they do not need power.
    1. LEADERSHIP AND POWER are distinguished.

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Majority and Minority Influence

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	Created by becky.waine over 11 years ago