Minority influence
Minority influence, a form of
History
Nearly all early
Mechanism
Moscovici's (1980, 1985) conversion theory outlines a dual process of social influence. When an individual's views differ from the majority view, this causes inner turmoil, motivating the individual to reduce conflict by using a comparison process, leading to compliance and public acceptance of the majority position to avoid ostracism and potential ridicule.[3] Therefore, majority influence is seen as normative social influence because often it is generated by a desire to fit in and conform to the group, e.g. Asch's (1951) line study. Conversely, a minority view is more distinctive, capturing attention and resulting in a validation process, where people carefully analyse the discrepancy between their own view and the minority view. This often results in attitude conversion, where the individual is convinced that the minority view is correct, which is much more likely to be private rather than public.
Majority influence occurs when people
Although the majority group may accept part or all of the minority view, that fact does not necessarily indicate that the majority has been completely influenced by the minority. A study by
Affecting factors
Size of minority
Moscovici and Nemeth (1974) argue that a minority of one is more influential than a minority of more than one, as one person is more likely to be consistent over long periods of time and will not divide the majority's attention.[9] They explain that a person may question themself: "How can they be so wrong and yet so sure of themselves?", resulting in a tendency to reevaluate the entire situation, considering all possible alternatives, including the minority view. On the other hand, two people are more likely to be influential than one person as they are less likely to be seen as strange or eccentric. More recent research[10] has supported the latter due to the belief that a minority with two or more, if consistent, has more credibility and is therefore more likely to influence the majority.[9]
Size of majority
The social impact model (Latané & Wolf 1981) predicts that as the size of the majority grows, the influence of the minority decreases, both in public and in private attitude change.[11] The social impact model further explains that social impact is the multiplicative effect of strength (power, status, knowledge), the immediacy (physical proximity and recency), and the number of group members, supporting the view that a minority will be less influential on a larger majority.
Clark and Maass (1990) looked at the interaction between minority influence and majorities of varying sizes, and found that, like Latané & Wolf's findings, the minority's influence decreases in a negatively accelerating power function as the majority increases.[12] This is reflected in findings that minority support should decrease considerably with the first few members of the majority, but additional members will have a marginally declining impact on getting people to conform to the majority position.
Similarly, Latané and Wolf cite Solomon Asch's work with "the magic number three". After his experiments, Asch concludes that when the majority consists of just one or two individuals, there is very little conformity. The addition of a third majority member dramatically increases conformity, but increases beyond three did not result in increasing amounts of conformity.[11]
Behavioural style
Minority influence is more likely to occur if the point of view of the minority is consistent, flexible, and appealing to the
Dispositional and situational factors
Research shows that individuals are more likely to listen to the minority and take on their ideas if they identify with them as being similar to themselves. Maass & Clark (1984) arranged for a group of
In addition, the decisions of others may affect the potency of minority influence. Asch (1952) conducted a study in which test subjects would be accompanied one of two "partners" during a series of questions posed to a group: a) a partner that would agree with the subject's minority view, or b) a partner that would be more extremely incorrect than the majority. Asch found that regardless of the role of the "partner", the fact that the consensus was broken – even if by just one individual ("the magic number one") – was enough to reduce conformity to a majority, and add credibility to the minority view.[16]
Application: juries
Jury dynamics
Stories, evidence and verdicts
Most juries will elect a leader and then decide whether the voting for a verdict will be public or private. Using the Story Model Theory which suggests that cognitive processing of trial information is what drives jurors to mentally organize evidence in coherent, credible narratives, jurors will approach a verdict in one of two ways. Verdict Driven jurors sort the evidence into categories of guilty and not guilty before deliberation. This type of juror feels the need to reach a verdict quickly, and may feel social pressure outside of the group to deliver the decision in a time-efficient manner. On the other hand, Evidence Based jurors will resist making a final decision on the verdict until they have reviewed all the evidence. Such jurors tend to explore their different options as a group and are less influenced by the social pressure outside of the group to reach a verdict quickly.[17]
Minority influence in juries
The verdict favored by the majority on the first ballot becomes the jury's final decision in about 90% of all jury trials. Minorities, then, do have some influence over the outcome. When a jury is hung, it is usually because one or two jurors are holding out, or resisting the influence of the majority. If these jury members are consistent in their views, it is likely they will be able to convince another member of the jury to also side with their view. As time goes on, more and more jurors may change their vote in favor of the original minority. It is, however, extremely important the original jurors are consistent and confident in their opinions. The more unsteady they appear, the less likely they are to conquer the majority.[17]
Status and influence in juries
Members of a jury who have high prestige or status are usually more influential than members who are not. Members who are also of high socioeconomic status are also more likely to influential in the jury deliberation process. This is demonstrated by the correlation between private preliberation opinion and jury's final decision was .50 for rich members and .2 for laborers. However, in recent analysis, race and sex no longer determine influence in juries.[17]
Improving juries
- Jury Size: modifying could influence group structure, representativeness, and majority influence; large juries are more likely to be hung, but small and large juries do not significantly differ in the types of verdicts reached.
