Yet, the minority seems to be prevailing, giving credence to Mahatma Gandhis saying that fist they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Though far from the final win, this evolving minority-inspired social change is real and multifaceted, at least in the developed world. eds. J. G. Barnett and F. F. Boster, (Ablex), 4374. London: Academic Press. M. Mikulincer and P. R. Shafer, (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), 507533. Comparative analyses from multiple lines of research have documented an asymmetry in distribution of tangible benefits (e.g., jobs, wealth) and intangible benefits (e.g., validation, status) favoring majorities over minorities. Personal. It involves an individual or minority of a population persuading other members to accept their argument, even if this contradicts the more popular view held by the majority. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01088.x, Tanford, S., and Penrod, S. (1984). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). C. K. de Dreu and N. K. de Vries (Oxford, UK: Blackwell), 91121. What the Majority Minority Shift Really Means for America, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/opinion/us-census-majority-minority.html, Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse Getty Images. Vol. What does Milgram's obedience study tell us about why online communication can become increasingly harmful? It was this insight into the role of minorities that made Moscovici a luminary in social psychology. Finally, different motives may call for different types of social change. Minority Influence on Focal and Related Attitudes: Change in Size, Attributions, and Information Processing. Yet, maturity appears to come at the expense of vigor. Charlan Nemeth, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, argues a further difference between minority and majority influence. Although these actions may include members of both minority groups who are typically disadvantaged and members of majority groups who are typically advantaged, it is almost invariably the former who initiate social actions. Curr. Psychol. L. Berkowitz (New York: Academic Press), 149202. Pers. Anyone can read what you share. Yet, even a cursory analysis of real life groups will show that this motive features prominently in social influence exchanges. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Moscovici, S., and Faucheux, C. (1972). Influence of a consistent minority on the responses of a majority in a color perception task. Indeed, it is part of the social psychology canon as evident by its coverage in nearly all social psychology textbooks, handbooks (e.g., Nemeth, 2012; Butera et al., 2017), and encyclopedias (e.g., Crano, 2010). Paicheler, G., and Flath, E. (1988). Moreover, a disciplinary general focus on the individual level of analysis made social change a challenging object of inquiry. This has been recognized in the literature on social movements or social actions as vehicles for effecting social change. Studies in self-categorization and minority conversion: Is being a member of the out-group an advantage? With much of the competition between the races reducing itself to the warfare of the cradle, he wrote in 1894, no race has any chance to win a great place unless it consists of good breeders as well as of good fighters.. From marginal to mainstream and vice versa: Leaders valuation of diversity while in the minority versus majority. ^Whereas every social change originates from minorities, it does not mean that every minority invariably seeks social change. The challenge may be great but not insurmountable. Why do people to conform in groups? C. K. de Dreu and N. K. de Vries (Oxford, UK: Blackwell), 229257. As a counterbalance to research on the informational value of minority advocacy, several lines of research have emphasized the role of social identity and the resultant normative pressures in determining reactions to minority influence, which reactions expand beyond attitudinal shifts to include group-categorization (e.g., Abrams and Hogg, 1990; David and Turner, 2001) and self-categorization (e.g., Wood et al., 1996). (1996). eds. One obvious example are elites, though, it could be argued that they represent numerical minorities but not necessarily non-normative minorities. Changement dattitude, influence minoritaire et courants sociaux [Attitude change, minority influence and social trends]. But whilst peer pressure leads to public compliance (e.g. How can the colors around us affect our mood? This can lead to the majority taking the minority view seriously. The majority will therefore be more likely to question their own views. In order to change the majorities view the minority has to propose a clear position and has to defend and advocate its position consistently. This socio-cognitive conflict may be resolved over time such that some majority members privately adopt the minority position. Turning, or rather, returning to the original observation that the raison dtre for minority influence is social change points to a promising direction. Bull. However, if we are to overcome the division that defined our past, we must stop reinforcing the salience of those boundaries in the future. Our history shows that Americas demographic boundaries evolve with the countrys composition. 35, 137149. Rev. The leniency contract and persistence of majority and minority influence. They map on the reasons discussed earlier for strapping minority influence research in the Procrustean bed of the cognitive processing approach, which, along with serious logistic challenges, effectively eliminated time as a variable in this line of research. The status quo in these arenas is first broken by the rebellious few. Specifically, a minority faction was created by having most confederates oppose the participants stance on one or more socially important issues; conversely, a majority faction was created by having most confederates support the participants stances. Levine, J. M., and Kaarbo, J. A history of social influence research, in The Handbook of the History of Social Psychology. While standing firm, minorities must also convey a level of open-mindedness in acknowledging others positions to avoid being perceived as rigid (Papastamou and Mugny, 1985). How have norm-based approaches been used to curb binge drinking on college campuses? The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. (eds.) Today, of course, being Irish is a social boundary mostly reduced to the front of Urban Outfitters T-shirts. A final observation regarding minority influence is that, after being successfully persuaded by a minority, people tend to forget the origins of their new views. This phenomenon, known as social cryptomnesia, often occurs when a person held negative views of the minority whose views they adopted. b. informational social influence. (1979). J. Pers. David, B., and Turner, J. C. (2001). Yet, no amount of normative or pragmatic pressure can extinguish minorities. In a country whose history has been shaped by the boundaries among racial groups, this projected demographic shift is undoubtedly important. Being in a minority is a social condition, often characterized by adverse outcomes, tangible and intangible alike (for review, see Prislin and Christensen, 2005a). 95, 189225. 2. eds. C. K. de Dreu and N. K. de Vries (Oxford, UK: Blackwell), 122159. Eur. In spite of a remarkable scientific output, research on minority influence has not addressed its original question about social change. Acad. Minority influence occurs when a minority group impacts the majoritys D. Albarracn, B. T. Johnson, and M. P. Zanna (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum), 671706. 86, 11911201. Sindhi Muslims had a much larger majority of about seventy-4 percent. Papastamou, S., and Mugny, G. (1985). Jetten, J., and Hornsey, M. J. In contrast, studies of interacting groups tasked with reaching a consensual decision have frequently demonstrated publicly stated, direct changes in opinions toward focal issues of minority advocacy (Paicheler and Flath, 1988; Smith et al., 1996). Toward a theory of conversion behavior, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. F. Butera and J. M. Levine (Cambridge University Press), 333353. Adopting a motivational approach holds promise of advancing our understanding of the roles minorities play in originating social change. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. For all their valuable insights into an individuals cognitive responses to a minority advocacy, these approaches are not very informative about the role of minority influence in instigating social change. (1981). Minority sources persuasibility increased over time when their targets increasingly favorable reactions turned them into a majority (minority majority). doi: 10.1177/1088868314546489, Gruenfeld, D. H. (1995). embracing the attitudes of thecrowd), it does not always result in conversion - a change in a persons unexpressed, private views. Here are some tips. Econometrica 47, 263291. (2017). Rather, it signifies their under-representation in the mainstream (i.e., information-processing) considerations of minority influence. It cannot be a goal in and of itself. Gordijn, E. H., de Vries, N. K. and de Dreu, C. K. W. (2002). (eds.) Psychol. Nemeth, C. J., and Walacher, J. Majority and Minority Influence: Societal Meaning and Cognitive Elaboration, London, Routledge: Taylor & Francis. Soc. The social impact of majorities and minorities. Appetite 168:105693. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105693, Deutsch, M., and Gerard, H. B. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. (1997). Minority influence and climate change. Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment revealed how social roles can influence How Theodor Adorno's F-scale aimed to identify fascism and authoritarian How false memories are created and can affect our ability to recall events. Reflecting the broader social cognition orientation, this research has focused on cognitive responses to a minority (vs. majority) advocacy. In other words, the outcomes of social influence attempts aimed at effecting versus preventing social change should have reciprocal effects on the sources of social influence (Hypothesis 2, see below Agenda item 2). eds. They do so for a variety of reasons, which fuel their influence efforts and shape their influence strategies. There was a gradual realization that the Anglo-Protestant orientation of whiteness was unlikely to sustain a dominant majority indefinitely. It is possible that we are now in the process of similarly altering our conception of whiteness again. Variables which affect the efficacy of minority influence include: Moscovici found that members of a group are more likely to accept the opinion of a minority if the view is expressed with consistency. The many reasons behind minorities pursuit of social change could be broadly recognized as seeking social validation, social control, or social acceptance. Kahneman, D., and Tversky, A. J. Pers. Soc. Prislin, R., and Christensen, P. N. (2009). Despite his susceptibility to Vol. In the process, they influence and are influenced, adjust their influence strategies and responses, form and dissolve alliances. 76, 10391053. Several integrative models profitably combine the information processing and social identity approaches, capitalizing on their complementary strengths (Prez and Mugny, 1996; Crano, 2001). The effects of majority size on minority influence. As a result, the group should be weakened in the immediate aftermath of social change. Procedural mechanisms and jury behavior, in Applied Social Psychology. Refining the agenda as further theoretical developments and empirical findings outline should be relatively easy. Moscovici, S. (1980). At what point in time does it become public and sufficiently substantial to change social relations and social structure within a group? eds. Soc. What kind of social influence can. (2012). And in subsequent decades, the United States admitted millions of Italians, Jews and other ethnicities, with their foreign languages, religions and complexions. These hypotheses were tested in a program of research whose multiple studies employed the following procedure: Each study included an experimental creation of opinion-based minority and majority factions within a group. The field took notice. S. Moscovici, G. Mugny, and V. Avermaet (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 113138. eds. eds. In what follows, the importance of these factors is discussed and illustrated by a few initial explorations. This state of affairs is rather paradoxical given Moscovicis original theorizing and ultimately, most minorities goals. An important feature of this procedure is that participants actively experienced their social position within the interacting group. J. M. Levine (New York: Psychology Press), 135163. P. A. van Lange, E. T. Higgins, and A. W. Kruglanski (New York: Guilford Press), 181201. An important contribution of research on newcomers to the group is a demonstration that newcomers, who, by definition, are in a minority, may affect the existing members overt behavior as a highly relevant but generally neglected variable (Levine and Choi, 2010). Though developed in parallel without much cross-pollination, research on minority influence within the persuasion framework and the interacting group framework converge to the conclusion that such influence is possible, although under a highly constrained set of circumstances (Levine and Tindale, 2015). J. Soc. This poses an additional challenge to applying many insights from the prevailing literature on a minority impact toward a social-psychological understanding of social change. c. public compliance. Br. New York: Psychology Press. Prislin, R., Crowder, M., and Donnelly, K. (2017). As an illustration of the epistemic value of the time perspective approach to understanding the consequences of successful minority influence, and a test of the above-mentioned Hypothesis 1, consider a longitudinal study that examined reactions of a minority faction within a group who successfully converted a sufficient number of majority members to its position to effectively turn themselves into a new majority and ipso facto, the former majority into a new minority (Prislin and Christensen, 2005b, Study 2). A. Kruglanski and W. Stroebe (New York: Psychology Press), 321339. Nemeth, C. J. (2001). A minority group, led by Emmeline Pankhurst in the UK, eventually persuaded the majority that this was unfair, and enfranchisement was extended to women in 1918, overturning accepted views regarding womens rights. What causes us to obey to authority figures such as police, teachers and 2023 Psychologist World. Psychol. Because of the earlier discussed asymmetry in reactions to losses and gains, the presumed intensely negative reactions of the former majorities, but only mildly positive reactions of the former minorities, should render the group weak immediately after experiencing social change via conversion. Echterhoff, G., and Higgins, T. E. (2017). (2011). This phenomenon, known as social cryptomnesia, often occurs when a person held negative views of the minority whose views they adopted. (eds.) The reasons for a paucity of longitudinal studies are many. An earlier analysis of this index has identified 238 unique empirical studies on minority influence published between 1960, when the foundational research on minority influence first appeared, and December 2011 (see Prislin et al., 2017).
Short Presentation About Social Media,
Chico Debarge Daughter,
Yamaha Dealer System Login,
Articles M