Moscovici (1969)

AIM: The aim of the study was to investigate whether a consistent minority could influence a majority to provide an incorrect response in a colour perception task.

METHOD: In his study, Moscovici recruited 172 female participants who were informed that they would be participating in a colour perception task. The participants were divided into groups of six and presented with 36 slides, all varying shades of blue. Each participant had to verbally identify the colour of every slide. Two of the participants were confederates, and in the consistent condition, both confederates gave the same answer, claiming that all 36 slides were green. In the inconsistent condition, the confederates gave a mixed response, stating that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue.

RESULTS: Moscovici's findings indicated that in the consistent condition, the real participant agreed with the confederates on the colour of the slides on 8.2% of the trials. However, in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed with the confederates on 1.25% of the trials.

CONCLUSION: Moscovici's study demonstrated that a consistent minority was more effective than an inconsistent minority in exerting minority influence. Specifically, participants in the consistent condition agreed on 8.2% of the trials, while those in the inconsistent condition agreed on only 1.25% of the trials. This suggests that consistency is an important factor in minority influence, with the consistent minority being approximately 6.95% more effective than the inconsistent minority.