-sacrifice, principle, similar Minority influence, inc reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility Moscovici Consistency Commitment Flexibility Hogg and Vaughan -sacrifice, principle, similar

Read and highlight Moscovici’s study, focus on findings and conclusion

Evaluation Research supports consistency For example, Moscovici found that when confederates were inconsistent (didn’t both describe the slide as the same colour), agreement with the minority fell from agreeing 8% of the time to only 1% of the time. This therefore suggests that consistency IS needed for minorities to have an influence, and so is valid.

Research supports flexibility For example, Nemeth had a scenario where groups of 4 (with one confederate) had to agree on compensation to give to a ski – lift accident victim. If the confederate argued for a low amount and refused to change his position, he had no effect on the group. If he compromised a little and suggested a slightly higher amount, the majority changed opinion to a lower amount This suggests it is a valid concept.

Limitation of minority influence research is tasks such as reporting the colour of a slide are artificial This means that the findings and concepts may therefore not relate to real life And may be low in………… Ecological validity

Moscovici’s research on minority influence and consistency lack population validity He researched using women This is an issue because women and men may differ in the amount they are influenced by the minority (this is true for the amount the conform to the group so is also likely for minority influence). Therefore, research may not represent minority influence in males

Research is highly controlled Simplified version of real life Studies narrow down to ONE factor (e.g. size of group) other factors also play a role in social influence E.g. Whether the group/minority are important to us, our cultural background, level of control (LOC) etc Therefore minority influence is more complicated in real life than the simplified version in studies Therefore low in external validity