Majority and Minority Influence_MIN

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.

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Majority and Minority Influence_MIN

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