Implications for social change. Research into social influence

1. Implications for social change.Research into social influence “Discuss how findings from social influence research might have implications for changes in society”

2. 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

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

4. Moscoviciargued 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

5. Who is this? Nelson Mandela

6. Rosa Parks Who is this?

7. Who is this? Suffragettes

8. Who is this? Martin Luther King

9. Minority Influence • Small minority groups may be dismissed initially however under some circumstance and over a period of time these small groups or even individuals can eventually become very influential

10. Minority Influence • 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.

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

12. 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.

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

14. 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 2nd part of the experiment conformity with the minority reduced to 1.25%.

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

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

17. Evaluation? Supporting research: Wood et al. (1994) meta-analysis of 97 studies. Perception of consistency made the minority more influential. Majority group members often reluctant to join deviant minority position because did not want to be thought of as deviant. More likely to privately than publically admit being influenced.

18. Behavioural styles of influential minorities: • Moscovici (1985) identified behavioural styles which minorities must possess if they are to exert social influence on majorities: • Consistency - must be consistent in their opposition to the majority. Consistency is recognized as ‘resolution, certainty, clarity of definition and coherence’ • Not dogmatic – they must not appear dogmatic by rigidly reiterating the same arguments. They need to demonstrate a degree of flexibility

19. Moscovici’s Conversion Theory What is Moscovici’s conversion theory? Conflict is created when you come across the attitudes of the minority if those attitudes are different to your own.

20. Moscovici’s Conversion Theory What is Moscovici’s conversion theory? People want to reduce this conflict and will therefore consider and evaluate the attitude carefully against the majority attitude

21. Moscovici’s Conversion Theory What is Moscovici’s conversion theory? This is more likely to happen in cases of minority influence than in cases of majority influence because focus is not on wanting to be like to minority (as it is with maj. Infl.) but is instead on the content of the attitude or beliefs

22. Why do people yield to a minority? • 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

23. The snowball effect 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 opinion. Eventually the minority grows into a snowball so large that it becomes the majority.

24. In-groups and out-groups 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 in-group than we are by members of an out-group. An example might be the British government of the early 1900s who, as it consisted predominately of upper class male MPs, was more likely to listen to the message being put forward by Suffragette women if the Suffragettes were also upper class.

25. Behavioural styles of influential minorities: • Hogg and Vaughan claim the minority will be more influential if: • Acting from principle (not out of self-interest) • Have made sacrifices in order to maintain their position • Similar to the majority in terms of class, age and gender • Advocate views that are consistent with current social trends

26. 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. Very few women who vote in the UK consciously thank the Suffragettes for the fact that they can vote, rather women voting is now a normal and expected part of society. This forgetting of the source of social change is called social cryptoamnesia (Perez et al, 1995).

27. Why do people yield to a minority? • The dissociation model – Mugny and Perez (1991) and 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. • In other words, the content and the source become dissociated. • According to this model, minority ideas are so strongly associated with their source that to adopt the message risks assuming 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 out-group while still drawing inspiration from their ideas. • This may be why the conversion effect, generated by minority groups, is often delayed.

28. Minority influence for social change • Nemeth: 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.

29. Practice Exam Questions 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) 13 mins