Minority influence Minority Influence So far we have

Minority influence

Minority Influence • So far we have seen how a powerful majority can influence a minority…. but what about the other way around? • Research has shown that minorities can be influential provided they adopt the appropriate style of behaviour. • If people simply went along with the majority all the time and minority views never prevailed, there would be no change, no innovation

Objectives: To know how Moscovici investigated minority influence. To evaluate Moscovici’s research. Practice exam questions.

Moscovici argued that history shows that it is not majorities that have the most powerful influence – minorities can be powerful social influencers. These minorities tend to be initially low in status, ‘weirdos’/troublemakers but this doesn’t stop them influencing the majority

Minority influence • Which minority figures can you think of who instigated social change?

Who is this? Nelson Mandela

Who is this? Rosa Parks

Who is this? Suffragettes

Who is this? Martin Luther King

Minority Influence Small minority groups may be dismissed initially however under some circumstances and over a period of time these small groups or even individuals can eventually become very influential Recently look at the rise of veganism!

Minority influence for social change Nemeth believes minority influence lies in its ability to stimulate thought so that, over time, people may be converted, for good or ill, to new ways of thinking and behaving.

How Minority Influence works • Active, organised and consistent minorities can create conflict and uncertainty within the majority. • This can lead to an internalisation of the minority’s beliefs as members of the majority convert to their opinions – but this takes more time than majority influence. • Minority influence = internalisation of minority view by the majority.

Moscovici et al. (1969) • 32 groups of 6 women were tested. 4 real ppts and 2 confederates.

Moscovici et al. (1969) • Ppts were told the study was about colour perception. • They were shown 36 blue coloured slides and were asked to state the colour of the slide out loud.

Moscovici et al. (1969) • • • In the 1 st experiment the 2 confederates said all 36 of the slides were green. They were consistent In the 2 nd experiment the confederates said green 24 times and blue 12 times – therefore they were inconsistent. There was also a control group with 6 real ppts and no confederates.

Moscovici et al. (1969) • • • The ppts agreed with the minority (confederates) in 8. 42% of the trials. 32% of ppts gave the same answer as the minority at least once. When the minority (confederates) were inconsistent in the 2 nd part of the experiment conformity with the minority reduced to 1. 25%.

Moscovici et al. (1969) What do these results mean?

What difficulties do minorities face if they want to convert the majority? Staying Being perceived Consistent as deviant or odd de·vi·ant (dē′vē-ənt) adj. Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society. n. One that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behaviour and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.

Moscovici et al. (1969) Different variation: Ppts were allowed to write down their responses, therefore making them private rather than public. There was even more agreement with the confederates. This suggests people might be reluctant to be associated with a deviant minority.

Evaluation Supporting research for Minority Influence: CASTLES Wood et al. (1994) did a meta-analysis of 97 studies. Perception of consistency made the minority more influential. Wood also supported Moscovici (1969): Majority group members were often reluctant to join ‘deviant’ minority position because they did not want to be thought of as deviant. So they were more likely to privately than publically admit being influenced.

Behavioural of influential minorities ‘CFC’ • Moscovici (1985) identified 3 behavioural styles which minorities must possess if they are to exert social influence on majorities: 1. Consistency – the minority must be consistent in their opposition to the majority. Consistency is recognized as ‘resolution, certainty, clarity of definition and coherence’ 2. They need to demonstrate a degree of flexibility i. e. not too dogmatic – they must not appear dogmatic by rigidly reiterating the same arguments. 3. Commitment – they must show a high level of commitment to the cause. They should even be prepared to make sacrifices for the cause - e. g. go to prison

Consistency – two types Intra-individual – where a person maintains a consistent position over time Inter-individual – where there is agreement among members of the minority group

Moscovici’s Conversion Theory Moscovici suggests that Internal Conflict is created when you come across the attitudes of the minority if those attitudes are different to your own.

Moscovici’s Conversion Theory People want to reduce this conflict and will therefore consider and evaluate the minority point of view carefully against the majority point of view. Over time you may change your opinion and Convert to the minority point of view

Moscovici’s Conversion Theory This is more likely to happen in cases of minority influence than in cases of majority influence. This is because the focus is not on wanting to be like the minority most people don’t want to be seen to be agreeing with a bunch of wierdos! Instead conversion happens because people find themselves agreeing with the content of the minority attitude or beliefs. Internalisation is more long lasting.

The snowball effect Van Avermaet (1996) describes one way in which minorities convert majorities. Members of the majority slowly move towards the minority, and as the minority grows in size it gradually picks up momentum so that more and more majority members convert to the minority position. Eventually the minority grows into a snowball so large that it becomes the majority.

Social Identity Theory ‘In-group’ is a term used to describe people like ‘us’, and an ‘out-group’ consists of people that do not share the same characteristics as us. Hogg & Vaughan (1998) argue that we are most likely to be influenced by members of our ingroup than we are by members of an out-group. An example might be the British government of the early 1900 s consisted predominately of upper class male MPs, and this group was more likely to listen to the message being put forward by Suffragette women who were also upper class.

Further behavioural styles of influential minorities: As well as ‘CFC’, Hogg and Vaughan claim the minority will be more influential if: They are seen to be acting from principle not just out of self-interest. They have made sacrifices in order to maintain their position (the augmentation principle). If they are similar to the majority in terms of class, age and gender. They advocate views that are consistent with current social trends.

Social cryptoamnesia When social change occurs in a society, the attitude or opinion becomes an integral part of the society’s culture, and the source of the minority influence that led to it is generally forgotten. For example, very few women who vote in the UK consciously thank the Suffragettes for the fact that they can vote, rather voting is now a normal and expected part of society. This forgetting about the source of the social change is called social cryptoamnesia (Perez et al, 1995).

social cryptoamnesia explained • The dissociation model – Perez et al (1995) propose that minority groups influence majority groups through a process called social cryptoamnesia , meaning that minority ideas are assimilated into the majority viewpoint without those in the majority remembering where the ideas came from originally. • In other words, the content of the ideas and the source of these ideas become dissociated. • According to this model, minority ideas are so strongly associated with their source that to adopt the message risks taking on the negative identity of the source. • If, on the other hand, the ideas can be dissociated from their source, the majority can resist overt identification with an unfavourable out-group while still drawing inspiration from their ideas. • This may be why the conversion effect, generated by minority groups, is often delayed.

Practice Exam 1. What is meant by the term minority influence? (2 marks) 2. Outline the findings of a study that has investigated minority influence (3 marks) 3. Describe the conclusions of one study of minority influence (3 marks) 4. Give one criticism of one study of minority influence (3 marks)

Research into social influence has implications for our understanding of social change. Nasty exam type question “Discuss how findings from social influence research might have implications for changes in society”