Moscovici et al. (1969)

Aim: To investigate whether a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task.

Method: Moscovici recruited 172 female participants and told them they were taking part in a colour perception task. The participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, all of which were different shades of blue. Each participant had to state aloud the colour of each slide. In each group, two of the six participants were confederates. In the consistent condition, the confederates said that all 36 slides were green. In the inconsistent condition, the confederates said that 24 slides were green and 12 were blue. The researchers recorded how often the real participants agreed with the minority view.

Results: Moscovici et al. found that:

• in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed with the confederates on 8.2% of the trials

• in the inconsistent condition, the real participants agreed with the confederates on 1.25% of the trials

Conclusion: Moscovici concluded that a consistent minority was more effective than an inconsistent minority in exerting minority influence. The findings suggest that consistency is an important factor in minority influence, as participants in the consistent condition agreed with the minority more often than those in the inconsistent condition.