Minority influence and social change

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  • Created by: asusre
  • Created on: 21-04-21 16:09
What is minority influence?
Minority influence is a form of social influence where a minority of people persuades others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours, which often involves rejecting established social norms.
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What is conversion?
Conversion involves a majority gradually acepting the minority viewpoint, privately and publicly, and is thus considered a type of internalisation, which generally occurs through informational social influence, thus taking longer to achieve than complianc
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Which study investigated minority influence?
Moscovici (1969) investigated minority social influence by reversing Asch’s experiment, using a group of two confederates and four genuine participants. He showed the group blue-coloured slides and asked them to identify the colour. The confederates answe
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What were the findings of Moscovici (1969)?
The participants agreed with the consistent confederates on 8.42% of the trials whilst the participants agreed with the inconsistent confederates on 1.25% of the trials.
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What is one strength of Moscovici (1969)?
One strength of Moscovici (1969) is that there is other research supporting the importance of consistency.
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Which study supports the importance of consistency on minority influence?
Wood et al (1994) found in a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies that consistent minority groups were more successful in affecting the majority than those who were not.
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What is one limitation of Moscovici (1969)?
One limitation of Moscovici (1969) is that it used the artificial task of identifying colours of slides, which lacks internal validity.
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What behavioural styles must the minority demonstrate to influence the majority?
A minority must demonstrate consistency, commitment and flexibility in order to influence the majority.
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What is the importance of consistency, and what are the different types of consistency?
Consistency refers to maintaining the same views, which draws interest from other people and makes them rethink their own views. The types are synchronic and diachronic consistency.
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What is synchronic consistency?
Synchronic consistency refers to agreement between people in the minority group.
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What is diachronic consistency?
Diachronic consistency refers to maintaining the same views over an extended time period.
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What is the impact of commitment on minority influence?
Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, which requires making personal sacrifices. This draws greater attention as it shows that the minority is not acting out of self-interest.
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What is the argumentation principle?
The argumentation principle refers to the fact that personal risks indicate dedication and certainty of belief which reinforces the minority's message.
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What is an example of the effect of commitment/the argumentation principle on social change?
One example of commitment affecting minority influence is shown by Emily Dickinson throwing herself in front of the King’s horse at Epsom Darby to gain awareness for the cause of women’s suffrage.
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Which study found that flexibility is important for minority influence?
Nemeth (1986) found that a flexible minority can have greater influence on a majority than a consistent minority.
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What is the effect on flexibility on minority influence?
Consistent minorities can be seen as rigid and dogmatic, which makes them unlikely to gain many converts. Minorities must be prepared to adapt, accept counterarguments, and make compromises, balancing consistency with flexibility.
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What are the explanations for minority influence on social change?
The snowball effect and social crypyomnesia explain minority influence on social change.
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What is the snowball effect?
Over time, increasing numbers of people convert from the majority position to the minority viewpoint, which gathers attention and momentum. The more this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. This continues to build until it reaches a ‘tipping point
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What is social cryptomnesia?
A majority may resist a minority view just because its source is of a lower status. Therefore, social change may occur through minority ideas being introduced to the majority viewpoint and the majority remembers the ideas but not where they came from. The
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How can the African-American civil rights movement be used as an example of the role of minority influence on social change?
The message was consistent across years, and used the argumentation principle by having arrests during protests. The snowball effect took place, the tipping point of which can be seen with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Social cryptomnesia may have occurred a
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Which study highlights the role of conformity on social change?
Asch’s (1955) variation where one confederate acted as a dissenter who agreed with the participant and conformity rates decreased from 32% to 5.5% shows how dissent has the potential to lead to social change.
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How can conformity effect social change?
Normative social influence can encourage social change through drawing attention to the majority view e.g., preventing young people from taking up smoking by telling them that most other young people do not smoke.
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What is an example of the role of disobedience on social change?
Rosa Parks’ disobedience of the order to give up her seat to a white passenger sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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Which study suggested the role of obedience on social change?
Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment.
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What is gradual commitment?
Gruadual commitment means that people essentially ‘drift’ into a new behaviour, because obeying a small instruction makes it more difficult to resist a bigger instruction. This can lead to positive or negative social change.
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What is one strength of the role of social influence processes on social change?
One strength of the role of social influence processes on social change is that there is research support for the role of normative social influence.
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Which study supports the role of normative social influence on social change?
Nolan et al (2008) found that there were significant decreases in energy usage when using normative messages on front doors compared to a control group where messages made no reference to other people’s behaviour.
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What is one limitation of the role of social influence processes on social change?
One limitation of the role of social influence processes on social change is that minority influence does not overcome all the barriers to social change.
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Which study challenges the role of minority influence on social change?
Bashir et al (2013) found that participants were less likely to behave in environmentally-friendly ways because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical minority ‘environmentalists’, describing them in negative ways, such as ‘tree huggers’.
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Card 2

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What is conversion?

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Conversion involves a majority gradually acepting the minority viewpoint, privately and publicly, and is thus considered a type of internalisation, which generally occurs through informational social influence, thus taking longer to achieve than complianc

Card 3

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Which study investigated minority influence?

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Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

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What were the findings of Moscovici (1969)?

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Card 5

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What is one strength of Moscovici (1969)?

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