- Unanimity: juries that do not have to reach a unanimous decision render their judgements twice as quickly and are less likely to be hung.
- Procedural Innovation: we can improve juries by making the instructions given to juries (prior to deliberation) clearer and more understandable. If the members understand at the beginning of the process what their requirements are, then they will be more efficient in their delivery of the verdict, and be more understanding of the process.[17]
Yielding
Social cryptoamnesia
After a number of members have shifted their opinion to agree with the minority group, that minority becomes a majority. This is known as the snowball effect.[18] When a minority creates social change in society, the new view becomes an integral part of the society's culture. This results in the source of the minority influence that led to change being forgotten, which is known as social cryptoamnesia.[19] Minority influence can be successful if people can
A person can be affected by minority influence whether directly or indirectly. However, if one is not aware of the influence, the minority ideas could be taken as one's own while disregarding where the original idea came from. Social cryptoamnesia explains that thoughts and ideas that challenge or shock are stored in latent memory without retaining the ownership of the idea. Ideas that were supposedly forgotten have reappeared in the person's mind as his or her own belief or thought.[19] This major attitude change takes place when the zeitgeist has changed. In history, minorities have changed the attitudes of society, and the attitudes of society have changed the personal opinion of the majority in that society. Although minority influence may not affect a person immediately, one's beliefs and behaviors may change over time due to social cryptoamnesia.
Broadening views in organizations
By integrating the
Increasing diversity in the workplace
Not only is minority influence seen in
Improving organizational values and culture
In another study by Mannix and Neale, yearly performance evaluations were completed for Hispanic, African American, and Asian managers. Their performance reviews evaluated the managers on less tangible measures related to
Combined with majority influence
There is evidence to suggest that it is possible for minority influence and majority influence to work together. A study by Clark (1994) uses a jury setting from the film 12 Angry Men to investigate social influence. Some of the participants were asked to just read the arguments from one of the characters (who acted as the minority), while the other group were also told how he changed the opinion of the rest of the jury.[20] Social influence was present in both groups, but was stronger in the group that was exposed to both the arguments (minority influence) and the knowledge that the jury conformed (majority influence).
See also
References
- .
- ^ Sampson, E. (1991). Social worlds, personal lives: An introduction to social psychology. (6th Ed.) San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- .
- ^ Wood, W., Lundgren, S., Ouellette, J., Busceme, S., & Blackstone, T. (1994). "Minority Influence: A Meta-Analytic Review of Social Influence Processes". Psychological Bulletin. Vol 115, No 3, pp. 323-345.
- ^ Van Avermaet, E. (1996). "Social influence in small groups". Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective (2nd Ed.). Blackwell.
- ^ Sunitiyoso, Y., Avineri, E., & Catterjee, K. (2010). "A multi-agent simulation for investigating the influence of social aspects on travellers' compliance with a demand management measure". A Planners Encounter with Complexity. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 209-226.
- ^
Compare: Sunitiyoso, Yos; Avineri, Erel; Chatterjee, Kiron (16 March 2016). "12: Complexity and Travel Behaviour: Modelling Influence of Social Interactions on Travellers' Behaviour Using a Multi-Agent Simulation". In de Roo, Gert; Silva, Elisabete A. (eds.). A Planner's Encounter with Complexity. Routledge (published 2016). ISBN 9781317187080. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
'Key people' are not necessarily traditional leaders, but they can be 'trusted persons' with a respected reputation in community. The influence of these 'key people' is called minority influence.
- ^ a b c Mannix, E. & Neale, M. (2005). "What Differences Make a Difference? The Promise and Reality of Diverse Teams in Organizations". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Vol 6, No 2, pp. 31-55.
- ^ a b c Moscovici, S. & Nemeth, C. (1974). Social psychology: Classic and contemporary integrations (7th Ed.). Oxford, England: Rand Mcnally.
- .
- ^ a b Latané, B. & Wolf, S. (September 1981). "The social impact of majorities and minorities". Psychological Review. Vol 88, Issue 5, pp. 438-453.
- ^ Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., & Akert, A.M. (2007). Social Psychology (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
- .
- ^ Maass, A. & Clark, R.D. (1988). "Social categorization in minority influence: The case of homosexuality". European Journal of Social Psychology. Vol 18, pp. 347-367.
- ^ Asch, S. E. Social psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1952.
- ^ a b c d Forsyth, D. R. (2010). Group dynamics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- ^ Van Avermaet, E. (1996). "Social Influence in small groups". Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective.
- ^ .
- .