Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility; the role of minority influence in social change.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to explain how a consistent, committed and flexible minority can convert the majority, using research such as Moscovici's. The exam skill is to explain each behavioural style as a mechanism (not just a label), to use Moscovici's figures, and to recognise that minority influence works through deep processing and internalisation.

The three behavioural styles

A minority changes a majority not by force of numbers but by how it behaves, and three behavioural styles make it persuasive. Consistency means presenting the same message both over time (diachronic consistency) and across the members of the minority (synchronic consistency); this makes the majority take the minority seriously and reconsider, because a confident, unwavering position implies the minority genuinely believes it has a point. Commitment means demonstrating dedication to the cause, sometimes through personal risk or sacrifice; this works through the augmentation principle, whereby the majority reasons that anyone willing to suffer for a view must hold it sincerely, so they pay it more attention. Flexibility, identified by Nemeth, balances consistency: a minority that is too rigid and dogmatic is seen as unreasonable and is dismissed, whereas one that is willing to listen, compromise and adapt its arguments appears reasonable and is more persuasive. The skill is balancing consistency with flexibility, so the minority is firm but not stubborn.

Moscovici's research

Moscovici et al. (1969) asked groups to judge the colour of blue slides; a consistent minority who called them "green" influenced 8.42% of majority responses, far more than an inconsistent minority.

Moscovici's blue-green slide study is the key supporting evidence. Groups of mostly genuine participants, with a minority of two confederates, judged the colour of slides that were clearly blue. When the minority consistently called the slides green, the genuine participants agreed on about 8% of trials, but when the minority was inconsistent (sometimes green, sometimes blue) agreement fell to about 1%, showing that consistency is crucial to minority influence. The deeper significance is the type of change produced. Because the majority must actively think about why the minority holds such an unusual view, minority influence involves deep processing, which can lead to genuine internalisation, a private and lasting change of belief, rather than the shallow public compliance often produced by majority pressure. This is why minority influence, though slow, can be powerful and durable, and it is the foundation for the topic of social change.