Minority influence

Minority influence, a create of social influence, takes place when a an fundamental or characteristic part of something abstract. of a minority group influences the majority to accept the minority's beliefs or behavior. This occurs when a small combine or an individual acts as an agent of social modify by questioning instituting societal perceptions, as well as proposing alternative, original ideas which oppose the existing social norms. There are two classification of social influence: majority influence resulting in conformity in addition to public compliance together with minority influence resulting in conversion. Majority influence transmitted to the majority trying to hold conformity on the minority, while minority influence is converting the majority to adopt the thinking of the minority group. Unlike other forms of influence, minority influence is often thought of as a more sophisticated form of social change, because it normally involves a personal shift in private opinion. Examples of minority influence include the Civil Rights Movement in America and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

Mechanism

Moscovici's 1980, 1985 conversion impression outlines a dual process of social influence. When an individual's views differ from the majority view, this causes inner turmoil, motivating the individual to reduce clash by using a comparison process, leading to compliance and public acceptance of the majority position to avoid ostracism and potential ridicule. Therefore, majority influence is seen as normative social influence because often it is for generated by a desire to fit in and conform to the group, e.g. Asch's 1951 brand study. Conversely, a minority abstraction is more distinctive, capturing attention and resulting in a validation process, where people carefully analyse the discrepancy between their own view and the minority view. This often results in attitude conversion, where the individual isthat the minority view is correct, which is much more likely to be private rather than public.

Majority influence occurs when people conform tobeliefs and behaviours in order to be accepted by others. Unlike majority influence, minority influence can rarely influence others through normative social influence because the majority is indifferent to the minority's perspective of them. To influence the majority, the minority group would take the approach of informational social influence Wood, 1994. By presenting information that the majority does non know or expect, this new or unexpected information catches the attention of the majority to carefully consider and inspect the minority's view. After consideration, when the majority finds more validity and merit in the minority's view, the majority group has a higher chance of accepting factor or all of the minority opinion.

Although the majority group may accept component or all of the minority view, that fact does non necessarily indicate that the majority has been completely influenced by the minority. A study by Elizabeth Mannix and Margaret Ann Neale 2005 shows that having the support from the majority leader could prove to be the critical factor in getting the minority opinion to be heard and be accepted. The guide of a leader offers the majority more confidence in the merit of the minority opinion, leading to an overall respect for the minority. The strength of the "key people" Van Avermaet, 1996 comes from the reputation built from their consistency of behaviors and ideas. Involving key people will usefulness the minority view because people are more open to hear from others whom they trust and respect. In minority influence, a few influential leaders can influence the opposing majority to the minority's way of thinking. In the end, having a more supportive and active minority group could lead to advanced and better decision-making.