摘要:

Minority and majority influence were studied simultaneously within the context of freely interacting groups. It was hypothesized that minorities would act as a rein, reducing the degree of polarization in majority members' attitudes. The direction and magnitude of attitude change on a social issue in unanimous groups were compared to those of groups with either one or two minority members. In addition, the secondary effects of minority influence on cognitive processes, predicted by Nemeth (1986), were assessed using two thought listing tasks—one involving an issue discussed by the group and a second involving an issue that was not previously discussed. Results supported the ‘minority as a rein’ analogy as well as the predictions made by Nemeth. However, it appears that minority influence manifests itself differently depending on whether or not individual members have to defend their position during group intera

ISSN:0144-6665    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01088.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study examines the Nemeth (1986) model of minority influence in a field study of natural work‐groups. Confederates (who were also permanent members of the ongoing, interacting groups) served as designated minority influence agents during the 10‐week study. Results demonstrated that experimental groups engaged in more divergent thinking and developed more original products than control groups. Minority influence groups did not experience more social conflict than control groups. Contrary to expectations, minority influence agents received higher peer ratings than other group members. Exploratory analysis of qualitative data, however, indicates that the role of a minority influence agent is stressful. Results are discussed in terms of managing the minority influence process in organizations in order to facilitate divergent thinking and originality while protecting agents from excessive personal str

ISSN:0144-6665    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01089.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A field experiment involving 91 Swiss apprentices tested the hypothesis that a minority group evoking widely shared values (e.g. human rights) is influential under conditions of high rather than low value conflict. Results supported this prediction. It is argued that value conflict induces complex thinking (i.e. differentiation and integration) that accounts for indirect attitude change. Implications for ‘consensual’ minority influence attempts and the‘Zeitgeistphenomenon’ are di

ISSN:0144-6665    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01090.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The finding that minorities may tend to produce conversion whereas majorities may tend to produce compliance is an extremely important one for the study of social influence. Most research into minority conversion has been based on conversion theory (Moscovici, 1980) which, we would claim, rests on the notion that the ‘true’ influence exerted by minorities is possible only because they are essentially different from self. This paper reports two studies in a programme of research testing an alternative explanation, based on self‐categorization theory, which assumes that perceived similarity to a potential source of influence will be the key to its deep and lasting success. Both studies employ a full majority/minority X in‐group/out‐group design, socially significant real‐life in‐group–out‐group memberships and measure attitudes directly relevant to these social identities. Study 1 uses immediate and delayed and Study 2, public and private, responses as the measures of, respectively, compliance and conversion. The results support self‐categorization theory in that, when exposed to both majority and minority out‐group sources, subjects exhibited an immediate/public polarization away from the sources, towards a more extreme in‐group position, and there was no diminution of the extremity of their position on delayed/private measures. The classic pattern of majorities bringing about greater compliance than conversion and minorities greater conversion than compliance was evinced in the in‐group conditions of both studies, although this tended to be comparative rather than absolute. The implications of the results for the conflict between self‐categorization theory and conversion theory are discussed and the future directio

ISSN:0144-6665    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01091.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Little attention has been given to how expected membership in a majority or minority faction affects the cognitive activity of prospective group members. In this study, subjects who expected to join a six‐person discussion group were led to believe that (a) the other five people in the group disagreed with their position, (b) one person agreed and four people disagreed, (c) two people agreed and three disagreed, (d) three people agreed and two disagreed or (e) four people agreed and one person disagreed. Prior to the discussion, subjects were asked to list their thoughts concerning the discussion topic. Results indicated that the smaller the subjects' faction (and the larger the opposing faction), the less biased subjects were in thinking about their own position. These findings shed new light on majority and minority influence and suggest that more attention should be devoted to the cognitive consequences of anticipated interaction in group setting

ISSN:0144-6665    

DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01092.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY