minority influence and social change

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  • Created by: floberry1
  • Created on: 18-05-17 10:23
how is minority influence different from conformity?
conformity refers to an influence or pressure coming from the majority
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what kind of conformity is minority influence most likely to lead to?
internalisation
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what was moscovici's study?
blue slide green slide
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give three characteristics of minority influences which make it more likely to win over the majority
commitment, flexibility and consistency
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how does consistency affect minority influence?
people notice it and start reevaluating their on beliefs.
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what does engaging in extreme activities do?
draws attention to the minority making people aware of the cause
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what is the augmentation principle
doing something (as a minority) that is potentially risky - this shows commitment and dedication
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why does it work
it makes people realise that you take the cause seriously
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why is pure consistency not always effective?
because it is perceived as a negative by the majority. too strict and rigid.
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how can you get around this?
by being flexible and making compromises. striking a balance between flexibility and consistency
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what does drawing attention to the cause make people do?
deeper processing. people really consider the information if it is contradictory of what they already know/believe
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what is the snowball effect?
when more and more members of the majority CONVERT to the same view as the minority.
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what does this lead to?
social change
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what research support is there for consistency being an important factor of minority influence?
wood did a meta analysis of over 100 studies showing that consistency is key
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how many people were in moscovicis blue slide green slide study?
6
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how many of those were confederates which consistently said the slides were green?
2 (a minority)
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what % of people gave the same answer as the minority at least once
32%
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what criticisms are there of this experiment?
its a very artificial stimulus
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what kind of validity is therefore lacking?
external validity
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what implications does this have?
it means that its hard to apply the findings and draw conclusions from real life situations
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what did moscovici find on the variations of his experiment where the ppts wrote the answer down on a board?
agreement with minority was higher!
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why is this?
because the ppts did not want to appear to be associating with the minority in fear they would be considered weird by the majority
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what is social change?
when a whole society changes its views and perspectives rather than just one individual
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how many steps are there in social change
six
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what are they.
drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, the augmentation principle, the snowball effect and social cryptomnesia.
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what is social cryptomnesia
think amnesia, society realises that there was a change in views but doesn't remember how it happened.
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how do adverts and publicised messages lead to social change
by using the effects of Normantive SI, pointing out to people what the majority do.
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give an example.
Nolan et al wrote letters about energy consumption and put it on peoples doors saying that others were using less energy
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what were the results
the group that had reference to their neighbours significantly reduced their energy consumption. more so than the control group which had no reference to others.
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why is this support for the theory of conformity leading to social change?
because it shows how Normative social influence can lead to an overall social change
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how effective is minority influence?
it is indirectly effective. the effects happen over a long period of time.
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what are the cognitive difference between Majority and Minority influences?
majority influence results in conformity. minority influence results in deeper processing of the information.
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what is the contradiction of this?
some say that deeper processing isn't just about the minority. deeper processing comes when someone believes something different to you. you think deeper when there is a disagreement
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why is this a criticism of moscovici's theory of minority influence
because it reduces the validity. the central argument of his theory is being questioned in a way he can't answer.
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why is there resistance to social change when the view is coming from the minority?
because people don't want to be associated with the minority due to NSI, they fear they won't be accepted.
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Card 2

Front

what kind of conformity is minority influence most likely to lead to?

Back

internalisation

Card 3

Front

what was moscovici's study?

Back

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Card 4

Front

give three characteristics of minority influences which make it more likely to win over the majority

Back

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Card 5

Front

how does consistency affect minority influence?

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