Majority and Minority Influence

What did the suffragettes and LGBTQ+ rights movements have in common? In all of these cases, the minority has led to a change in the views, beliefs and behaviour of society as a whole.

While the phenomenon of conforming to the majority gets most of the attention in social psychology, sometimes it's the opposite process that leads to great societal shifts.

In this article, we'll focus on understanding the processes of majority and minority influence.

• First, we'll clarify the majority and minority influence meaning.
• Next, we'll look at the difference between the majority and minority influence whilst examining majority and minority influence examples.
• Then, we'll explore the most influential studies on majority and minority influence, including Asch's (1951) conformity study and Moscovici's (1969) colour perception study.
• Finally, we'll discuss how majority and minority influence attitude change, and raise the issue of majority and minority influence vs mental health stigma.

Figure 1 - We constantly influence each other within our societies, freepik.com.

The Majority and Minority Influence Meaning

Let's start by figuring out what exactly is meant by both majority and minority influence.

We tend to conform to the majority more often than we are influenced by the minority. However, every so often, minority influence prevails, and the existing norms held by the majority shift.

The gradual process through which minority norms become the new majority norms is called social change.

Majority and Minority Influence: and its Relationship with Conformity

Just as every game has its rules, every society has a set of informal rules in place that dictate what behaviour is acceptable. These rules are called social norms, and they include the way we dress for different situations, the way we greet people, to our mannerisms, such as holding the door for someone.

Our tendency to quickly adapt to the social norms of a majority is an example of conformity.

The social pressure that leads to conformity is often implicit, we can feel it even though no one tells us to change. Majority influence is one of the situational factors that strongly affect conformity.

Difference between Majority and Minority Influence

Both majority and minority influence are examples of social pressure that occurs between the minority and the majority group. The main difference between them is in terms of the direction through which the process occurs.

• Majority influence promotes conformity among the members of the minority.

• Minority influence involves the minority converting the attitudes and behaviours of the majority.

Moreover, these influences lead to distinct processes within society to occur.

• Majority influence is associated with conformity and compliance.

• Minority influence results in conversion and social change.

Majority and Minority Influence Examples

Two types of majority influence affect our decision to conform; we give into informational social influence because of our need to be right, while normative social influence affects us because we need to belong.

Figure 2 - Informational social influence can take place in the classroom, freepik.com

Minority and Majority Influence Research: Asch's (1951) Conformity Study

In his famous experiment investigating conformity, Solomon Asch (1951) found that people conform to the majority even when they can clearly see that they are wrong.

Asch placed participants in a group of confederates – actors that pretended to participate in the experiment. The group was given a line discrimination task, which required them to choose a line that matches the original line in length from a set of comparison lines. However, before they got a chance to answer, participants saw the confederates choose the wrong answer.

Asch found that the group pressure was strong enough that 74% of participants conformed at least once.

Minority and Majority Influence Research: Moscovici's (1969) Colour Perception Study

After the phenomenon of conformity became known in psychology, Moscovici (1969) decided to investigate the opposite process—minority influence. He used a similar set-up as Asch. The group was shown slides with different shades of blue and asked to name the colour on each slide.

In some trials, the two confederates consistently disagreed with the majority and labelled the slide as green instead of blue. Moscovici found that 32% of participants agreed with the minority at least once.

Even though these effects were not as large as in the majority influence study, it still shows us that the minority also has the power to change our decision.

Majority and Minority Influence Attitude Change

The way that a minority affects our beliefs is different from what happens when we conform. When we conform, we tend to accept the prevailing attitudes without analysing or questioning them. On the other, being exposed to the views of a minority can make us think critically about the problem at hand and look for the “grain of truth” in their position.

According to Moscovici, four main factors can make minority influence effective at causing social change through minority influence. The factors include:

• Behavioural style: change doesn't occur right away, so the minority needs to remain consistent and committed to its message.

• Style of thinking: The minority should encourage critical thinking and analysis of the problem rather than imposing a certain position.

• Flexibility: the minority shouldn't be rigid or radical about their views, people are more likely to consider the minority's position if it's balanced and recognises counterarguments.

• Identification: if we can see the minority as similar to ourselves, we are more likely to consider the minority's message.

Majority and Minority Influence vs Mental Health Stigma

Historically, mental health has been surrounded by harmful societal myths, stigma, and discrimination. A few centuries ago, people experiencing mental health problems became victims of witch-hunts, seen as demonic or immoral, and sent to mental asylums where they were treated inhumanely.

Although the way we treat mental illness in society has improved, prejudice and stigmatisation of mental illness are still prevalent in the UK, and worldwide. We can see it in the way that the media reports and the film industry presents mental illnesses, i.e., promoting the notion that people with psychological disorders are crazy and dangerous.

We still see mental health not getting the same recognition and resources as physical health in society, resulting in people not receiving the support they need for mental health difficulties.

Figure 3 - Minority groups have successfully fought for change throughout history, freepik.com

Minority Influence and Mental Health Stigma

To change society's attitudes and behaviours toward people experiencing mental health symptoms, we require consistent action from minority groups to promote mental health awareness.

Let's look at the factors that make minorities effective at changing the attitudes of society, according to Moscovici.

• First, a mental health advocacy group should be committed to a consistent message over time, this would show their confidence in their position and would give the majority the time to reflect and process the message.

• The group should promote messages that encourage the public to think about the problem for themselves and question the validity and the potential harm of the notions around mental health.

• The group should also show flexibility, they should be able to argue about their points with the majority and come to a balanced conclusion instead of refuting any argument that doesn't fit their narrative. Flexibility helps movements be seen as less radical.

• They should highlight the similarities between people with mental illness, and the majority, to help other people relate to the stigmatised group and their experience. The advocates should be similar to the recipient, for example, teenagers could be effective at advocating to other teenagers, because of identification.

Majority Influence and Mental Health Stigma

We can see how the mental health stigma held by a majority in society can lead to conformity based on normative social influence and informational social influence.

However, once the process of conversion initiates, more and more people start challenging discriminatory practices and stigma around mental health, and the views of the minority become the new social norm.